Tarek Fatah
Tarek Fatah
Born	November 20, 1949 Karachi, Pakistan
Nationality	Canadian
Alma mater	University of Karachi
Occupation	political activist, writer, and broadcaster

Tarek Fatah (Urdu: طارق فتح) (born November 20, 1949), is a Canadian political activist, writer, and broadcaster. He is the author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State^[1] published by John Wiley & Sons. In the book Fatah challenges the notion that the establishment of an Islamic state is a necessary prerequisite to entering the state of Islam. He suggests that the idea of an Islamic state is merely a mirage that Muslims have been made to chase for over a millennium. Chasing a Mirage was shortlisted for the $35,000 Donner Prize for 2008–09.^[2]

Fatah's second book, titled The Jew Is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism,^[3] was published by McClelland & Stewart in October 2010. The book won the 2010 Annual Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Book Award in Politics and History.

In May 2009, Fatah joined CFRB 1010. Later that fall, he joined John Moore's morning show as a contributor.^[4] Currently, he hosts "The Tarek Fatah Show" on CFRB NewsTalk 1010' on Sundays.

Fatah is the founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress. Fatah advocates gay rights, a separation of religion and state, opposition to sharia law, and advocacy for a "liberal, progressive form" of Islam. Some of his activism and statements have met with considerable criticism from Canadian Muslim groups.

Personal life[link]

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Fatah was a student Marxist leftist radical in the 1960s and 1970s. Although he graduated with a degree in biochemistry from the University of Karachi, Fatah entered journalism as a reporter for the Karachi Sun in 1970, and was an investigative journalist for Pakistani Television. He left Pakistan and settled in Saudi Arabia, before emigrating to Canada.

Fatah married Nargis Tapal, and they have two daughters, Natasha and Nazia. Natasha Fatah is a producer for CBC Radio's As It Happens. His younger daughter Nazia Fatah, who is autistic, is a partner in a co-operative catering business for young adults with disabilities. In February, 2011, it was discovered Fatah had a massive tumour on his spine and underwent surgery to remove it. He has recovered and is currently considered cancer free.

Political activity[link]

He became involved in the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) and worked on the staff of Premier Bob Rae. Fatah was an NDP candidate in the 1995 provincial election but was unsuccessful. He subsequently worked for Howard Hampton. In July 2006, he left the NDP to support Bob Rae's candidacy for the Liberal Party of Canada's leadership. In an opinion piece published in Toronto's Now Magazine, Fatah wrote that he decided to leave the NDP because of the establishment of a "faith caucus" which he believes will open the way for religious fundamentalists to enter the party.^[5] However, after Rae's defeat by Stéphane Dion, Fatah condemned similar racial and religious organizing activity in the Liberal Party, arguing in a Globe and Mail editorial that Tamil, Sikh, Kurdish and Islamist Muslim leaders had engaged in "racial and religious exploitation" to "sell" the votes of their blocs of delegates "to the highest bidder."^[6]

At a press conference on October 2, 2008, Fatah sharply criticized the New Democratic Party (NDP). Fatah stated that he was a lifetime social democrat who had supported the NDP for 17 years but that he could no longer be affiliated with that party. He stated that the NDP began opening its doors to Islamists under Alexa McDonough and now, under Jack Layton, he has seen them "flood" into the party. Fatah stated that Islamists in the NDP have pursued a campaign to instill a sense of victimhood in Muslim youth.^[7]

Media activity[link]

From 1996 he hosted Muslim Chronicle, a Toronto-based current affairs discussion show focusing on the Muslim community. This program is no longer managed by Fatah, and another Muslim organization has ostensibly taken over the TV time available to him.^{[citation needed]} Fatah interviewed notables such as journalist Husain Haqqani, author Tariq Ali, and Mubin Shaikh on his program, which aired on the Crossroads Television System on Saturday nights at 8:00 PM.

Fatah has also written opinion pieces for various publications including TIME Magazine, the Toronto Star, the National Post and the Globe and Mail.

He has also been a guest host of TVO's The Agenda filling in for Steve Paikin. In February 2007, Fatah was included by Maclean's magazine on a list of 50 Canadians described as "Canada’s most well known and respected personalities.".^[8] In December 2008, Canada's largest circulating newspaper, the Toronto Star, suggested to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that he appoint Fatah to one of the vacant seats in the Canadian Senate.^[9] Toronto Star's senior editor Bob Hepburn wrote this about Fatah: "A prominent spokesperson for secular and progressive Muslim issues who would bring a much-needed unique perspective to the Senate."

From May to September 2009, Fatah co-hosted the "Strong Opinions Show" on Toronto's CFRB 1010. After the show's cancellation he joined CFRB's Moore in the Morning program as a commentator.

Starting in September, 2010, Fatah joined Ryan Doyle as a co-host of "Friendly Fire," the evening show on CFRB 1010

Muslim Canadian Congress[link]

He was one of the founders of the Muslim Canadian Congress in 2001 and served as its communications director and spokesperson until 2006. In this capacity, he has spoken out against the introduction of Sharia law as an option for Muslims in civil law in Ontario, Sharia banking in Canada, which he has described as a 'con-job', promoted social liberalism in the Muslim community and the separation of religion from the state, and endorsed same-sex marriage. He resigned as the communications director of the MCC in August 2006, claiming that his public profile as a socially liberal Muslim had put him and his family at risk.^{[citation needed]}

The large majority of the founding members left the Muslim Canadian Congress over the years. This culminated in a dramatic split in the summer of 2006 when the remaining founders, including the entire executive and several other Board members left to form the Canadian Muslim Union (CMU). According to the Globe and Mail,^[10] the split occurred when some members of the MCC's former board marched in a Toronto anti-war rally where banners and photographs supporting Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were paraded. While the current members of the MCC wanted nothing to do with Hezbollah, it was claimed that other executive members participated or supported the demonstrations, and resigned and formed the new CMU the next day.

This version of events is challenged in the resignation statement published by the exiting board members, which cited their belief that the Muslim Canadian Congress could no longer achieve its goal of influencing the Muslim community.^[11] According to some who split with Fatah, he and other Board members had participated in several earlier demonstrations where the same banners were displayed by some members of the crowd, including two just weeks before the split.

The CMU's philosophy of Liberal Islam is similar to the MCC's, but with an intention to work "with and within the Muslim community", as opposed to MCC's tendency to attack the Muslim community from outside.^{[citation needed]}

Break with Irshad Manji[link]

In 2003, Fatah engaged in a high-profile break with Irshad Manji in the pages of the Globe and Mail in which he repudiated the thanks she gave him in the acknowledgment section of her book The Trouble with Islam. Fatah wrote of Manji's book that it "is not addressed to Muslims; it is aimed at making Muslim-haters feel secure in their thinking."^[12] Manji replied saying that he told her in front of witnesses that "This book was written by the Jews for the Jews!"^[13]

However, Fatah recently said that he regrets his remarks and that he was unfair in slamming Manji's book. He now says that she was "right about the systematic racism in the Muslim world" and that "there were many redeeming points in her memoir, which I overlooked in my rush to judge it."^{[dead link]}

Tarek Fatah and Imam Sheharyar Shaikh[link]

Fatah was criticized after he failed to appear for a scheduled debate with Imam Sheharyar Shaikh, the President of North American Muslim Foundation (NAMF) and Imam of Masjid Qurtabah, despite confirming his attendance two hours prior to the scheduled start time. A heavily advertised debate was scheduled for January 21, 2011.^[14] Shaikh, who has openly defended polygamy and opposed secular education for Muslims, is a sharp critic of Fatah's moderate views. Fatah later stated that he cancelled his appearance because the moderator was changed shortly before the event was to begin, angering Mr. Fatah, who described the audience as “hostile.” His associates with the Muslim Canadian Congress then requested one of their replacement moderators be called in, angering Farooq Khan, executive director of NAMF, who described MCC members as full of “hyperbole and imaginary fear.” Fatah also claimed that he was warned by police of threats to his safety, though he added he has no proof.^[15]

Israel and the Middle East[link]

Denunciation of Iranian President[link]

In October 2005, Fatah, in his role as communications director of the Muslim Canadian Congress, denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for calling for the destruction of Israel.^[16]

Fatah stated that "The mullahs who control Iran with an iron grip merely use the pain of the Palestinian occupation for their own advantage in diverting people's attention from other pressing matters. They talk about wiping out Israel, but in reality the only people they have wiped out are fellow Iranians by the tens of thousands. After a reign of terror that killed thousands and drove many more into exile, they have used torture, arbitrary arrest, vigilante justice and murder to silence fellow Muslims in Iran."^[16]

Fatah added that Ahmadinejad "insults Islam by usurping it to serve his own narrow political interests" and that "with friends like the Iranian ruling ayatollahs, the Palestinians do not need enemies."^[16]

