A Muslim friend of Israel

PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Irshad Manji's first trip to Israel opened her eyes to the reality that all Jews are not of European extraction, mosques operate freely and freedom of speech is exercised daily in a "raging free press."

"For all its flaws as a state, Israel is one mother of a pluralistic place," said Manji, author of The Trouble with Islam: A Wake-up Call for Honesty and Change, who spoke Friday, March 5, at the University of British Columbia. Her visit was sponsored by the campus Hillel, the Israel Advocacy Committee and other student clubs. "I embrace the flawed, imperfect pluralism Israel gives to the world," she said.

Manji became a vocal supporter of Israel after being invited to tour the country.

"And that invitation came from a Zionist organization, oy vey," she laughed. Manji agreed to go on two conditions: that she be permitted to meet with pro- and anti-Zionist Arabs and Jews and that she be permitted to ask any question she wished. The organizers responded, according to Manji, "Of course."

The eye-opening tour led her to defend Israel against the increasingly pitched criticism the Jewish state receives in the West.

"Why, as a Muslim, as a feminist, as an openly queer person, as a person of the left, would I do this?" she asked. Her answer is part of her life story.

Manji's family came from Uganda to Richmond, B.C., in 1972, part of the exodus of South Asian Ugandans fleeing Idi Amin's persecution. At a Richmond madrassa, a Muslim religious school, Manji's sense of curiosity was not welcome, she said. She asked too many questions and made too many demands of the curriculum of orthodoxy. Thrown out at age 14, Manji began two decades of self-guided religious study.

"I studied Islam on my own in total sincerity," she told the audience. "I remain a devout but struggling Muslim."

She said her struggle fits in with a long Muslim tradition of "ijtihad" – free intellectual and scientific inquiry that made Arab society once the world's academic innovation leader. That sense of free expression has been largely extinguished by religious fundamentalism, Manji said, and she aims to revive it. Though it seems a lonely cause, she said she is reminded all the time of the necessity of her quest. Young Muslims approach her often, she said, telling her, "Irshad, we need voices like yours to help open up our religion, because if it doesn't open up, we're leaving it."

The author, who is also host of TV Ontario's program Big Ideas, returned repeatedly to Israel's position as the region's only state where women, gays and lesbians, opponents of the government and free thinkers are guaranteed protections under the law.

"Do I defend Israel because I am a self-hating Muslim?" Manji mooted. "Is it because I've been brainwashed by the Zionists?

"I defend Israel because I defend the existence of diversity everywhere," she said. "Try as some people would like to, Israel cannot be reduced to an oppressor state. It is simply too diverse."

Before a raucous question-and-answer session, Manji extracted a promise from every individual who sought to ask a question, demanding to know whether the audience member supports the concept of diversity everywhere, including in Israel.

Muslim students protested the meeting, saying it was scheduled to coincide with noontime prayers required of observant Muslims. Manji countered that the accusation was indicative of a rote sort of religious observance she opposes, adding that Islamic law allows prayers to be delayed if there is a good reason, and that she herself doesn't limit herself to praying just five times a day at specified hours, but often speaks to Allah 10 or 15 times in a day.

Manji's book, as well as her presentation, is critical of Muslim practices that she calls "robotic" and the overwhelming tendency among Arab and Muslim activists to demonize Israel and engage in what she calls "Jew-bashing."

In response, Manji said, she has been dubbed a "closet Jew," an agent of the Mossad and a litany of homophobic and misogynist slurs. She has also received more ominous threats.

"I'm bracing for a new round of death threats as the book comes out in the United Kingdom and in France later this year," she said.

Manji's visit was to have been co-sponsored by Pride UBC, the campus gay and lesbian group, but they pulled out before the event, sending a message to the Israel Advocacy Committee, saying they hoped to work with the group in future.

Ariel Zellman, the Israel Advocacy Committee president, was disappointed in Pride UBC's withdrawal, suggesting the group had been pressured to pull out by anti-Israel groups.

"If we can't work together on something like bringing Irshad Manji to campus," asked Zellman. "What next? Holocaust awareness?"

Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and commentator.

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