Let’s play a game: Would you rather be a Muslim after 9/11 or a lesbian after Proposition 8? Irshad Manji, a so-called Islamic reformer and journalist, has had the luxury of being both of those things from the comfort of Canada, where same-sex marriage is legal and the percentage population of Muslims is estimated to be something like five times what it is here. That doesn’t mean she’s gotten fat and complacent. The 40-year-old has dedicated a good deal of her life to speaking out against many aspects of modern-day Islam she believes contradict the Koran and make life miserable for millions of practicing members. And because of that, some people are interested in making her life particularly miserable as well.
“Consider this message, sent to me just last week under the subject line: ‘You are a Terrorist!’” Manji wrote recently on her blog. “'Stop terrorizing the Muslim Ummah, you kaffir-loving lesbian whore… You probably never were a Muslim, just a brown dyke bitch.’” And that’s warm milk compared to the death threats.
Despite the hate that fills her email inbox, the promises of bodily harm and even the pleas of her own mother, Manji travels the world arguing against the inferior position of women in Islam, Jew-bashing and what she describes as an uncritical acceptance of anything supposedly done in the name of Allah. “I appreciate that every faith has its share of literalists,” she writes. “Only in Islam today is literalism mainstream. Which means that when abuse happens under the banner of Islam, most Muslims have no clue how to dissent, debate, or reform ourselves.” Read more ...
“Consider this message, sent to me just last week under the subject line: ‘You are a Terrorist!’” Manji wrote recently on her blog. “'Stop terrorizing the Muslim Ummah, you kaffir-loving lesbian whore… You probably never were a Muslim, just a brown dyke bitch.’” And that’s warm milk compared to the death threats.
Despite the hate that fills her email inbox, the promises of bodily harm and even the pleas of her own mother, Manji travels the world arguing against the inferior position of women in Islam, Jew-bashing and what she describes as an uncritical acceptance of anything supposedly done in the name of Allah. “I appreciate that every faith has its share of literalists,” she writes. “Only in Islam today is literalism mainstream. Which means that when abuse happens under the banner of Islam, most Muslims have no clue how to dissent, debate, or reform ourselves.” Read more ...
Source: SantaCruz.com
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