Opposition to Israeli policies[link]

Although Fatah condemned Ahmadinejad for calling for Israel's destruction, he also stated that "we cannot remain silent about Israel's continued occupation of Palestinian territories."^[16] While Fatah believes in Israel's right to exist, he has called the Israeli occupation as "illegal" and "immoral". He believes Israel is fueling antisemitism.^[17]

The Muslim Canadian Congress, which Tarek Fatah founded and led till August 2006, supported the campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel as of May 2006. The Congress also compared Israeli policies to South African apartheid.^[18]

Opposition to US war in Iraq[link]

Fatah also condemned US President George W. Bush "for posturing as a deliverer of freedom while occupying Iraq." Regarding Iraq, Fatah wrote that "both Iran and the U.S. have helped destroy a nation."^[16]

Comments on Islam and Muslims[link]

Islamic radicalism[link]

In a discussion hosted by the Globe and Mail in 2007, Fatah stated that "most of the Islamic radicalism that you see today stems from the empowering of Saudi based Jihadi groups that were funded and backed by the U.S. and the CIA throughout the Afghan war against the Soviet Union."^[19]

Fatah argues that "Most secular and liberal institutions were destroyed piece by piece and what we are left with is the result of huge amounts of cash and weapons in the hands of the Taliban type, or Al-Qaeda groups that get their intellectual sustenance from the political teachings of the Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna and the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Abul ala Maudoodi, both of who preached Jehad as an obligation for all Muslims if they saw another Muslim under attack."^[19]

He has stated that converts adopting the niqab face covering is indicative of joining "a cult", and offensive to Islam.^[20]

Support for the Quran and opposition to Shariah[link]

Fatah stressed that "The poison is not coming from the Quran, but from the man-made shariah laws of the 8th and 9th centuries as well as the works of such 20th century scholars as Syed Qutb, Hassan Banna and Maudoodi" and that "The swamp that needs to be drained is the swamp created by Saudi Arabia and Iran and their call for imposition of Shariah."^[19]

Statement that Islam does not need to be reformed[link]

Fatah also stated that "it is not Islam that needs to be reformed, it is the need for Muslims to reconcile with modernity and the notion of the secular nation state … Unfortunately, whereas the religious right in Islam is well funded and well organised, the liberal secular Muslim is too busy leading a 9-to-5 life, paying his mortgage and providing for his family and thus has no time or resources to challenge the Islamist extremists."^[19]

Location of Cordoba House Mosque[link]

Writing with author Raheel Raza, a fellow board member of the Muslim Canadian Congress, about the location of the proposed Cordoba House mosque near Ground Zero, he stated:

We Muslims know the ... mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation, to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith, ... as "Fitna," meaning "mischief-making" that is clearly forbidden in the Koran.... As Muslims we are dismayed that our co-religionists have such little consideration for their fellow citizens, and wish to rub salt in their wounds and pretend they are applying a balm to sooth the pain.^[21]

Honour killing[link]

In November 2011, 60 Muslim groups and two dozen imams endorsed a statement that called for action against domestic violence, condemned honour killing as a notion that had "absolutely nothing to do with Islam". Tarek Fatah refused to endorse the statement, according to the National Post, arguing that the statement didn't address gender inequality and that honour killing has roots in Islam. According to Fatah Islam deems the relationship of an unmarried woman as "adultery" and imams must distance themselves from punishing such actions by death.^[22]

Praise of Tarek Fatah[link]

Michael Coren, a Catholic television host, has praised Fatah for being "brave" enough to admit the "faults and failings" of Islam.^[23]

For writing the book The Jew Is Not My Enemy, which discusses "Muslim animosity towards the Jewish people", Fatah has been awarded the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Book Award in Politics and History.^[23]

Criticism of Tarek Fatah[link]

Wael Haddara, president of the Muslim Association of Canada, said that he "respect[s]" Fatah for his passion but that it was "hard, if not downright impossible, to find something positive that he has ever said about Muslims." As a result, Haddara argues, Muslims are no longer listening to Fatah.^[23]

Imam Syed Soharwardy of Calgary said that while Fatah's views are valuable, he stereotypes. According to Soharwardy, Fatah uses the behavior of a few extremists and considers it representative of the whole of Islam.^[23]

Position on homosexuality[link]

Fatah stated that "The issue that has resulted in all the threats and allegations against us is our support for same-sex marriage. It's the central point on which the Muslim Canadian Congress and I have faced outright hostility, verging on violence. There is near unanimity in any religious group that this is the ultimate sin and, for them, this amounts to the ultimate betrayal." Regarding Islam and homosexuality, Fatah stated that "Our human rights cannot revolve around religion. It's not about our rights, it's about human rights."^[24]

Fatah also criticized the support of some gay and lesbian Muslims for Hezbollah, "There's the sudden romanticization of Hezbollah. But I cannot walk with, cannot even build a coalition with, a group which thinks gays and lesbians should be killed… I haven't ever heard them condemn what's happening in Iran and Saudi Arabia. I would like to see a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy by the gay and lesbian community."^[24]

Criticism of Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC)[link]

In April 2008, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) dismissed a complaint about allegedly Islamophobic articles in Maclean's magazine. However, the commission denounced the newsweekly for publishing articles that were "inconsistent with the spirit" of the Ontario Human Rights Code, and doing "serious harm" to Canadian society by "promoting societal intolerance" and disseminating "destructive, xenophobic opinions."^[25]

Fatah stated that for the Commission "to refer to Maclean's magazine and journalists as contributing to racism is bullshit, if you can use that word" and that the Commission has unfairly taken sides against freedom of speech in a dispute within the Canadian Muslim community between moderates and fundamentalists. "There are within the staff [of the Ontario Human Rights Commission], and among the commissioners, hardline Islamic supporters of Islamic extremism, and this [handling of the Maclean's case] reflects their presence over there" and that "In the eyes of the Ontario human rights commission, the only good Muslim is an Islamist Muslim. As long as we hate Canada, we will be cared for. As soon as we say Canada is our home and we have to defend her traditions, freedoms and secular democracy, we will be considered as the outside."^[25]

In a press conference on October 2, 2008, Fatah stated that the OHRC has been "infiltrated by Islamists" and that some of its commissioners are closely linked to the Canadian Islamic Congress and the Canadian Arab Federation, both of which, according to Fatah, have "contempt for Canadian values."^[7]

Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC)[link]

Mohamed Elmasry[link]

Regarding a controversy in October 2004 involving CIC President Mohamed Elmasry, in which Elmasry stated that all Israelis over 18 are legitimate targets, Fatah stated that "…to believe all Israelis are targets is the height of hypocrisy" and called on Elmasry to resign from the CIC.^[26]

Fatah also stated that: "In refusing to step aside, Elmasry and the CIC have demonstrated the authoritarian and dictatorial nature of their structure.…They purport to speak for Canada's 600,000 Muslims, but are not accountable or answerable to them.…We demand he [Elmasry] not…masquerade as leader of the community."^[27]

Fatah wrote that "Elmasry accused his Muslim opponents of being traitors to their faith—an allegation that is read as a charge of apostasy, with all its ugly consequences" and that "It is especially sad that Mohamed Elmasry and his allies have chosen the holy month of Ramadan to launch their broadside on progressive Muslims."^[28]

In June 2006, Elmasry named four public figures – Fatah among them – of taking every opportunity to bad-mouth Islam. Specifically, Elmasry stated that Fatah is "well known in Canada for smearing Islam and bashing Muslims." Fatah blasted Elmasry, stating that "[t]his is a classic threat to label anyone as an apostate and then marginalize them," … "and this is what Mr. Elmasry has done by listing me as the top anti-Islam Muslim." Fatah stated that he views the label from Elmasry as tantamount to a death sentence. However, some Islamic scholars disagreed with Fatah's characterization of Elmasry's comments. Leonard Librande, professor of religion at Carleton University, told CTV News "There's nothing particularly Islamic in this… There are differences of opinion frequently in the community. It doesn't mean somebody is going to kill you."^[29]

However, Fatah has argued that "in the Muslim world … allegations of apostasy are used to silence critics and human rights workers" and that "Some interpretations of Sharia call for apostates to be killed. Such views have forced many Muslims to flee their countries of birth and take refuge in tolerant Western nations such as Canada. To now find ourselves harassed in Canada by some Muslims here is alarming and ironic."^[28]

Fatah supported his concern by noting that a book, distributed for free at a Toronto Conference in September 2005 by the Islamic Council of North America, stated that "Jihad is as much a primary duty as are daily prayers or fasting. One who avoids it is a sinner. His every claim to being a Muslim is doubtful. He is plainly a hypocrite who fails in the test of sincerity and all his acts of worship are a sham, a worthless, hollow show of deception."^[28]

Wahida Valiante[link]

