Author terms Islam in need of openness

An effort to make "ijtihad" more well known than "jihad."

By: Jennifer Potash
   Calling for reformation in Islam may not be easy but Canadian author Irshad Manji is determined to seek it.
   In her book "The Trouble With Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith," Ms. Manji argues that the battle for Islam’s soul should be waged by the moderates in the West who have largely kept silent.
   Ms. Manji is the host of "Big Ideas," a Canadian television program, and is a mentor for the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation in Montreal, which guides younger scholars to think strategically about human rights and public policy. She is also working to establish a center in New York City for reform-minded Muslims to meet.
   In Ms. Manji’s view, Islam should return to its tradition of independent thinking, known as "ijtihad."
   "I would love it if ‘ijtihad’ becomes more well known in the West than jihad," she said Thursday during a speech at Princeton University’s McCosh Hall.
   Ms. Manji, who described herself as an "open but not arrogant" lesbian, admits she may seem an unlikely candidate to call for a reformation of Islam,
   "It is because I believe in the universality of human rights that I do not believe any group, any culture, any ethnicity, any religion ought to be immune from scrutiny," she said. "I wrote the book as an act of faith."
   Other world religions have their share of what she called "literalists" — including the evangelicals in American Protestantism, the devotees of papal infallibility in Roman Catholicism and the ultra-orthodox in Judaism. Even the Buddhists have fundamentalists, she said.
   The difference in Islam is the "literalists" have taken the mainstream of the religion, she said. The Koran, the Muslim holy book, is viewed as the final word from Allah and the perfection of all previous versions such as the Torah and the Bible, she said.
   "It’s like God 3.0," Ms. Manji said. "It is a supremacy complex and it is dangerous."
   As a result, Islam has lost the ability to debate and reform the faith, she said.
   "To dispute what they have taken from the Koran is to question the Koran itself and that is what is off limits," she said. "So the fundamentalists pretty much get their way."
   To reintroduce constructive debate and discussion may not be easy, but Ms. Manji believes it is possible, citing Islam’s early history.
   Centuries ago, in Muslim Spain, critical reasoning flourished in over a hundred schools and more than a dozen libraries, she said.
   One way to promote more independent thinking, she said, is a worldwide program of micro-loans, in amounts as small as $200, to Muslim women, which is currently taking place in Afghanistan. These women will then be able to build assets and start their own schools, she said.
   Under Islamic law, Ms. Manji said, a woman who earns her own assets is permitted to keep them. "It’s theologically legitimate," she said. "Mohammed’s beloved first wife was a self-made merchant."
   Ms. Manji and her family fled Uganda in 1972 and settled in the Vancouver area of British Columbia. Like many Muslim children, she attended the local madrasa, or religious school, but she said she had enough faith to ask questions about some of Islam’s teachings and practices.
   To better reach Muslims in the Arab world who may want to read her book but fear repercussions, she has made the book available in Arabic and offers a free download from her Web site, www.muslim-refusnik.com.
   Her talk was sponsored by the American Jewish Committee Central New Jersey chapter, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and LGBT Student Services at Princeton University.