An Irshad Manji Preview
Irshad Manji speaks today at 1:30 in the convention center. I'll post a summary sometime tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, I leave you with her recent comments on Rushdie Affair 2.0:
As a Muslim, you better believe I am offended – by these absurd reactions.
I am offended that it is not the first time honours from the West have met with vitriol and violence. In 1979, Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam became the first Muslim to win the Nobel Prize in science. He began his acceptance speech with a verse from the Quran.
Salam’s country ought to have celebrated him. Instead, rioters tried to prevent him from re-entering the country. Parliament even declared him a “non-Muslim” because he belonged to a religious minority. His name continues to be controversial, invoked by state authorities in hushed tones.
I am offended that every year, there are more women killed in Pakistan for allegedly violating their family’s honour than there are detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Muslims have rightly denounced the mistreatment of Guantanamo prisoners. But where is our outrage over the murder of many more Muslims at the hands of our own?
Please read the rest.
posted by Dave at 10:40 AM
1 Comments:
For me, this is the line that clinches it, so to speak:
"Above all, I am offended that so many other Muslims are not offended enough to demonstrate widely against God’s self-appointed ambassadors. We complain to the world that Islam is being exploited by fundamentalists, yet when reckoning with the opportunity to resist their clamour en masse, we fall curiously silent. In a battle between flaming fundamentalists and mute moderates, who do you think is going to win?"
It always irks me to no end that certain loud fundamentalists (and I should say, the label applies to any religion. Some Christian fundamentalists can be as bad) get away with murder (literally and otherwise) because no one else calls them on it. We should be offended, and as much as I hate violence, maybe throwing them on the street.
Wish I could be there to hear what she has to say, but in the meantime, I shall look forward to your notes. And I definitely have to move her book up in my reading list.
Best, and keep on blogging.
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