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I first got to know about Irshad Manji when I came to a curiousity to understand more about Islam. I had this sudden fascination for the religion as I have been living in a moderate muslim society for the past 32 years and I realised that I hardly knew anything about it. My lack of knowledge or newly found ignorance was not something that I would tolerate.
Irshad Manji was a Canadian refugee that fled her hometown in Uganda during the Idi Amin's explusion of Asians. Manji was born to parents of Egytian and Gujarati descent. She and her family settled near Vancouver in 1972 and dictated her own learning of Islam via public libraries and Arabic tutors after being expelled from the madrasah. She excelled in the secular environment to later on winning the Governer General's Medal for top humanities graduate, where she earned an honours degree in the history of ideas from the University of British Columbia.
She has also achieved many milestones in her career, from a legislative aide in the Canadian Parliament to managing and hosting a few talk shows in Canadian television. In 2004, she wrote a book entitled "The Trouble with Islam Today", which won her not only accolades but also death threats.
Now with her new book, "Allah, Libery and Love", Manji looks forward to an optimistic fix and reconciliation methods from the Islam's woes in her first book mentioned above.
Her main idealogy comes from a term in the teachings of Islam called ijtihad, which simply means "a “tradition of dissenting, reasoning, and reinterpreting.” According to Manji, the very essence of the Islam teachings have been stiffled by the Arab culture and moderate practice of Islam by Muslim moderates, which encourage violence and discrimination. She encourages muslims and non muslims to challenge 'moderate' thinking that perpetuates intolerance and violence.
She also weaves her arguments around the need to obliterate the Arab culture in the teachings and practice of Islam. Practices such as honour killings and wife beatings are just universally and morally wrong. The practice of pack following in Islam is also something she shuns vehemently as it not only takes away one's individuality but also discourages the core essence of ijtihad, which she states is the core of Islamic teaching.
Personally, I feel the book is very engaging as she quoted emails written to her by foes and allies to make her point heard. Some of the email conversations that she has chosen to included was cynical and hilarious in its own way due to her sarcastic wit and wisdom.
A must read for those who have a curiousity for what Islam should be and feel that a change is imminent for the further proliferation of the faith.
If you are interested to read this book, you may purchase this book by clicking here.
