Maybe you’re baffled at the title of this post. To you it perhaps seems obvious that Islam does not tolerate freedom of expression given what you’ve seen in the news over the last 20 years or so.
You’re probably only too familiar with the fatwa that was declared against Salman Rushdie after he published the book The Satanic Verses. The gruesome killing of the Theo Van Gogh, director of the controversial movie Submission, by a Moroccan immigrant is probably still fresh in your memory. It’s also hard to forget the riots that followed the publication of cartoons in a Danish magazine depicting the Prophet Muhammad – and most recently the death threats that were issued against the creators of South Park after they announced plans to feature the Prophet in one of their episodes..
Anyone observing these events would not be blamed for concluding that Islam is very intolerant towards dissenting views, and does not allow people to freely express themselves – especially when it comes to criticisms of it.
Not so, says Irshad Manji, who sees herself as, in her own words, a “faithful Muslim who’s trying to educate her fellow Muslims that Islam can be reconciled with free expression.” She is the director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University which aims to develop leaders who will challenge political correctness, intellectual conformity and self-censorship.
In her most recent blog post, she outlines 3 reasons why she believes Islam IS compatible with freedom of speech. She said:
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The Prophet Muhammad warned Muslims not to put him on a pedestal. That’s because he’s not the one to be revered; God alone is to be worshiped. Welcome to the hypocrisy of those who claim to be protecting the Prophet while violating one of his core teachings.
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The Qur’an expressly affirms that “there is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). Which means nobody should be forced to follow Islamic traditions, even if they’re “mocking” the religion.
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The Qur’an advises Muslims to deal with hurt feelings by getting up and walking away (4:140). That’s it. Don’t retaliate. Just “do not sit with them.” Change the channel. Click the mouse. Move on. Once the dust has settled, come back to discuss the issues with those who’ve offended you.
Well, well.. it would be nice if her words were taken seriously by the Muslim community at large, wouldn’t it?
One small problem. She’s a lesbian… and as we all know, Muslim clerics generally don’t take too kindly to gays and lesbians.
What are the chances they’ll give a damn about what she has to say?
Slim, to say the least.
Regardless, her efforts are to be commended, and greatly so. Even when the odds seem insurmountable, change is possible, and it always begins with a few brave people taking the first step. Christianity wasn’t all that different in the past in terms of how it dealt with ‘heathens’, dissenters, and heretics – and it can be said that today Christians (in the West anyway) are a far more tolerant bunch than they were just a few centuries ago.
With increased, education and enlightenment, maybe one day we shall see a world where Muslims and fellow Muslims – and Muslims and non-Muslims – can engage in frank dialogue without either side being ‘offended’ by what the other says. For freedom of speech to exist, there needs to first of all be people who are open and tolerant of others, even when their views might be ‘offensive’ to them. We should all work towards making this kind of world a reality.
Promote tolerance.
Irshad Manji was born in Uganda, by the way! Check out her blog.
Freethought Kampala 
3 comments
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May 5, 2010 at 6:00 pm
ilikebroccoli
*she is soooo Kool* (am so jealous i also want a Fatwa issued against me)
May 5, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Hassan
Inspirational courage in-your-face, that’s what i think of Irshad Manji. They say there’s always a first, and that she is. Although she’s fighting a losing battle by “taking a ‘brave’ walk in a field full of landmines and suicide bombers”, the message is rather more important than winning the battle, and it will be a pity if a fatwa is declared against her as expected and surprising if not.
However, i disagree with her views about Islam being reconcilable with free expression because there’s no such thing in sharia law unless she’s re-inventing the wheel or picking and choosing from the Quran and Hadith, which is like starting up an Islamic sect!
Thanks James for at least touching Islam, i ought to check-out her blog.
May 6, 2010 at 12:12 pm
James Onen
I agree with you Hassan.
Irshad’s is a serious case of compartmentalisation, I think – turning a blind eye to the more violent pronouncements of her religion, while paying attention only to the ‘good parts’.
This seems to be typical of most religions, especially the Abrahamic ones whose traditions go back thousands of years to a time when things like equality, human rights, women’s rights, and even democracy were non-existent. Of course as society evolved and we developed a new understanding of humanity, many of the laws prescribed by this religious tradition began to strike many a rational person as rather barbaric or extreme. The result is that many Christians in modern societies today want to have nothing to do with the Old Testament Mosaic laws, claiming ‘those rules applied to those times’. In lesser developed parts of the world, due to ignorance of concepts like basic human rights, Christians are usually more than happy to embrace and implement many of these harsh Old Testament Mosaic laws, particularly when dealing with sexual minorities.
Believers of various religious faiths simply cherry-pick which verses, and which interpretation of those verses, best correlates with their own pre-existing values and prejudices, and use such verses to justify the said values and prejudices. This explains why some Christians were pro-slavery at one time, while others anti-slavery. Today some Christians are pro-gay rights, while others are virulently anti-gay rights. Some Christians are pro-divorce, while others are anti-divorce. All these divergent views, yet they all claiming to be following the SAME ‘infallible’ holy book!
Irshad’s ‘understanding’ and interpretation of Islamic scripture has obviously been influenced by the humanism prevalent in the secular West where she has spent most of her life.