Wahida C. Valiante, President of the Canadian Islamic Congress, told the Globe and Mail that "Tarek Fatah's views are diametrically opposed to most Muslims. There is a tremendous amount of discussion in the community. His point of view contradicts the fundamentals of Islam." ^[30] Fatah has written to the RCMP to complain about the CIC's article claiming that it "is as close as one can get to issuing a death threat as it places me as an apostate and blasphemer."^[31]

Canadian Arab Federation (CAF)[link]

In February 2009, Fatah sharply criticized the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) in an article published in the National Post. Fatah, who received the CAF's highest award in December 2001, stated that the CAF's current leadership has turned the organization "into a mouthpiece for Hamas and Hezbollah in Canada." Fatah stated that the CAF used to sponsor debates on the pros and cons of the Oslo peace accord but today labels "any backer of the two-state solution [as] a traitor to the Muslim cause."^[32]

Fatah opened by sharply criticizing CAF President Khaled Mouammar for calling Immigration Minister Jason Kenney a "professional whore" because Mr. Kenney criticized the display of Hamas and Hezbollah flags at a CAF-backed protest rally. Fatah also claimed that the CAF also referred to Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff by the same label. Fatah also criticized Mouammar for sending out an email during 2006 Liberal party leadership campaign which stated that "[Bob] Rae's wife is a vice-president of the CJC Canadian Jewish Congress, a lobby group which supports Israeli apartheid." Fatah also stated that Mouammar sent Muslim delegates a flyer that stated: "Bob Rae supports Israeli apartheid. Don't elect a leader who supports apartheid."^[32]

Fatah stated that CAF's vice-president in Ontario, Ali Mallah, referred to the Muslim Canadian Congress in an online forum as "house negros (sic)." He also claimed that Mallah sent out an e-mail message that was headlined: "Dion, Rae & Cotler: pro-Apartheid & anti-Human Rights." Fatah claimed the message also contained the following remarks:

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's handpicked human rights critic, Irwin Cotler, advises Israeli military officials on war planning, on how to spin the media following Israeli war crimes and on how to oppose Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; 2 Dion's handpicked critic for foreign affairs and co-writer of the Liberal party platform, the unelected Bob Rae is a committee member of the Racist Jewish National Fund. As Israel's leading newspaper Ha'aretz reports: "it's well known that the 'national institutions'—the Jewish Agency and Jewish National Fund—primarily exist to enable institutional discrimination based on ethnicity.^[32]

Fatah also claimed that Mallah attacked him personally, claiming that he has "no shred of decency of integrity left" and claiming that he served "Zionist masters."^[32]

Fatah concluded by stating that Canada's Arab community should demand that Khaled Mouammar and Ali Mallah step down and "not bring further shame to their community." He then called for a new leadership in the tradition of former leaders John Asfour Jim Kafieh, Jehad Aliweiwi and Raja Khouri.."^[32]

Response[link]

In response to Fatah's article, CAF Vice-President Ali Mallah emailed a response to a large group of recipients. The National Post later posted it in its original form. In the message Mallah wrote that:

Tarek Fatah has earned the the [sic] perfect description by Late Malcom X and prove to be a very loyal "house Negro". In this desperate attempt to malign CAF on the pages of Zionist mouth piece National Post, he is saying one thing correct: Yes, CAF awarded him that award, but that was when Tarek Fatah was cheating his way through and pretending to be pro-palestine, pro-social justice, pro-multiculturalis m and Anti-Liberal Party…etc (I am sure that every one knows this sell out, is fully aware of the shameless transformation of this sorry case of human being). I admit that I was duped by his fake lies and nominated him for that award. Now, since he is totally exposed and has no cloth left, He should return that Award as he does not deserve the honour associated with it.^[33]

Threats[link]

Fatah says he has been attacked for his views, verbally at an Islamic conference in 2003 where dozens of young Muslim men mobbed him while a cleric shouted out that he had insulted the Prophet Muhammad's name and in 2006 when he was accosted on Yonge Street by a man who accused him of being an apostate. His car windows have also been smashed.^[31] On August 4, 2006, Fatah announced his resignation as the MCC's communications director because of concerns for his safety and the safety of his family, stating that "it's not just for me. It's for my wife and my daughters."^[34][35]

In early 2011, Fatah received a threat via Twitter from a sender signed herself as Mariama AnnaLitical, who included a picture of herself wearing a purple hijab, stating that "This is an open threat to Xaar Boy @Tarek Fatah...I know where you live & and where your office is.” She later sent a second Twitter message, reiterating that "This is an open threat. I know where you live/work @TarekFatah.” Fatah contacted the Toronto Police Department and later met with two uniformed policemen from 51 Division. However, Fatah stated that barely one minute later, that "Two men entered the room and told everybody else to leave. They did not identify themselves, but five minutes into what amounted to a two-hour interrogation, I realized they were police intelligence officers. One of them, I recognized by reputation – a Muslim officer who had shut down a previous investigation into a death threat against me in 2008." After the intelligence officers left, Fatah stated that "the original officers confided to me that it was unusual for “intel” to act before a report had even been filed. I realized this was now about politics, and nothing would be done to help me. Later that night, the same Muslim officer called me to say AnnaLitical posed no danger. “She didn’t mean to say it,” the officer said. I asked if any charges were laid. “No,” he said. “I didn’t think it was necessary.”"^[36][37]

Fatah sharply criticized the Toronto Police over this incident, stating that:

"The Toronto police, in their wish to promote an image of diversity and outreach, have dedicated themselves to serving and protecting the the [sic] radical Islamist elements within our city. Meanwhile, Muslims like myself, who do their best to promote the equality and respect that the police claim to cherish, are left without legal protection when radicals explicitly and publicly threaten us with violence. In Toronto, anybody can issue an “open threat” against a man laying helpless in a hospital bed and be assured they will not face charges, so long as the person making the threat is a black Muslim woman wearing a hijab."^[36]

On October 9th, 2011 Tarek Fatah reported on his Facebook page that he had received threats from a Kahane Chai member warning him that if he does not within "48 hours" make his Facebook status: "I accept Israel as a Jewish state", or else his party would be over. On his weekly talk show with Newstalk 1010 he brushed off the threat and hosted Zach Paikin who provided in-depth analysis into radical Jewish groups in Canada, such as the Jewish Defence League and Kahane Chai.^[38]

Authorship[link]

Fatah is the author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State, published in 2008. In the book Fatah challenges the notion that the establishment of an Islamic state is a necessary prerequisite to entering the state of Islam. He suggests that the idea of an Islamic state is merely a mirage that Muslims have been made to chase for over a millennium.

The Toronto Star introduced the book to its readers as "A cri de coeur… succinctly yet with power." In a review of a chapter in the book titled, "The Prophet is Dead," the Toronto Star said, "Fatah had broached the mother of all taboos."^[39]

Emran Qureshi wrote a critique of the book in the Globe and Mail.^[40] The book was praised by the Mackenzie Institute, which stated that it is "is a direct challenge to the fanatics of the Wahhabi, Deobandi, and Khomeinist traditions. His exposition is solidly rooted in the oldest texts and histories of Islam and argues that the pursuit of an imperial Islamic state has soiled the religion, and violates the intentions of Mohammed himself."^[41]

In February, 2011, Fatah was scheduled to have a debate with Imam Sheheryar Shaikh of the North American Muslim Foundation (NAMF). Amidst much controversy, Fatah did not show up for the debate event and left many of his supporters disappointed.

On March 31, 2009, the Donner Foundation announced "Chasing a Mirage" had been shortlisted for their $35,000 prize awarded to non-fiction texts covering public policy.^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Transcript of Fatah being interviewed by CNN's Glenn Beck
• The Macleans.ca Interview: Tarek Fatah, Kate Lunau, Macleans, November 29, 2007
• Special feature interview with Tarek Fatah - November 4, 2010

Michael Coren (born January 15, 1959) is an English-Canadian columnist, author, public speaker, radio host and television talk show host. He hosted the television talk show The Michael Coren Show on the Crossroads Television System from 1999 to 2011 when he moved to the Sun News Network to host an evening talk show, The Arena with Michael Coren.^[1] He has also been a long-time radio personality, particularly on CFRB radio.

He has written more than ten books, including biographies of G.K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and C. S. Lewis. His latest book, Why Catholics are Right, was published in 2011.

