27 Facts About Irshad Manji

Irshad Manji was born on 1968 and is a Ugandan-born Canadian educator.

Irshad Manji is the author of The Trouble with Islam Today and Allah, Liberty and Love, both of which have been banned in several Muslim countries.

Irshad Manji produced a PBS documentary in the America at a Crossroads series, titled Faith Without Fear, which was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2008.

Irshad Manji's mother is of Egyptian descent and her father of Indian heritage.

Irshad Manji attended secular public schools and, every Saturday, a religious school.

Irshad Manji says that, at 14 years old, she was expelled from the madrasa for asking too many questions.

In 1990, Irshad Manji earned a bachelor's degree with honours in the history of ideas from the University of British Columbia, and won the Governor General's Academic Medal for top humanities graduate.

In 2002, Irshad Manji became writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto's Hart House, from where she began writing The Trouble with Islam Today.

Irshad Manji was a visiting fellow with the International Security Studies program at Yale University in 2006 and was a senior fellow with the Brussels-based European Foundation for Democracy from 2006 to 2012.

Irshad Manji began her career working in politics in the 1990s.

Irshad Manji was a legislative aide in the Canadian parliament for New Democratic Party member of parliament Dawn Black, then press secretary in the Ontario government for Ontario New Democratic Party cabinet minister Marion Boyd, and later speechwriter for federal NDP leader Audrey McLaughlin.

Irshad Manji hosted and produced several public affairs programs on television, including Q-Files for Pulse24 and its successor QT: QueerTelevision for the Toronto-based Citytv in the late 1990s.

When she left the show, Irshad Manji donated the television set's "big Q" to the Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario.

Irshad Manji 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.

Irshad Manji was a visiting professor at New York University from 2008 to 2015.

Irshad Manji offered Arabic, Persian, and Urdu translations of the book available for free-of-charge download on her website.

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

In 2007 Irshad Manji released a PBS documentary, Faith without Fear.

Irshad Manji explores Islamism in Yemen, Europe and North America, as well as histories of Islamic critical thinking in Spain and elsewhere.

Irshad Manji asserts that any change of lasting value to Muslims can only come from within and cannot be imposed from external sources.

Irshad Manji agrees to and promotes the validity of interfaith marriages of Muslims to non-Muslims, specially of Muslim women to non-Muslim men, based on ideas of Khaleel Mohammed of San Diego State University, in San Diego, California.

Rayyan Al Shawaf, a Beirut-based writer and book critic, laments Irshad Manji's focus on how the Qur'an can be reinterpreted by liberal Muslims and not on how legal limits can be set to curb the Qur'an's influence.

Irshad Manji uses the conversation to advocate rising above tribalism and engaging in a discourse with those with whom the reader disagrees.

Comedian Chris Rock, a fan of Irshad Manji, promoted the book on Twitter calling it "genius".

Irshad Manji has received numerous death threats because of her views.

Irshad Manji has criticized the argument that US wars inspire Islamic extremism.

Irshad Manji argues that Palestinians face two occupations: one imposed by Hamas on women and LGBT people and the other by the Israeli forces in all of Palestine.