Irshad Manji is a Canadian lesbian Muslim. Lucky for her she is not also Jewish. I met her 10 years ago when she started leading a movement to reform Islam. She came before everyone else you know of. And she is still at it. She is very intelligent and very likable and very articulate. I wish her well. Ted Blman
In Amsterdam, 22 jihadis stormed my book launch, ordered my execution and threatened to break my neck. Police arrested two men and found a third with a loaded machine gun at home. They’re members of “Sharia4Belgium,” an international network with cells in most of the countries I’ll be visiting in the next 6 months. 
Even when they had a chance to run from the room, nobody at my Amsterdam launch fled. Some of my guests created a human shield around me and my host (see the photo at right). It’s yet more proof that “ordinary people” are capable of moral courage. As I write in Allah, Liberty & Love, “Some things are more important than fear.”
The paperback of Allah, Liberty & Love is coming out. Not only will it have a discussion guide — great for book clubs, college courses and congregation study groups — but I’m also creating an interactive app for your smart phone. No smart phone? No problem. With the AL&L app, you’ll be able to engage fellow readers through 
Did you know that in Arabic, “Irshad” means “guidance”? And now I’ve launched a “
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Geula, here is what you misunderstand.
1) Man must not lie with mankind, and woman must not lie with womankind: it is abomination. And it had been understood as abomination in all major religions, and even in atheistic societies (like Soviet).
2) Lesbianism of the author ought to be her personal life, but it is not. On the contrary, she promotes it as a part of her agenda.
3) To express disgust that sexual deviants are outing and promoting their abomination is a reasonable reaction of for 99% of the “rest of us”. My refusal to celebrate abomination displayed into my face is not a vicious prejudice. It is the abomination that must be kept in a closet.
4) Indeed, there are many vicious aspects of islam which must be criticized and rejected. However you must not criticize anything by promoting a vice…
a) Yes, islam cruelly punishes homosexuals and lesbians. Yet the way to oppose this is not to come to them as a lesbian…
b) Islam punishes any usage of alcohol. Yet you must not criticize this by promoting drunkenness.
c) Islam cruelly punishes their daughters for refusing to live according to islamic slavery status of women, yet you must not criticize this by promoting promiscuity… And so on.
I don’t understand this entire discussion. I am a secular, heterosexual, pretty conservative and quite learned American/Israeli Jewess. For all I know, female homosexuality is not condemned in the Tanakh. Maybe it is condemned in the Talmud. That much I don’t know. I don’t understand the bile of criticism of the author’s inherent personal life. But more importantly, the only thing to regret here is that, because of the vicioussness of prejudice, her very worthy case loses credibility.
Linda,
An attempt to diminish ugliness of homosexuality by pointing out that the same word “abomination” is applied also to some dietary violation is not wise.
Somehow the spiritual humanity has learned certain gradations between various sorts of sins. Up until 50 years ago nobody in the right mind would suggest that dietary violations and sexual perversions are just some minor sins. But wait, the modern liberast propaganda treats homosexuality not as a minor sin at all, but as though a “virtue” pushed through the throat of the rest of 99% of the society including our children!
Personally I am a vegetarian (especially disgusted by shell fish). And I am too not on my hair in a room where they eat pork or shrimp. Yet it quite different thing when they display their sexual perversions, and worse: defile our children, ruin the traditional family and discourage them from child bearing.
What Irshad is doing is akin to promotion of drunkenness as a remedy to better islam (which as you know, prohibit any alcohol). At the very least it is not wise… There exist several really courageous and WISE women which criticize islam for its essential flaws (rather than for prohibition of homosexuality). Wafa Sultan, Hirshi Ali, Nonie Darwish – they are real heroines in exposing islam.
And if you really wish to mention the most courageous and prominent woman – that would be Dr. Orly Taitz, Esq.
Gofen – The same part of the Bible that condemns homosexuality as an abomination also condemns eating pork and shellfish as abominations. Do you eat pork or shellfish? I personally do not eat those foods, nor am I homosexual; it’s just that my hair doesn’t stand on end when I’m in a room full of pork eating Christians or lesbians. On balance, I think Irshad is doing far more good than harm and she is one of the most courageous people on the planet.
The summary.
