“Believers, conduct yourself with justice and bear true witness before God, even though it be against yourselves, your parents, or your kinsfolk.” Koran 4:135, from Manji’s website.

The NY Times and others have called Irshad Manji “Osama bin Laden’s worst nightmare,” an epithet that hopefully does not overestimate her potential as a catalyst for change within her religion. Manji spoke at Stanford on Monday, April 18 about her revolutionary book The Trouble in Islam Today. It will soon be released in Turkey , Iraq , and Iran , despite the controversy it has created in the Mus­lim world. It is currently available in many modern countries, including Pakistan , and the Arabic and Urdu translations are accessible on Manji’s website, www.muslim-refusenik.com.

Through the book and international speaking engagements, Irshad has been fervently spreading her honest analysis of the state of her religion. She identi­fies three general problems that result from those who misinterpret Islam around the world: the ill treatment of women, discrimination against Jews, and “the continuing scourge of slavery in Islamist regimes.” Manji made a clear distinction between Islamic and Islamist. Islamists are self-proclaimed religious leaders with “an…axe to grind,” representing the “political bas­tardization of Islam,” and they run the theocracies that control much of the Muslim world.

To those who had come to her talk with “any defensiveness in [their] hearts,” Manji reminded the audience that she had devoted twenty years of her life to study Islam with “total and utter sincerity.” She acknowledged that any challenge of religious convic­tion, like her writing the book, involves emotional risk at a primal, visceral level by affecting the pride, self-esteem, ego, and identity of an individual or group. Irshad “understand[s] completely why Muslims would be doubtful about the validity” of her allegations. However, she said, “I do not believe any group or community is immune from the kind of scrutiny” that facilitates establish­ment of universal human rights.

Granting that literalism is practiced in every religion, Manji asserted that “only within Islam today is literalism mainstream, worldwide,” and used as a basis for aforementioned Islamist countries. Even moderate Muslims, by her assessment, are raised to believe that the Qur’an is the “final, perfect manifesto of God’s word,” cre­ating a “supremacy complex” within Islam. Moderate Jews and Christians have had to allow liberal questioning of their holy texts, and challenges are accepted as necessary scholarship.

Manji insisted that when Muslims begin to allow for even “God forbid, human translation errors” in the Qur’an, they will be better equipped to speak out against the jihad­ists. She purported that the majority of Muslims “have been conditioned to believe that questioning the jihadists is like questioning the Qur’an.” In an interview with Deborah Caldwell of Beliefnet.com, she said, “when - not if - abuse happens under the banner of our faith, most of us, including those of us who are ‘well-educated professionals’ have no clue how to debate, dissent, revise, or reform.”

In the early days of Islam, 135 schools of thought and the first recorded uni­versity resided in Baghdad . Irshad gives credit for this to the spirit of ijtihad (“ij-tee-had”), which is the “lost tradition of independent thinking” and reasoning in Islam that peaked from the 9th to 11th centuries. Ijtihad should not be confused with jihad, though they are from the same root, mean­ing “to struggle.” Manji expressed her “insane passion” to help revive the spirit of ijtihad in Islam, bringing back free thought and progressive traditions. She is not asking modern Muslims “to import a foreign tradition,” but to examine facts through a clearer lens.

Irshad displayed a curious intellect early in her life, asking the teacher at her madressa (religious school) questions like, “Why can’t women lead prayer?” and “Why did Muhammad command his army to slay an entire Jewish tribe?” Imams there drilled students with the lessons she was questioning - that women are inferior and that Jews are evil - and used their interpretations of the Qur’an to support these claims. Having fled Uganda in 1972, Irshad and her family relocated to Vancouver , where she attended the madressa during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. At 14, Manji was kicked out of school for ask­ing for evidence of the “so-called Jewish conspiracy against Islam.” Realizing that her experience is not necessar­ily shared everywhere, she nevertheless stated her belief that there exists an embedded hatred for Jews, women, and the West.

She joked that her explusion proved “there is a God.” Leaving formal school­ing allowed her to study Islam on her own for twenty years. Irshad had the choice, she recalled, to go on with her life “becoming a typical, materialistic North American and Muslim” or to give Islam another chance, and to ask it to do the same of her. “I had enough faith,” she said, to question her treatment and that of others. Faith is a quality she believes is “secure enough to handle questions,” while dogma resists scrutiny.

Though she does not claim to be a true scholar of the Qur’an, Irshad spoke from an informed, analytical perspective regarding the history of the religion. She told of how Spain ’s Muslims were particularly inspired by ijtihad. The city of Cordoba , for instance, had seventy libraries where scholars taught students “to abandon expert opinion if their own study of the Qur’an came up with better evidence for their ideas.” She did not address the fall of ijtihad in this lecture, but in the Beliefnet.com interview she described a fragmented 11th century Islamic empire from Spain to Iraq which became more rigid and uniform in an attempt to survive. “Studies ceased. Interpreta­tions stalled,” and leaders began to issue fatwas, she explained. This entangle­ment of church and state still exists in many Islamic countries, with little “self-reflection or self-criticism.” In her talk, Irshad noted that there are more liberal sects of Islam, like the mystical Sufis and philanthropic Ismailis, but their influence is not as pronounced as it should be.

Islam has a rich history and flour­ished at one time, but modern Muslims “need to come clean,” Irshad said. “Muslims reflexively, not so much reflectively, defend the ideal” version of Islam, though she believes that the current reality does not reflect the ideal. “Why do we tolerate double standards?” Irshad asked, referring to the apathy Muslims have regarding anti-Semitism, sexism, and enslave­ment.

