Muslim Scholar Calls for "Liberal Reform" of Islam

October 4, 2003

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/04/international/americas/04FPRO.html?ex=1068872400&en=34db07be8fa6afd0&ei=5070

On October 4, 2003 The New York Times featured Canadian television journalist Irshad Manji in its "Saturday Profile:" "As a Canadian Muslim, Irshad Manji never eats pork, never drinks alcohol and regularly reads the Koran. Otherwise she is Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare. At 35, Ms. Manji, a lesbian intellectual with spiky hair and a sharp tongue, is an outspoken television journalist who admires Israel and applauds the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein. More than that, she has issued a searing critique of her religion in a new book, 'The Trouble with Islam' (Random House Canada), calling for radical change...There are other Islamic liberals who say the Sept. 11 attackers did more than hijack four planes: they hijacked an entire religion. Ms. Manji goes much further, saying that Islam has deep-rooted problems with Jews, women, slavery and authoritarianism that go back centuries. Her goal is a thoroughly liberal reform, started by Muslims living in the West."

See also: Islam, International