Free Republic

Irshad Manji has already been dubbed ‘Osama’s worst nightmare’ for her criticisms of Islam. Now she wants Britain’s Muslims to stand more firmly on the side of freedomNo wonder Irshad Manji has received death threats since appearing on British television: she is a lipstick lesbian, a Muslim and scourge of Islamic leaders, whom she accuses of making excuses about the terror attacks on London. Oh, and she tells ordinary Muslims to “crawl out of their narcissistic shell”. Ouch. Manji is a glamorous Canadian television presenter whose book, The Trouble with Islam, has made her so famous in America that she...

The recent picture of the president walking hand-in-hand with Saudi Prince Abdullah prompted a torrent of juvenile jokes. Left mostly unasked were important questions, however, about Saudi Arabia’s role in fomenting and supporting militant Islam. A recent controversial book asks these questions—not only about Saudi Arabia, but the Islamic world as a whole. The book is The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith by Irshad Manji. Manji calls herself a “Muslim Refusenik,” a politically loaded term. “Refusenik” was originally used to describe Soviet Jews who refused to go along with the “mind control” and “soulnessness”...

This could be Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare. Expelled from a madrasa (Koranic school) when she was 14, Irshad Manji's pretty face, sans scarf, graces the cover of her new book and its title — "The Trouble with Islam" — is written inside a strip of duct tape placed over her mouth. "The reason for our stony silence vis a vis 9/11," she says, "is because Muslims are afraid to explore rationality. We have to rediscover independent thinking, which our religion does not tolerate. Islam has to come to terms with diversity. No one can be immune from universal human...