Life and career[link]

Coren was born in Essex, England. After obtaining a degree in politics from Nottingham University, he moved from the UK to Canada in 1987. For several years, he was a columnist for Frank and then The Globe and Mail, before he began syndicated columns for the Financial Post and Sun Media in 1995. Following his departure from Frank, he became a favourite target of that publication, culminating in a spoof ad contest to "deflower" Michael Coren (a nod to Frank's notorious "Deflower Caroline Mulroney" contest, and a satirical jab at Coren's conservative leanings.) Coren had also been a favorite target of Frank back in the days before he began writing for them. Coren took exception to being labelled a "literary prostitute" during a 1994 interview.^[2]

His career as a broadcaster began in the early 1990s when he co-hosted a political debate segment with Irshad Manji on TVOntario's Studio 2. In 1995, he began an evening talk show on CFRB. In 1999, Coren briefly moved to Talk 640 for a short stint as its morning man. He returned to CFRB, where he hosted a show from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. weekday nights, and regularly filled in for other hosts until November 2005. Coren was dismissed by CFRB as a result of complaints arising from comments ridiculing the weight of an apparent guest. In fact, the guest was an actor and the segment was scripted. According to CFRB's Operations Manager, Steve Kowch, "Pat Holiday, our general manager and myself went through the tape of Monday night's show and were shocked....it was totally out of bounds." Coren argues that it was a satire comparing in his mind public attitude to third world starvation with North America's obsession with slimming and self-indulgence. ^[2]

Despite this acrimonious termination, Coren made regular talk show appearances on CFRB in July 2006, at the start of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, as he happened to be in Israel at the time. After receiving 60% approval from CFRB listeners in an August 2006 poll, Coren returned to the CFRB airwaves in September 2006 with a Sunday evening show.^[3] As of the 22nd of April 2007, the show expanded from its usual 1 hour 7-8pm to 7-9 pm.^[4] Coren celebrated by giving away double the prizes usually given out. In the fall of 2007 he and former Liberal Party of Canada president Stephen LeDrew launched a daily hour-long afternoon show on CFRB called Two Bald Guys With Strong Opinions in which the two argue about the issues of the day.^[5] After the departure of LeDrew, Coren was joined by Tarek Fatah after several on air auditions by potential replacement co-hosts. Coren was again let go by CFRB along with 12 other staff of the Toronto radio station on 27 August 2009.^[6]

On television, Coren hosted the Michael Coren Show on the Crossroads Television System until June 2011 when he left to join the Sun News Network where he hosts The Arena with Michael Coren weeknights on beginning August 30, 2011. Coren also has a newspaper column published every Saturday in the Sun newspaper chain. He has been a columnist for the Western Standard, Catholic Insight and The Women's Post and has contributed to National Post, Reader's Digest and several other publications. A self-professed Tottenham Hotspur fan, he has appeared as a guest host on The Score's The Footy Show. Coren is also a public speaker, particularly at religious gatherings.

Political controversies[link]

In his earlier, satirical Aesthete column in Frank magazine Coren was by his own admission deliberately provocative. In response to a 1994 interview question about AIDS he responded:

"Look, people are dying all over. When it was blacks in Africa dying of AIDS, no one gave a toss. Nobody gave a toss. Suddenly, it's middleclass men in California and everyone goes crazy about it. It's a double standard. I'm trying to provoke people into rethinking comfortable points of view."^[2]

In September 2006, Coren published an article in the Toronto Sun, supporting the use of tactical nuclear strikes against Iran.^[7] This position was later retracted.^[8]

On the subject of AIDS Michael Coren wrote a column in 2006 titled "Why is AIDS so special?" in which he said "At its most simple, stop fornicating." "AIDS in the West is still overwhelmingly a threat to male homosexuals and intravenous drug users."^[9]

In an article which appeared in Sun Media in 2007, Coren said "As for Jesus not condemning homosexuality, nor did He condemn bestiality and necrophilia."^[10]

Religious Views[link]

His articles and speeches often include stories of his own personal spiritual journey. Coren's father was Jewish as was his maternal grandfather, while his maternal grandmother came from a family of Welsh coalminers and converted to Judaism. Coren's father and uncle were cab drivers. Coren has said that his father's family left Poland a few decades before the Holocaust.^[11] He has also said that his father's family emigrated from Poland in the 1890s.^[12] He said "People have called me an anti-Semite. I thought it quite rich since my father's family was massacred in the Holocaust".^[2] Michael Coren was profiled on Credo, on Vision TV, and said that his father told him he could not attend his son's wedding in a Catholic Church without becoming "physically sick."

He converted to Roman Catholicism in his early twenties while still living in England, but that didn't last long. He said that he "converted to an institution." He eventually converted to Evangelical Christianity in the 1990s, after a conversion experience as an adult, greatly influenced by Canadian televangelist Terry Winter.

In 1991 Michael Coren said in a column for a humour magazine: "The evangelical Christians may be intolerant, small-minded, and repellent, but at least they hold a consistent set of beliefs".^[2]

In a 1993 book review he said "Can anyone imagine a detective priest? Regrettably, it is easier to conjure up the image of a priest being questioned by secular detectives over abuse charges." Also in 1993, Michael Coren had a falling out with the Catholic Church over an unflattering profile he wrote of Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic for Toronto Life magazine^{[citation needed]}. The Bishop, who made Coren a "Knight of the Holy Sepulchre" in a ceremony in October 1992, was quoted using words including "friggin" and "bitch", and said that Francisco Franco was a "conservative Roman Catholic and not a bad fellow." Coren defended himself, saying "He's an archbishop and he was vulgar...obviously what thousands of Roman Catholics expected me to do was lie. I still get hate mail about the article."

After this incident, Coren said that he didn't consider himself a Roman Catholic anymore. He said "My wife is Catholic and the children will be raised Catholic, but that's it. It's just not there for me."^{[citation needed]} Daniel Richler observed that Coren loves scandal, but hates having it come his way. In one of his columns for the satirical humour magazine Frank, Michael Coren depicted Mother Teresa getting drunk in a bar.^[2]

In early 2004, he embraced Catholicism again. He cites St. Thomas More, C. S. Lewis, Ronald Knox and his godfather Lord Longford as spiritual influences, and remains connected to the ecumenical scene in Canada and beyond.

Published books[link]

• Theatre Royal: 100 Years of Stratford East (1985) ISBN 0-7043-2474-1
• Gilbert: The Man Who Was G.K. Chesterton (1990) ISBN 1-55778-256-3
• The Invisible Man: The Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells (1993) ISBN 0-689-12119-9
• The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1993) ISBN 0-7475-1229-9
• The Man Who Created Narnia: The Story of C. S. Lewis (1994) ISBN 1-895555-78-7
• Setting It Right (1996) ISBN 0-7737-2940-2
• J.R.R.Tolkien: The Man who Created the Lord of the Rings (2001) ISBN 0-7522-6156-8
• As I See It (2009) ISBN 0-9812767-0-9
• Why Catholics Are Right (2011) ISBN 0-7710-2321-9

Awards[link]

Awards Michael Coren has won.^[13]

• 2005: The Ed Murrow Award for Broadcasting.
• 2006: The RTNDA Radio Broadcasting Award.
• 2007: The Communicator Award in Hollywood.
• 2008: the Omni TV Award.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Michael Coren's blog
• [1] Coren's column in The Toronto Sun

Salman Rushdie
Rushdie at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival Vanity Fair party
Born	Ahmed Salman Rushdie (1947-06-19) 19 June 1947 (age 65) Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India (now Mumbai, Maharashtra, India)
Occupation	writer
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	Indian[1]
Alma mater	King's College, Cambridge
Genres	Magic realism Satire Postcolonialism
Subjects	Historical criticism Travel writing
Spouse(s)	Clarissa Luard (1976–1987) Marianne Wiggins (1988–1993) Elizabeth West (1997–2004) Padma Lakshmi (2004–2007)
Influences This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2011) Günter Grass Gabriel García Márquez Italo Calvino Vladimir Nabokov James Joyce Jorge Luis Borges Thomas Pynchon Mikhail Bulgakov Franz Kafka Saul Bellow Christopher Hitchens
Influenced This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2011) Zadie Smith Homi K. Bhabha Taslima Nasrin Christopher Hitchens

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (Hindi: अहमद सलमान रुशदी (Devanagari), احمد سلمان رشدی (Nastaʿlīq);  /sælˈmɑːn ˈrʊʃdi/;^[2] born 19 June 1947) is a British Indian novelist and essayist. His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent. He is said to combine magical realism with historical fiction; his work is concerned with the many connections, disruptions and migrations between East and West.

His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the centre of a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries, some violent. Death threats were made against him, including a fatwā issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989.

Rushdie was appointed Commandeur dans Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999.^[3] In June 2007, Queen Elizabeth II dubbed him Knight Bachelor for his services to literature.^[4] In 2008, The Times ranked him thirteenth on its list of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945.^[5]

Since 2000, Rushdie has "lived mostly near Union Square" in New York City.^[6] In 2007 he began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he has also deposited his archives.^[7] In May 2008 he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.^[8]

His latest novel is Luka and the Fire of Life, published in November 2010. Earlier the same year, he announced that he was writing his memoirs.^[9]

Early life and family background[link]

The only son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a University of Cambridge-educated lawyer turned businessman, and Negin Bhatt, a teacher, Rushdie was born in Bombay, India, into a Muslim family of Kashmiri descent.^[10][11][12] He was educated at Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, Rugby School, and King's College, University of Cambridge, where he studied history.

