“God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is inside themselves.”
This Qur’an verse was the central idea behind Irshad Manji’s Allah, Liberty & Love, and the main point of discussion at Manji’s appearance for the Ottawa International Writers Festival at the Mayfair Theatre Sept. 21.
Sitting in Arc the Hotel’s humming lounge, Manji is easily the most animated person in the room. She said the verse is a call to action to transform attitudes and behaviours.
“It isn’t enough to castigate the so-called ‘other’ for real or perceived harm. First, take a look at yourself and frankly continue to look at yourself, because as Gandhi pointed out, ‘Be the change you wish to see,’” she said.
Allah, Liberty & Love is a follow up to Manji’s controversial book The Trouble With Islam Today and her Emmy-nominated documentary Faith Without Fear. In her latest book, Manji drew inspiration from her own experiences following the release of The Trouble, and calls upon young people to become more courageous global citizens through self-reflection and activism within their own communities in spite of potential backlash.
Manji has faced enormous criticism from members of the Muslim community in response to her calls for a more progressive and free-thinking Islam, she said. The author has been demonized, labeled a Zionist, and received multiple death threats. But that, Manji said, was only a small part of the feedback.
“I was astounded by how many times younger Muslims . . . around the world, not just in the West, expressed their thirst to harmonize their faith of Islam with the universal aspiration of freedom. This was not what the media was reporting at the time, this was well before the Arab Spring.”
Allah, Liberty & Love reads like a personal essay. Manji’s ideas for reform are fortified by references to the teachings of political and religious figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Robert F. Kennedy, and personal anecdotes. Manji also included email correspondence from both critics and supporters alike. This adds a certain stylistic flare, but also serves a greater purpose.
“I wanted to bring out the global conversation that I’d been having with a new generation of Muslims and non-Muslims over the past decade. I also wanted to amplify the voices of particularly those Muslims whom we generally don’t hear from because their words aren’t reported [in the media].”
But Manji’s global conversation doesn’t end in the book. In the Mayfair Theatre, Manji, along with a security entourage of six Ottawa policemen, kept the conversation alive with host Lucy van Oldenbarneveld of the CBC, and an audience of about 100 people during Ottawa’s International Writers Festival.
Manji hammed it up with van Oldenbarneveld, reclining in her chair with a bag of popcorn. However, it didn’t take long for the serious undertones of the discussion to surface.
Manji, at times breathless, bounced from excitement to anger as she discussed not only her books but also significant current events, like the 2007 “honour killing” of Aqsa Parvez and the “Ground Zero mosque.”
The discussion was heated, the topics highly emotional, yet the crowd showed no sign of discomfort, only expressions of complete fascination.
“The trouble with Islam today is Muslims,” Manji said. “In fact, moderates are even more a part of the problem because they refuse to acknowledge that Islam is what causes violence in the name of Allah.”
“I find it funny when moderate Muslims accuse me of being the liberal equivalent of Osama bin Laden, or that I cherry pick from the Qur’an to prove my points,” she continued. “I am cherry picking from the Qur’an, but at least I’m forthright with it. I want to expand human access to God.”
Manji left the audience with a piece of advice that a close friend passed on to her after she published Allah, Liberty & Love: “Liberty is wonderful, but exhausting. Focus on the love part.”
