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I sent you to the Angry Arab and said it was my favorite "her" but I meant to send you to http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/ This is my favorite Muslim.. The New York Times has dubbed Irshad Manji Osama Bin Laden's worst nightmare.? She takes that as a compliment. Irshad is the best-selling author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith. It has been published internationally, including in Pakistan, Turkey, India and Lebanon. In those countries that have banned The Trouble with Islam Today, she is reaching readers by posting free translations in Arabic, Urdu, and Persian on this website. She also travels the globe to lecture about the liberal reformation of Islam. Her audiences include Amnesty International, the United Nations Press Corps, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, the International Women's Forum, the Swedish Defense Research Agency, the Pentagon, the Jean Jacques Rousseau Institute, and universities from Cambridge to Notre Dame. Currently, Irshad is based at Yale University as a Visiting Fellow with the International Security Studies program. She writes columns that are distributed worldwide by the New York Times Syndicate. She is also making a feature film about Islam. Among the ideas it will showcase is "ijtihad," Islam's lost tradition of independent thinking. As a social entrepreneur, Irshad has launched Project Ijtihad, an initiative to develop the world?s first leadership network for reform-minded Muslims. In that capacity, she has just been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Oprah Winfrey honored Irshad with the first annual Chutzpah Award for ?audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction.? Ms. magazine chose Irshad as a ?Feminist for the 21st Century.? Maclean?s, Canada?s national news magazine, selected her one of ten ?Canadians Who Make a Difference.? And the Jakarta Post in Indonesia -- the world?s largest Muslim country -- identified Irshad as one of three women creating a positive change in Islam today. Born in 1968, Irshad is a refugee from Idi Amin?s Uganda. In 1972, she and her family fled to Vancouver, where Irshad grew up attending public schools as well as the Islamic madressa. In 1990, she earned an honors degree in intellectual history from the University of British Columbia, winning the Governor-General?s medal for top graduate. After graduation, Irshad became legislative assistant to a member of parliament, then press secretary to the Ontario Minister for Women?s Issues. In 1992, at age 24, she entered the media as National Affairs Editorialist for the Ottawa Citizen, the youngest person to sit on the editorial board of a Canadian daily newspaper. She left to take up the post of speechwriter for the first female leader of a Canadian political party. >From there, Irshad went on to write Risking Utopia: On the Edge of a New Democracy. Published in 1997, it chronicles how young people are re-defining democracy in an age of fluid media networks, shifting social values and flexible personal identities. Today, Risking Utopia is widely used by Canadian educators to re-imagine public schooling. In 1998, Irshad began producing and hosting QueerTelevision on Toronto?s Citytv. This was the world?s first program on commercial airwaves to explore the lives of gay and lesbian people. She also negotiated the syndication of QueerTelevision through San Francisco-based web portal, planetout.com, making QueerTelevision among the first programs ever to be streamed entirely on the Internet. As such, it built a global audience quickly while circumventing state censors. It also won the Gemini, Canada?s highest broadcasting award, for best-edited general information show. Despite her multi-media approach, books remain Irshad?s passion. With the release of The Trouble with Islam Today, Irshad?s ideas are capturing international attention. That means condemnation as well praise. As Indonesia?s Jakarta Post writes, ?She not only has a funky hairdo, but The Trouble with Islam Today has caused much debate?. Here?s a sample of the debate: * Khaleel Mohammed, an imam and 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? She remains obedient to the Divine Imperative: ?O you who believe! Be upholders of justice, witnesses for God, even if it be against yourselves, or your parents and kin.? (Quran, 4:135).? * Khaled Almeena, Editor, Arab News (Saudi Arabia): ?This fraudulent book has now become a guide to Islam...? * Tarek Heggy, world-renowned author/lecturer based in Cairo: ?I read the Arabic translation with a level of fascination and admiration that rarely occurs after a 45-year journey into Islamic study. Her book captivated me fully, touching my mind, conscience, and heart.? * Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values at Harvard University: ?All is not lost if people of Irshad Manji's capacity can carry a fresh and convincing message to the coming generation. I cannot urge her more strongly to maintain her frank, open and intelligent approach. This cause is, I believe, the most important new movement in several decades.? * Andrew Sullivan, TIME columnist who reviewed Irshad?s book for the New York Times and concluded: ?If we survive this current war without unthinkable casualties, it will be because Irshad Manji?s kind of liberalism didn?t lose its nerve.? ----- / o o \ ====OO=====OO========================= Hank Roth's Place - http://pnews.org/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] (on the InterNUT since 1982) ============================================ Fightback - notification news and views list Subscribe/Unsub at: http://pnews.org/dada/ ================================================ Fightback - (pnews "progressive news and views") OPEN discussion - subscribe or unsubscribe in subject line: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================