Career[link]

Copywriter[link]

Rushdie's first career was as a copywriter, working for the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, where he came up with "irresistibubble" for Aero and "Naughty but Nice" for cream cakes, and for the agency Ayer Barker, for whom he wrote the memorable line "That'll do nicely" for American Express. It was while he was at Ogilvy that he wrote Midnight's Children, before becoming a full-time writer.^[13][14][15] John Hegarty of Bartle Bogle Hegarty has criticised Rushdie for not referring to his copywriting past frequently enough, although conceding: "He did write crap ads ... admittedly."^[16]

Major literary work[link]

His first novel, Grimus, a part-science fiction tale, was generally ignored by the public and literary critics. His next novel, Midnight's Children, catapulted him to literary notability. It significantly shaped the course that Indian writing in English followed over the next decade, and is regarded by many as one of the great books of the last 100 years.^{[citation needed]} This work won the 1981 Booker Prize and, in 1993 and 2008, was awarded the Best of the Bookers as the best novel to have received the prize during its first 25 and 40 years.^[17] Midnight's Children follows the life of a child, born at the stroke of midnight as India gained its independence, who is endowed with special powers and a connection to other children born at the dawn of a new and tumultuous age in the history of the Indian sub-continent and the birth of the modern nation of India. The character of Saleem Sinai has been compared to Rushdie.^[18]

After Midnight's Children, Rushdie wrote Shame (1983), in which he depicts the political turmoil in Pakistan, basing his characters on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Shame won France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book) and was a close runner-up for the Booker Prize. Both these works of postcolonial literature are characterised by a style of magic realism and the immigrant outlook that Rushdie is very conscious of as a member of the Indian diaspora.

Rushdie wrote a non-fiction book about Nicaragua in the 1980s, The Jaguar Smile (1987). The book has a political focus and is based on his first-hand experiences and research at the scene of Sandinista political experiments.

His most controversial work, The Satanic Verses, was published in 1988 (see section below). Rushdie has published many short stories, including those collected in East, West (1994). The Moor's Last Sigh, a family epic ranging over some 100 years of India's history was published in 1995. The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999) presents an alternative history of modern rock music. The song of the same name by U2 is one of many song lyrics included in the book, hence Rushdie is credited as the lyricist. He also wrote "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" in 1990.

Salman Rushdie presenting his book Shalimar the Clown

Rushdie has had a string of commercially successful and critically acclaimed novels. His 2005 novel Shalimar the Clown received, in India, the prestigious Hutch Crossword Book Award, and was, in Britain, a finalist for the Whitbread Book Awards. It was shortlisted for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.^[19]

In his 2002 non-fiction collection Step Across This Line, he professes his admiration for the Italian writer Italo Calvino and the American writer Thomas Pynchon, among others. His early influences included James Joyce, Günter Grass, Jorge Luis Borges, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Lewis Carroll. Rushdie was a personal friend of Angela Carter and praised her highly in the foreword for her collection Burning your Boats.

In 2012, Salman Rushdie became one of the first major authors to embrace Booktrack--a company that synchronises ebooks with customised soundtracks to create an immersive reading experience—when he published his short story In the South on the platform.^[20]

Other activities[link]

Rushdie has quietly mentored younger Indian (and ethnic-Indian) writers, influenced an entire generation of Indo-Anglian writers, and is an influential writer in postcolonial literature in general.^[21] He has received many plaudits for his writings, including the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature, the Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), and the Writer of the Year Award in Germany and many of literature's highest honours.^[22] Rushdie was the President of PEN American Center from 2004 to 2006.

He opposed the British government's introduction of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act, something he writes about in his contribution to Free Expression Is No Offence, a collection of essays by several writers, published by Penguin in November 2005.

Salman Rushdie having a discussion with Emory University students

In 2006, Rushdie joined the Emory University faculty as Distinguished Writer in Residence for a five-year term.^[23] Though he enjoys writing, Salman Rushdie says that he would have become an actor if his writing career had not been successful. Even from early childhood, he dreamed of appearing in Hollywood movies (which he later realised in his frequent cameo appearances).

Rushdie includes fictional television and movie characters in some of his writings. He had a cameo appearance in the film Bridget Jones's Diary based on the book of the same name, which is itself full of literary in-jokes. On 12 May 2006, Rushdie was a guest host on The Charlie Rose Show, where he interviewed Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, whose 2005 film, Water, faced violent protests. He appears in the role of Helen Hunt's obstetrician-gynecologist in the film adaptation (Hunt's directorial debut) of Elinor Lipman's novel Then She Found Me. In September 2008, and again in March 2009, he appeared as a panellist on the HBO program "Real Time With Bill Maher".

Rushdie is currently collaborating on the screenplay for the cinematic adaptation of his novel Midnight's Children with director Deepa Mehta. The film will be called Midnight's Children.^[24][25] While casting is still in progress, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das,^[26] and Irrfan Khan are confirmed as participating in the film.^[27] Mehta has stated that production will begin in September, 2010.^[28]

Rushdie announced in June 2011 that he had written the first draft of a script for a new television series for the U.S. cable network Showtime, a project on which he will also serve as an executive producer. The new series, to be called The Next People, will be, according to Rushie, "a sort of paranoid science-fiction series, people disappearing and being replaced by other people." The idea of a television series was suggested by his U.S. agents, said Rushdie, who felt that television would allow him more creative control than feature film. The Next People is being made by the British film production company Working Title, the firm behind such projects as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shaun of the Dead.^[29]

Rushdie is a member of the advisory board of The Lunchbox Fund,^[30] a non-profit organisation which provides daily meals to students of township schools in Soweto of South Africa. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America,^[31] an advocacy group representing the interests of atheistic and humanistic Americans in Washington, D.C. In November 2010 he became a founding patron of Ralston College, a new liberal arts college that has adopted as its motto a Latin translation of a phrase ("free speech is life itself") from an address he gave at Columbia University in 1991 to mark the two-hundredth anniversary of the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.^[32]

He took on Facebook over the use of his name in 2011. He won. Rushdie had asked to use his middle name Salman, which he is most recognised by. He described his online identity crisis in a series of messages posted on Twitter, among them ""Dear #Facebook, forcing me to change my FB name from Salman to Ahmed Rushdie is like forcing J. Edgar to become John Hoover" and "Or, if F. Scott Fitzgerald was on #Facebook, would they force him to be Francis Fitzgerald? What about F. Murray Abraham?" Messages such as these were then circulated online. Facebook eventually relented and allowed him to use the name by which he is universally known.^[33][34]

[edit] The Satanic Verses and the fatwā

The publication of The Satanic Verses in September 1988 caused immediate controversy in the Islamic world because of what was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad. The title refers to a disputed Muslim tradition that is related in the book. According to this tradition, Muhammad (Mahound in the book) added verses (sura) to the Qur'an accepting three goddesses who used to be worshipped in Mecca as divine beings. According to the legend, Muhammad later revoked the verses, saying the devil tempted him to utter these lines to appease the Meccans (hence the "Satanic" verses). However, the narrator reveals to the reader that these disputed verses were actually from the mouth of the Archangel Gibreel. The book was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities. (12 total: India, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore, Venezuela and Pakistan)

On 14 February 1989, a fatwā requiring Rushdie's execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran at the time, calling the book "blasphemous against Islam" (chapter IV of the book depicts the character of an Imam in exile who returns to incite revolt from the people of his country with no regard for their safety). A bounty was offered for Rushdie's death, and he was thus forced to live under police protection for several years. On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.

The publication of the book and the fatwā sparked violence around the world, with bookstores firebombed. Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies, burning copies of the book. Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed.^{[note 1]} Many more people died in riots in some countries. Despite the danger posed by the fatwā, Rushdie made a public appearance at London's Wembley Stadium on 11 August 1993 during a concert by U2. In 2010, U2 bassist Adam Clayton recalled that "[lead vocalist] Bono had been calling Salman Rushdie from the stage every night on the Zoo TV tour. When we played Wembley, Salman showed up in person and the stadium erupted. You [could] tell from [drummer] Larry Mullen, Jr.'s face that we weren't expecting it. Salman was a regular visitor after that. He had a backstage pass and he used it as often as possible. For a man who was supposed to be in hiding, it was remarkably easy to see him around the place."^[35]

On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Britain, the Iranian government, then headed by Mohammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie."^[36][37]

Hardliners in Iran have continued to reaffirm the death sentence.^[38] In early 2005, Khomeini's fatwā was reaffirmed by Iran's current spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.^[39] Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards have declared that the death sentence on him is still valid.^[40] Iran has rejected requests to withdraw the fatwā on the basis that only the person who issued it may withdraw it,^[39] and the person who issued it – Ayatollah Khomeini – has been dead since 1989.