She told of the prophet Muhammad’s reply to the inquiry “what is religion?” He said “the way we conduct ourselves toward others.” There are few terror­ists compared to peaceful Muslims, but “that is not the behavior I am challeng­ing. I am challenging complacency and passivity in the face of it.”

The reality she presented at a 2004 talk in San Francisco is quite grim: “Amnesty International has document­ed that Pakistan sees honor killings at the rate of two per day, often with the name of Allah dripping from the lips of the murderers; that children are hustled into slavery in God’s name in Mali, Mauritania and Northern Sudan; that women have to ask permission to travel from the men in their lives in Iran.”

Irshad espoused confidence that “those best poised to resuscitate Islam are those who live in the West, spe­cifically North America . Why? Here, we enjoy precious freedoms to think, express, challenge, and rechallenge, without the fear of government retali­ation.” She admitted that there are many examples in Western society of “harassment, detention, and profiling,” and much worse, even in her “kinder, gentler Canada .” Because of increased prejudice toward Muslims post 9/11, she said many people ask her why she is bringing up these issues now, telling her, “ ‘Irshad, we are under siege.’ ”

Being familiar with international ten­sions, Manji expects and understands this reaction from fellow Muslims and from “liberal folks who have a fear of being called racist.” Her response to them is a stark delineation of the ultimate difference between barriers to free thought in “the West” and in some Islamist countries: “we can [speak out] without being raped, murdered, tortured, or imprisoned by the state. That is a gift. What in God’s name are we doing with that gift? If we Muslims care enough about universal human rights, and not just our civil rights, we should stand up” for internal change in the religion. Also, she stressed that “we can’t leave it to the government and the media, but we as citizens have to take responsibility.”

The most important reform that needs to occur, Irshad professed, is to empower women. Many Muslim women whom she has befriended both in the West and overseas “do not yet have the privilege of know­ing” that they have the “God-given right to think for themselves.” To enrich Arabic womens’ self-reliance, she promoted “a coherent program of micro-lending to women” to “harness [their] entrepreneurial talents.” She suggested “a tiny sliver of the defense budget” from each of the “coalition of countries,” as a source of funding, citing many industrialized and devel­oping countries. She noted that the United Nations has declared 2005 the “year of micro credit,” and she believes it is a growing movement. At an event in Washington , D.C. at which Irshad was waiting to speak, a reporter asked General John Abizaid what could pos­sibly be done in Iraq without using more goods and ammunition. The head of U.S. Central Command in Iraq promptly replied “micro busi­ness loans to women,” and Irshad said she was pleasantly taken aback. She quipped that President Bush might do well to listen to his generals, even if ignoring the U.N., and she encouraged audience members who felt strongly about the subject to write their legisla­tors and Bush himself.

In Islam, any assets a woman earns herself are completely hers. Muham­mad’s first wife, Khadijah, was a merchant and employed the prophet. Irshad said that “the acceptance of woman entrepreneurs en masse, rather than as the exception,” will come with education of the society as a whole. Manji expressed the belief that men who speak out against women partici­pating in the economy do so only to protect their privileges of comfort in the social structure, not because they are fundamentally opposed. She quot­ed a poster in an Arabic school that reads: “Educate a boy, and you educate only that boy. Educate a girl, and you educate her whole family.”

Irshad believes that Muslims all over the world are ready for her message. After speaking at universities, she said that Muslim students often linger hesi­tantly until the end, only expressing support in private. Muslim youth are “desperate for debates about religion,” she said, and she has garnered commen­tary like “if we don’t let air in, we’re going to have to leave [the religion].” Both in the Middle East and in open societies, she identified a general fear of physical violence against one’s self and family by fellow Muslims for breaking taboos. Since her book is so radical, youth in Arabic countries could be restricted from reading its contents. She rejoiced that Arabic publishers would not print it because they could not censor it. Instead Adobe allows young people to read it in full. A Jordanian boy who had just read and quietly disseminated the book e-mailed Irshad with thanks, telling her “I want to work with you for the day when this underground book club will become a visible faith.”

Operation Ijtihad is an initiative begun by Manji to establish a leader­ship center for Muslim youth, possibly in New York . The stated goals are three-fold: to network youth so “they know they’re not alone;” to give them strength to dissent from Islamic con­formity; and to learn more about the Golden Age of Islam. She hopes that by targeting first and second generation Arab immigrants, the youth will start talking to their parents and opening the door for discussion.

Manji also touched on her role in the public eye. She is an “out” les­bian who is involved with gay rights activism, meaning that theologians find her too radical. Irshad says that though she will “never be legitimate enough for some,” extremists are needed to create a space for moder­ates to thrive.

Leaders within the Islamic communi­ty have responded to Irshad in different ways. Two weeks after the release of her book, the sermon at the mosque of Irshad’s mother was about “why Irshad Manji is more criminal than Osama bin Laden.” Positive responses include that of Khaleel Mohammed, a professor of Islam at San Diego State University: “Irshad wants us to do what our Holy Book wants us to do: End the tribal posturing, open our eyes, and stand up to oppression, even if it’s rationalized by our vaunted imams.”

Her multi-faceted identity makes Irshad’s message relevant to many groups on campus, as shown by the variety of sponsors for the event: the LGBT Community Resource Center , the Stanford Jewish American Alli­ance, Chabad, Hillel at Stanford, the Women’s Center, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Jewish Community Relations Coun­cil, and the Stanford Bookstore.

Manji, a would-be reformer of Islam, spoke about her book when she visited Stanford.