Her supporters and opponents attempt to categorize her as a lesbian, a Muslim, a woman, a Ugandan refugee, a heretic, an author and a teacher, but Irshad Manji, refuses to wear any labels on her lapel. During her campaign to reform Islam, Manji has encountered book bans, notably her most recent book “Allah, Liberty and Love" banned in Malaysia, media criticism and physical attacks from non-Muslims and Muslims alike. Born in Uganda to an Egyptian father and Indian mother, Manji was raised in British Columbia, Canada after General Idi Amin expelled “Asians" from her homeland. Manji's teaching and writing focus on the idea of using Ijtihad, Islam's own tradition of critical thinking. Manji now leads the Moral Courage project at New York University and Project Ijtihad, a charitable organization that “produces, translates and distributes educational materials that promote a pluralistic interpretation of Islam." Manji talked with Bikyamasr.com about politics, religion, women and the future of Muslim and non-Mulism youth. You have been criticized for not having grown up in Muslim society. That being said, how do you find yourself able to give young Muslims solutions? All I can tell you and again I'm certainly not here to be proven right or to prove myself right I take the Quran at its word for the need for humility but all I can tell you is that new book could not have been written without ten years of circumventing the world more than once engaging in conversations primarily with younger Muslims about what their issues are. I think a lot of people hold out the hope that these solutions won't work. When I say a lot of people I don't just mean traditional Muslims I think both Islam supremacists and Islam bashers feed off on another. The other, literally the other, gives them the incentive to hurl their bombs. And then there are those of us who love our faith and love humanity at the same time and are striving to come up with solutions that have integrity. It's not that one size fits all. I'm not here to represent anybody else but my conscience and myself. It just so happens that there are many, many people of my generation and even younger that do feel voiceless and who are simply seeking a way of reconciling, as the subtitle of Allah, Liberty and Love puts it, reconciling faith and freedom. On the subject of reconciling religion and freedom, do you think that reconciling religion and politics can happen? Can there be an Islamic democracy? Yes there can, I do think so. The Quran itself contains the raw material for democratic governance but once again it is we Muslims that have to make the choice to act democratically. So for example in the new book I point out a number of places in the Quran that actually promote and not just tolerate freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and even freedom to disbelieve because only God knows the final truth.. So what do you think about the Muslim Brotherhood? I think that they will learn the language of democracy very quickly and as a result those of us who believe that democracy like Islam actually requires behavior that lives up to the ideals we can't become complacent about the Brotherhood. These days something very interesting is happening all over the world. Revolutions happen and then no body knows how to get to the next level of what that revolution was about. I have to tell you that I think this is a worldwide failing in education. We've taught a lot of kids how to think critically but we have not taught them how to think generatively, meaning once you've dismantled the pieces can you imagine reassembling them in ways that actually do provide for more humanity for more people? That is the great failing of education right around the world. You said on CNN that “God is above politics but religion is not," does that mean that religion is also not above the military, who still has a strong foothold in Islamic Democracy? First of all, human beings are nothing if not political animals. Everything we do is shot through with judgments. So I'm not naïve enough to say that religion needs to be separated from politics, of course it needs to be but were humans and the way in which we practice religion we will not cease to bring politics into it. God is above politics and religion is not because religion is at the end of the day human. The way in which a massive institution like the military in Egypt treats religion will only serve to further politicize religion. At the end of the day I'm not at all convinced that anybody really in the higher echelons of the military, in the supreme council of the armed forces for example gives a damn about faith. In his personal life, it is usually his? Maybe, sure. Who am I to peer into his heart and decide if his faith is pure or impure but religion will always be used for political purposes because that is how one exerts power over others. You are in a very unique position at the moment having such a strong global voice but also being a Muslim woman able to do that. Do you have specific teachings or goals direct towards only women? You know, I don't, because categories reduce the brilliant complexity of individuals like labels that just don't do justice to all that we're capable of. I totally understand that it's a reality that more women are using their voices to speak up about abusive powers in Islam today then men are. It is a fact that women are mistreated more often then not in the name of Allah. I understand why there would be a desire to focus the solutions on women. But for my own integrity I must say, I think that nothing will change in any kind of a sustained way until men are also invited to be part of the solution. I think ultimately it comes back to notion that is expressly laid out in the Quran that men and women in the eyes of God are equal and that it is not what we are born with that decides where we end up but rather what we choose to make our deeds that is what will distinguish us as pious or not. But let me add this much more: it's also unfair to men. When I mentioned earlier that one of my questions for my madrasah teacher was why can't girls lead prayer? He would answer that girls are made to be subservient to men. I know today there are all kinds of people that today, would read this and say, “no, no, no, that is such a wrong answer," but the reason the women can't lead prayer is that men are weak and they can't control their lusts so if a woman is in front of them with their bum in the air naturally, they will be distracted and there goes their concentration on prayer. How utterly demeaning is that to men? To say that all men are children? To me, that is so insulting to this huge swath of humanity called boys and men and I'm not going to treat them that way. I actually do have higher expectations because everywhere I go in this part of the world, men do control themselves. They've shown themselves capable of controlling themselves so why would we have lower expectations for Muslim men? It's morally wrong towards them as much as it is towards women. Do you feel that you being honest about your sexual orientation has affected the way people treat you? Sure, of course. But I can't be a hypocrite. I say that because many have argued to me you would just have so many more ears willing to listen if you weren't out of the closet. My answer to that is wait a minute, if you are saying I would have more credibility with bigots if I wasn't true to what God has given me the question that comes out of this is: why would I want to have credibility with bigots? Let bigots have credibility with bigots. That's not what this mission and this journey is about. Do you see yourself as a role model for lesbian Muslims? No. You don't? Do they talk to you about it? Some do, some don't. I don't see myself as an intended or accidental role model for anybody. I would think that they would want to look to you for advice or see you as being courageous. Do you think most lesbian Muslims are afraid to tell their parents? In my experience and I emphasize, my experience most Muslim youth are afraid to talk to their parents about anything. You have said that you have never lived your life in fear. How do you do it? I'm sure I did say that, but there is one addendum, which is that I do have one fear. That fear is that my mother has to bury me before I have to bury her. The only regret I have ever had in pursuing this mission of Muslim reform and moral courage is that it has caused my mother pain. But I will also tell you that it has given her a great deal of pride. Except for that fear, it's true. I don't even fear meeting God because if it's true that God is love then I have to believe that at the very least he will give me a fair hearing on the day of judgment. I will be able to engage in some kind of conversation with him in which I can make the case for why I did what I did even if it was wrong. If he is love he will give me a fair hearing, which is not to say that I'll end up in one place or another but it'll be a fair hearing. And if God is not love then he was never worth worshiping in the first place.