Rushdie has reported that he still receives a "sort of Valentine's card" from Iran each year on 14 February letting him know the country has not forgotten the vow to kill him. He said, "It's reached the point where it's a piece of rhetoric rather than a real threat."^[41] Despite the threats on Rushdie, he has publicly said that his family has never been threatened and that his mother (who lived in Pakistan during the later years of her life) even received outpourings of support.^[42]

A former bodyguard to Rushdie, Ron Evans, planned to publish a book recounting the behaviour of the author during the time he was in hiding. Evans claimed that Rushdie tried to profit financially from the fatwa and was suicidal, but Rushdie dismissed the book as a "bunch of lies" and took legal action against Ron Evans, his co-author and their publisher.^[43] On 26 August 2008 Rushdie received an apology at the High Court in London from all three parties.^[44] A memoir of his years of hiding, Joseph Anton, is due to be published 18 September 2012. Joseph Anton was Rushdie's secret alias.^[45]

Failed assassination attempt and Hezbollah's comments[link]

On 3 August 1989, while Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh was priming a book bomb loaded with RDX explosives in a hotel in Paddington, Central London, the bomb exploded prematurely, destroying two floors of the hotel and killing Mazeh. A previously unknown Lebanese group, the Organization of the Mujahidin of Islam, said he died preparing an attack "on the apostate Rushdie". There is a shrine in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery for Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh that says he was "Martyred in London, 3 August 1989. The first martyr to die on a mission to kill Salman Rushdie." Mazeh's mother was invited to relocate to Iran, and the Islamic World Movement of Martyrs' Commemoration built his shrine in the cemetery that holds thousands of Iranian soldiers slain in the Iran–Iraq War.^[36] During the 2006 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared that "If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwā against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so. I am sure there are millions of Muslims who are ready to give their lives to defend our prophet's honour and we have to be ready to do anything for that."^[46] James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation testified before the United States Congress that a "March 1989" [sic] explosion in Britain was a Hezbollah attempt to assassinate Rushdie that failed when a bomb exploded prematurely, killing a Hezbollah activist in London.^[47]

[edit] International Guerillas

In 1990, soon after the publication of The Satanic Verses, a Pakistani film entitled International Gorillay (International Guerillas) was released that depicted Rushdie as plotting to cause the downfall of Pakistan by opening a chain of casinos and discos in the country. The film was popular with Pakistani audiences, and it "presents Rushdie as a Rambo-like figure pursued by four Pakistani guerrillas".^[48] The British Board of Film Classification refused to allow it a certificate, as "it was felt that the portrayal of Rushdie might qualify as criminal libel, causing a breach of the peace as opposed to merely tarnishing his reputation."^[49] This effectively prevented the release of the film in Britain. Two months later, however, Rushdie himself wrote to the board, saying that while he thought the film "a distorted, incompetent piece of trash", he would not sue if it were released.^[49] He later said, "If that film had been banned, it would have become the hottest video in town: everyone would have seen it".^[49] While the film was a great hit in Pakistan, it went virtually unnoticed in the West.^[49]

2012 Jaipur Literature Festival events[link]

Rushdie was due to appear at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2012.^[50] However, he later cancelled, and indeed cancelled his complete tour of India citing a possible threat to his life as the primary reason.^[51][52] He investigated police reports that paid assassins had been hired to kill him and suggested the police might be lying.^[53]

Meanwhile, the police, on the advice of officials, sought Ruchir Joshi, Jeet Thayil, Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar. They fled from Jaipur after reading excerpts from The Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literature Festival. In India the import of the book is banned via customs. However, reading from an existing copy of the book is not illegal.^[54]

A proposed video link session between Rushdie and the Jaipur Literature Festival was cancelled at the last minute^[55] after the government pressured the festival to stop it.^[53] Rushdie returned to India to address a conference in Delhi on 16 March 2012.^[56]

Knighthood[link]

Rushdie was knighted for services to literature in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 16 June 2007. He remarked, "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way."^[57] In response to his knighthood, many nations with Muslim majorities protested. Parliamentarians of several of these countries condemned the action, and Iran and Pakistan called in their British envoys to protest formally. Controversial condemnation issued by Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq was in turn rebuffed by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Ironically, their respective fathers Zia-ul-Haq and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had been earlier portrayed in Rushdie's novel Shame. Mass demonstrations against Rushdie's knighthood took place in Pakistan and Malaysia. Several called publicly for his death. Some non-Muslims expressed disappointment at Rushdie's knighthood, claiming that the writer did not merit such an honour and there were several other writers who deserved the knighthood more than Rushdie.^[58]

Al-Qaeda has condemned the Rushdie honour. The Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is quoted as saying in an audio recording that Britain's award for Indian-born Rushdie was "an insult to Islam", and it was planning "a very precise response."^[59]

Religious and political beliefs[link]

Rushdie came from a Muslim family but says that he was never really religious. In 1990, in the "hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him," he issued a statement claiming he had renewed his Muslim faith, had repudiated the attacks on Islam in his novel and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion across the world. However, Rushdie later said that he was only "pretending".^[60]

His books often focus on the role of religion in society and conflicts between faiths and between the religious and those of no faith.

Rushdie advocates the application of higher criticism, pioneered during the late 19th century. Rushdie called for a reform in Islam^[61] in a guest opinion piece printed in The Washington Post and The Times in mid-August 2005:

What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air. (...) It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it. (...) Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.

Rushdie supported the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, leading the leftist Tariq Ali to label Rushdie and other "warrior writers" as "the belligerati'".^[62] He was supportive of the US-led campaign to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, but was a vocal critic of the 2003 war in Iraq. He has stated that while there was a "case to be made for the removal of Saddam Hussein", US unilateral military intervention was unjustifiable.^[63]

Paul Auster and Rushdie greeting Israeli President Shimon Peres with Caro Llewelyn in 2008.

In the wake of the 'Danish Cartoons Affair' in March 2006—which many considered an echo of the death threats and fatwā that followed publication of The Satanic Verses in 1989^[64]—Rushdie signed the manifesto 'Together Facing the New Totalitarianism', a statement warning of the dangers of religious extremism. The Manifesto was published in the left-leaning French weekly Charlie Hebdo in March 2006.

In 2006, Rushdie stated that he supported comments by the then-Leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw, who criticised the wearing of the niqab (a veil that covers all of the face except the eyes). Rushdie stated that his three sisters would never wear the veil. He said, "I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on Straw's side."^[65]

The Marxist Catholic critic Terry Eagleton, a former admirer of Rushdie's work, attacked him for his positions, saying he "cheered on the Pentagon's criminal ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan".^[66] However, Eagleton subsequently apologised for having misrepresented Rushdie's views.

At an appearance at 92nd Street Y, Rushdie expressed his view on copyright when answering a question whether he had considered copyright law a barrier (or impediment) to free speech.

No. But that's because I write for a living, [laughs] and I have no other source of income, and I naïvely believe that stuff that I create belongs to me, and that if you want it you might have to give me some cash. [...] My view is I do this for a living. The thing wouldn't exist if I didn't make it and so it belongs to me and don't steal it. You know. It's my stuff.^[67]

When Amnesty International (AI) suspended human rights activist Gita Sahgal for saying to the press that she thought AI should distance itself from Moazzam Begg and his organisation, Rushdie said:

Amnesty ... has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction.... It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt.^[68]

Personal life[link]

Rushdie has been married four times. He was married to his first wife Clarissa Luard from 1976 to 1987 and fathered a son, Zafar (born 1980). His second wife was the American novelist Marianne Wiggins; they were married in 1988 and divorced in 1993. His third wife, from 1997 to 2004, was Elizabeth West; they have a son, Milan (born 1999). In 2004, he married the Indian American actress and model Padma Lakshmi, the host of the American reality-television show Top Chef. The marriage ended on 2 July 2007, with Lakshmi indicating that it was her desire to end the marriage. In 2008 the Bollywood press romantically linked him to the Indian model Riya Sen, with whom he was otherwise a friend.^[69] In response to the media speculation about their friendship, she simply stated "I think when you are Salman Rushdie, you must get bored with people who always want to talk to you about literature."^[70]

In 1999 Rushdie had an operation to correct ptosis, a tendon condition that causes drooping eyelids and that, according to him, was making it increasingly difficult for him to open his eyes. "If I hadn't had an operation, in a couple of years from now I wouldn't have been able to open my eyes at all," he said.^[71]

Bibliography[link]

Novels[link]

• Grimus (1975)
• Midnight's Children (1981)
• Shame (1983)
• The Satanic Verses (1988)
• The Moor's Last Sigh (1995)
• The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999)
• Fury (2001)
• Shalimar the Clown (2005)
• The Enchantress of Florence (2008)