The article attempts to present the Western approval and “celebration” of homosexualism as a value for “export”, as a spiritual feature for reforming islam: that is what that lesbian is trying to do.
Yet the truth is the opposite: It is the West which must get back and restore its Judeo-Christian foundation. It is the West which has to prohibit open propaganda of the abomination and sin of homosexuality rather than push this abomination on moslems, who (alas) are more consistent followers of their scripture than we.
Mr. Klein,
5) What I am defending is not anything latent. I am opnely defending the values (in congruence with the Judaism) that homosexuality or lesbianism are illnesses, vice and sin, rather than an approved social status. It is something that must be cured, or at least kept in closet, rather than to be proud of. I disgust homosexuality or lesbianism.
6) The fact that she is a lesbian and not ashamed about it is disgusting.
7) May main arguments are presented above. If you did not get them, here they are briefly again:
a) Islam perhaps cannot be reformed, ever. At least not in any foreseeable future.
b) If islam even can be reformed, it is definitely not by means of bringing homosexual apologetic into it.
sorry,i didn`t pile up a host of reasons as you did….i have heard her a slew of times,and her briliance shines through…it seems that your main argument is that she is a lesbian…i understand her position insofar as her less than sheyna pumim precluded her from what you would call ,a life of quality…but if you have never read her book,read her web site,or watched her thoroughly destroy her male islamic chochumim in debates,i believe she possibly could win you over….at least somewhat…ps. are you defending yourlatent homosexual tendencies???? gofen,first initial a, ver geharget
I think it is sad, that “a klein” – the author – can offer so little as his argument in the discussion.
1) It is grotesque to claim as though particularly these “certain people” attempt to make this “a better world” in any meaningful sense. Adding the abomination, illness or vice cannot make better anything in world.
2) It is especially ugly to offer this as an attempt to make islam better. Ye right, prosecution of homosexuality is the first thing which should be fixed in islam – in the bright opinion of the “author”. The highest priority, mind you.
3) The term “juhad” means the fight for spreading islam by all means necessary. It cannot be applied for spreading of something which is prohibited by islam – and all other major religions of the world (including even the Code of a Communist builder in the former USSR). If what Irshad does is her personal fight for “improving islam”, why does not she conduct this fight in nations of islam?
4) The one good thing Irshad really does in Eurabia is that she exposes incompatibility of the multi-culti mix: homosexuals and moslems, pitting them against each other.
In Canada and America moslems are more cunning in that they better realize, that it is not to their advantage now to expose homosexualism, whose movement are so apologetic for islam and which so successfully destroys the West from the opposite side.
i think it sad that a gofen,,chose to excoriate both myself,and irshad…hge has obviously decided,out of hand to ignore cetain people who attempt to make this a better world,despite all odds against her,and having taken up her personal jihad,she fights darn hard to break the proverbial horse,of their feral habits..to you, i would not say borey pree ha`gofen….
If your usage of “reformed” means “improved”, you cannot improve anything in the world by adding into it an abomination such a homosexualism.
If “islam” may be “improved” at all, to make it “celebrate” abomination is not only futile, but also a shameful. Is it really the best and the first thing the West has to offer as its core value?! Not Mozart, not Newton, mind you, but an illness or a vice wrapped as a “liberty”….
This idea alone proves how decadent and fallen the West is…
Moreover, this article (and the so called “moslem lesbian”) simply obfuscates the reality. In her life, actions and even in her appearance she is not a moslem at all in any meaningful sense.
I am ashamed for the Jewry which promotes her with an air of approval – as though boasting by one’s sin and illness is a merit…
All religions? Isn’t the book specifically about islamic hate and intolerance? It figures such a politically correct review would be found in Oprah’s magazine. I’m surprised O magazine would acknowledge the book at all.
i feel duly proud of the fact that,when glen beck first came on his own fox programme, he asked the audience if anyone knew of a single western leaning muslim who would profess their true feelings regarding modern muslim peccadillos,because he wondered if such a person existed…after having watched irshad for quite some time on steve paikins ontario tv programme,i knew she was just whom beck needed…it was i who emailed beck and highly recommended irshad`s speciality…yes,i know i didn`t discover her,had no hand in her successes,but i knew ,despite my jewishness,that she is a necessary force for good in this world,,,,,soooooo,i feel vicariously rewarded my wife calls her my girlfriend