Collections[link]

• Homeless by Choice (1992, with R. Jhabvala and V. S. Naipaul)
• East, West (1994)
• The Best American Short Stories (2008, as Guest Editor)

Children's books[link]

• Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990)
• Luka and the Fire of Life (2010)

Essays and non-fiction[link]

• The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (1987)
• "In Good Faith", Granta, 1990
• Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981–1991 (1992)
• "The Wizard of Oz: BFI Film Classics", BFI, 1992.
• "Mohandas Gandhi." Time, 13 April 1998.
• "Imagine There Is No Heaven." , extracted contribution from Letters to the Six Billionth World Citizen, a UN sponsored publication in English by Uitgeverij Podium, Amsterdam. The Guardian, 16 October 1999.
• Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992–2002 (2002)
• "A fine pickle." The Guardian, 28 February 2009.
• "In the South." Booktrack, 7 February 2012

Awards[link]

• Aristeion Prize (European Union)
• Arts Council Writers' Award
• Author of the Year (British Book Awards)
• Author of the Year (Germany)
• Booker Prize for Fiction
• Booker of Bookers for the best novel among the Booker Prize winners for Fiction awarded at its 25th anniversary (in 1993)
• The Best of the Booker awarded to commemorate the Booker Prize's 40th anniversary (in 2008), winner by public vote
• Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)
• English-Speaking Union Award
• Honorary Patron, University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.
• Hutch Crossword Book Award (India)
• India Abroad Lifetime Achievement Award (USA)
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Fiction)
• Kurt Tucholsky Prize (Sweden)
• Mantua Prize (Italy)
• James Joyce Award – University College Dublin
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology Honorary Professorship
• Chapman University Honorary Doctorate – Doctor of Humane Letters
• Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Cultural Humanism (Harvard University)
• Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy)
• Prix Colette (Switzerland)
• Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger
• St. Louis Literary Award – Saint Louis University
• State Prize for Literature (Austria)
• Whitbread Novel Award (twice)
• Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Children's Fiction
• University of Liège Doctor honoris causa

See also[link]

• Blitcon, British literary conservatives
• Censorship in South Asia
• International PEN
• List of fatwas
• The Butterfly Hunter
• The Satanic Verses controversy

Notes[link]

1. ^ See Hitoshi Igarashi, Ettore Capriolo, William Nygaard

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Salman Rushdie

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Salman Rushdie

• Salman Rushdie official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • In Depth interview with Rushdie, 5 December 2010
• Salman Rushdie on Charlie Rose
• Salman Rushdie at the Internet Movie Database
• Article archive at Journalisted
• Works by or about Salman Rushdie in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Salman Rushdie collected news and commentary at Al Jazeera English
• Salman Rushdie collected news and commentary at Dawn
• Salman Rushdie collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Salman Rushdie collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Contemporary writers: Salman Rushdie. British Council: Arts
• Jack Livings (Summer 2005). "Salman Rushdie, The Art of Fiction No. 186". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5531/the-art-of-fiction-no-186-salman-rushdie. 
• New York Times special feature on Rushdie, 1999
• Critical Studies on Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children Indian Literature: A Critical Casebook

v t e Works by Salman Rushdie Novels: Grimus (1975) Midnight's Children (1981) Shame (1983) The Satanic Verses (1988) The Moor's Last Sigh (1995) The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999) Fury (2001) Shalimar the Clown (2005) The Enchantress of Florence (2008) Story collections: East, West (1994) Non-fiction: The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey (1987) Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981–1991 (1992) Homeless by Choice (1992) Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992–2002 (2002) Plays: Haroun and the Sea of Stories (with Tim Supple and David Tushingham) Midnight's Children (with Tim Supple and Simon Reade) Children's books: Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) Luka and the Fire of Life (2010) Anthology: The Vintage Book of Indian Writing (co-editor)

Ingrid Mattson (born 1963) is a Canadian Muslim convert professor and activist and a former president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

She was born and raised in Kitchener, Ontario, and studied philosophy and fine arts at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. Raised as a Catholic, she ultimately abandoned religion "for good" during her teenage years,;^[1] in her senior year of college, she went to Paris and befriended several Muslim Senegalese, and in a year converted to Islam and began to wear the hijab. She had initially studied art, but later came to accept non-visual representation of individuals.^[2]

In 1987 she travelled to Pakistan where she worked with Afghan refugees for a year. There, she met and married a fellow volunteer Aamer Atek, an Egyptian engineer.^[3].

She earned her Ph.D. in Islamic studies from the University of Chicago in 1999. She went on to be very active in educating Canadian Muslims to become active participants in Canadian society at large. She is now Director of the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations and Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. She founded the Islamic Chaplaincy program at Hartford Seminary, the first Islamic chaplaincy program in the United States.

In 2001 she was elected Vice-President of ISNA and in 2006 she was elected the first female President of the organization. She has guest lectured at such institutions as the US Naval Academy.^[4] Dr. Mattson is the first convert to lead the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Mattson was an advisor to the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002), produced by Unity Productions Foundation.

Huron University College Controversy[link]

In 2011, Huron University College of The University of Western Ontario announced that its Anglican theology department will appoint Mattson as the Chair of the Islamic Studies Program.^[5] Two million dollars in funding was provided by the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) and International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIT).^[6] Alumni of Huron college protested the decision because of alleged links between the two groups - which they allege receive funding from Saudi Arabia - and the Muslim Brotherhood.^[7] A particular cause for concern was the MAC's endorsement of Iman Hassan Al-Banna, who once stated "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it".^[8] The alumni also expressed concern at the fact that both Shaykh Taha Jabir al-Alwani, the former president of IIT and Jamal Barzinji, the vice-president, have been implicated in funding for alleged terrorist groups, specifically the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.^[9][10] There have also been allegations by former students that there was intolerance against non-Muslims and the critique of Islamic tenets under Mattson's watch at Hartford Seminary.^[11]

In 2011, in response to allegations made against Mattson, Stephen McClatchie, the principal of Huron College expressed his support for Mattson and stated that he does not believe that Mattson is a Wahhabi.^[12]

References[link]

1. ^ Ingrid Mattson: Raised Catholic, this Muslim professor is bringing the moderate viewpoint to the world.- MSNBC
2. ^ How did Dr Ingrid Mattson became Muslim
3. ^ SFGate Chronicale article
4. ^ Dr. Ingrid Mattson Elected First Female President of ISNA - The American Muslim
5. ^ http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Taking+closer+look+Islamic+Studies/5571307/story.html
6. ^ http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Taking+closer+look+Islamic+Studies/5571307/story.html
7. ^ http://www.eclectecon.net/2011/04/concerns-about-the-funding-of-a-chair-in-islamic-studies-at-huron-college-university-of-western-onta.html
8. ^ http://www.eclectecon.net/2011/04/concerns-about-the-funding-of-a-chair-in-islamic-studies-at-huron-college-university-of-western-onta.html
9. ^ http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/891.pdf
10. ^ http://nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/U.S._v_Al-Arian_dojprsentencing.pdf
11. ^ http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/21/ingrid-mattson-a-case-study-in-stealth-jihad/
12. ^ http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Ingrid+Mattson+voice+tolerance+diversity/5585252/story.html

External links[link]

• Home page of Ingrid Mattson
• Ingrid Mattson Lectures
• Article: Finding the Prophet
• Article about Ingrid Mattson in the "Who's Next 2007" special section of the January 1, 2007 issue of Newsweek
• Ingrid Mattson speaks at Pennsylvania State University
• "A New Voice for Islam." Speaking of Faith
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Ingrid Mattson on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Ingrid Mattson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

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This article about a theologian is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Irshad Manji
Irshad Manji, 2007
Born	1968 (age 43–44) Uganda
Nationality	Canadian
Notable work(s)	Allah, Liberty and Love, The Trouble with Islam Today, Faith Without Fear
Notable award(s)	Honorary Doctorate, University of Puget Sound, 2008, World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader"
www.irshadmanji.com

Irshad Manji (Arabic: إرشاد مانجي‎ ‘Irshād Mānjī, Gujarati: ઇરશાદ માનજી Irshād Mānji; born 1968) is a Canadian author, journalist and an advocate of a "reform and progressive" interpretation of Islam. Manji is director of the Moral Courage Project at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, which aims to teach young leaders to "challenge political correctness, intellectual conformity and self-censorship."^[1] She is also founder and president of Project Ijtihad, a charitable organization promoting a "tradition of critical thinking, debate and dissent" in Islam, among a "network of reform-minded Muslims and non-Muslim allies."^[2]

Manji is a well-known critic of traditional mainstream Islam and was described by The New York Times as "Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare".^[3]

Manji’s most recent book, Allah, Liberty and Love was released in June 2011 in the US, Canada and other countries. On Manji's website, the book is described: "Allah, Liberty and Love shows all of us how to reconcile faith and freedom in a world seething with repressive dogmas. Manji’s key teaching is "moral courage," the willingness to speak up when everyone else wants to shut you up. This book is the ultimate guide to becoming a gutsy global citizen."^[4]

Manji's previous book, The Trouble with Islam Today (initially published as Trouble with Islam), has been published in more than 30 languages, including Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Malay and Indonesian.^[5] She was troubled by how Islam is practised today and by the Arab influence on Islam that took away women's individuality and introduced the concept of women's honour.^[6] Manji has produced a PBS documentary, "Faith Without Fear", chronicling her attempt to "reconcile her faith in Allah with her love of freedom".^[7] The documentary was nominated for a 2008 Emmy Award. As a journalist, her articles have appeared in many publications, and she has addressed audiences ranging from Amnesty International to the United Nations Press Corps to the Democratic Muslims in Denmark to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. She has appeared on television networks around the world, including Al Jazeera, the CBC, BBC, MSNBC, C-SPAN, CNN, PBS, the Fox News Channel, CBS, and HBO.^[8]

Early life and education[link]

Manji was born in Uganda in 1968 to a Gujarati Indian father, and an Egyptian mother.^[9][10] Her family moved to Canada when she was four, as a result of Idi Amin's expulsion of Asians. She and her family settled near Vancouver in 1972, and she grew up attending both a secular and an Islamic religious school. Manji excelled in the secular environment but, by her own account, was expelled from her religious school for asking too many questions. For the next twenty years, she studied Islam via public libraries and Arabic tutors. Manji earned an honours degree in the history of ideas from the University of British Columbia. In 1990, she won the Governor General's Medal for top humanities graduate. She is openly lesbian.^[11]

Career[link]

Manji worked as a legislative aide in the Canadian parliament, press secretary in the Ontario government, and speechwriter for the leader of the New Democratic Party. At age 24, she became the national affairs editorialist for the Ottawa Citizen and thus the youngest member of an editorial board for any Canadian daily. She was also a columnist for Ottawa's new LGBT newspaper Capital Xtra!.^[12]

Manji has since hosted or produced several public affairs programs on television, one of which won the Gemini, Canada’s top broadcasting prize. She participated in a regular segment on TVOntario's Studio 2 in the mid-1990s, representing liberal views in debates with conservative journalist Michael Coren. She later produced and hosted QT: QueerTelevision for the Toronto based Citytv in the late 1990s. Among the program's coverage of local and national LGBT issues, she also produced stories on the lives of gay people in the Muslim world. When she left the show, Manji donated the set's giant Q to the Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario.^[4][13]

In 2002, she became writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto's Hart House, from where she began writing The Trouble with Islam Today. Manji founded Project Ijtihad, an initiative to renew Islam’s own tradition of critical thinking, debate and dissent. From 2005 to 2006, she was a visiting fellow with the International Security Studies program^[14] at Yale University. She is currently a senior fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels.^[15] In January 2008, Manji joined New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service to spearhead the Moral Courage Project, an initiative to help young people speak truth to power within their own communities.^[16]

Manji has received numerous death threats.^[17][18] In a CNN interview, Manji stated that the windows of her apartment are fitted with bullet-proof glass, primarily for the protection of her family.^[19] At a recent book launch in Amsterdam "Muslim extremists stormed in" and ordered her execution.^[20]

As a journalist, Manji’s columns appear in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, and the website of Al Arabiya. She writes a regular feature for Canada’s The Globe and Mail newspaper.

"Muslim refusenik"[link]

"Muslim refusenik" is a phrase Manji uses to identify herself as someone who refuses to "join an army of robots in the name of God."^[21] "Refusenik" is an English-Russian portmanteau word first used for Russian Jews refused permission to emigrate,^[22] and then for Israeli conscientious objectors who refused to do army service on the West Bank.

According to Geneive Abdo, "Muslim Zionist" is a label which Manji "would no doubt accept".^[23] Manji claims to be a Muslim pluralist.^[24] In her 2011 book, Allah, Liberty and Love, she writes about the "occupations of both Israeli soldiers and Arab oligarchs," ^[25] asserting that each occupation needs to be fought nonviolently. In a recent column for Globe and Mail, she applauded young Palestinians who issued the Gaza Youth Manifesto for Change, which calls for freedom and warns that "we are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being kept in jail by Israel [and] beaten up by Hamas...There is a revolution growing inside of us..." ^[26]

[edit] The Trouble with Islam Today

Manji's book The Trouble with Islam Today was published by St. Martin's Press in 2004. It has since been translated into more than 30 languages. Manji offers several translations of the book (namely, those in the Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Malay and Indonesian languages) available for free-of-charge download on her website. To date, the Arabic translation alone has been downloaded more than a quarter of a million times.^[5] The book has been met with both praise and scorn from both Muslim and non-Muslim sources. Several reviewers have called the book "courageous"^[27] or "long overdue"^[28] while others have accused it of disproportionately targeting Muslims^[29] or lacking thorough scholarship.^[30]

In the book, Manji says that Arabs have made a mistake by denying that Jews have a historical bond with Palestine. Manji writes that the Jews' historical roots stretch back to the land of Israel, and that they have a right to a Jewish state. She further argues that the allegation of apartheid in Israel is deeply misleading, noting that there are in Israel several Arab political parties, that Arab-Muslim legislators have veto powers, and that Arab parties have overturned disqualifications. She also writes that Israel has a free Arab press, that road signs bear Arabic translations, and that Arabs live and study alongside Jews.^[31]

Tarek Fatah, a fellow Canadian Muslim who originally criticized The Trouble With Islam,^[32] reversed his stance saying that Manji was "right about the systematic racism in the Muslim world" and that "there were many redeeming points in her memoir".^[33]

[edit] Allah, Liberty and Love

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In Allah, Liberty and Love^[34], Irshad Manji invites Muslims and non-Muslims to transcend the fears that stop many from living with integrity: the fear of offending others in a multicultural world as well as the fear of questioning our own communities. Since publishing her international bestseller, The Trouble with Islam Today, Manji reconciles faith with freedom, describing a universal God that loves us enough to give us choices and the capacity to make them.^[35] However, change must come from within. Muslims, individually and collectively, must spearhead change to reform their societies.^[36]

Among the most visible Muslim reformers of our era, Manji draws on her experience to share stories that are deeply poignant, frequently funny. What prevents young Muslims, even in the West, from expressing their need for religious reinterpretation? What scares non-Muslims about openly supporting liberal voices within Islam? How did we get into the mess of customs, such as honour killings, and how do we change that noxious status quo? How can people ditch dogma while keeping faith?

During a world tour to promote her book, police cut short her talk in Jakarta after 15 minutes due to pressure from the Islamic Defenders Front.^[37]

Awards[link]

Manji was awarded Oprah Winfrey's first annual Chutzpah Award for "audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction."^[38] Ms. Magazine named her a "Feminist for the 21st Century,"^[39] and Immigration Equality gave her its Global Vision Prize.^[40] In 2006, The World Economic Forum selected her as a Young Global Leader.^[41] She has also been named a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the American Society for Muslim Advancement.^[42] In May 2008, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Puget Sound.^[43]

Works[link]

Books

• Risking Utopia: On the edge of a new democracy, 1997, ISBN 1-55054-434-9
• The Trouble With Islam: A Wake-up Call For Honesty and Change ^[44] First edition, Random House Canada - Sept 16, 2003 ISBN 0-679-31250-1
• The Trouble with Islam Today, 2004, ISBN 1-84018-837-5
  • Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Ali appearance at the 92nd Street Y on The Trouble with Islam, audiobooks, 2006. ISBN 0-312-32699-8
• The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith, 2005, ISBN 0-312-32700-5
• Allah, Liberty and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom ^[45] First edition, Free Press - June 2011, ISBN 1-4516-4520-1, ISBN 978-1-4516-4520-0

Film

• Manji's PBS documentary, Faith without Fear, follows her journey to reconcile faith and freedom. Released in 2007, the film depicts the personal risks Manji has faced as a Muslim reformer. She explores Islamism in Yemen, Europe and North America, as well as histories of Islamic critical thinking in Spain and elsewhere.^[46] In 2007, it was a finalist for the National Film Board of Canada's Gemini Award.^[47] It also won Gold at the New York Television Festival in 2008. In the same year, Faith Without Fear launched the 2008 Muslim Film Festival organized by the American Islamic Congress.^[48]

See also[link]

• Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im
• Asra Nomani
• Islam and modernity
• Liberal movements within Islam
• Foundation for the Defense of Democracies

References[link]

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (December 2011)

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Irshad Manji

• Official website
• Irshad Manji at the Internet Movie Database