Controversial author and televison personality Irshad Manji gave a talk in the Great Hall at Hart House last Thursday to a diverse audience of 400. Entitled “Defending Israel is Defending Diversity,” the event drew both supporters and detractors of Manji’s ideas. Two plainclothes and one uniformed campus policemen were on hand to handle security concerns.
Manji opened by admitting that her talk, focusing on Islam and Israel, was dealing with “sensitive, [and] deeply emotional subjects.” She began by mentioning that her new book, The Trouble With Islam, was receiving lots of criticism, but also lots of support from Muslims. Manji essentially went over some details from her book, highlighting her early life when her family, kicked out of Uganda because of Idi Amin’s racist policies, moved to Canada. Early on she attended a madressa (Islamic school) in Vancouver, being taught that “women are inferior … [and] Jews are treacherous.” Manji left her madressa at the age of 14, but gave her Islamic religion a chance and studied it for the following 20 years. She came to the conclusion that it was in serious need of a reform, and says her book acts as a “wake-up call” to her fellow Muslims. Manji is promoting the concept of ijtihad, individual free thinking.
Although many Muslims agreed with her ideas, very few were in accord with her views on Israel, even encouraging her to censor herself about it. Manji then visited Israel. There, she said, she saw a cultural diversity that “surpasses even that in Canada,” with road signs in both Hebrew and Arabic-Israel’s official languages. Muslims are allowed to worship in the open, and Arabs and Druze are given citizenship, and the full rights of any citizen. Israel, Manji said, is a state which allows the freedom of religion, the freedom of expression, and the freedom of sexual orientation. There are no state reprisals for exercising these fundamental rights, rights that are sorely lacking in nearby Arab and Islamic countries.
However, Manji admitted that “Israel’s critics do make…good points.” Israel is a military occupier, and treats its minorities like second-class citizens. Nevertheless, there is a legal recourse for people who feel they have been wronged. Something very important to Manji is the fact that Israel has facilitated several same-sex rights, and Jerusalem has a gay pride parade. In fact, Israel recently decided to host World Pride Day 2005.
Israel cannot be reduced to “black and white,” Manji conceded, but she closed by defending its “flawed, imperfect pluralism.”
The question and answer period was emotionally charged, with one Palestinian student resorting to incessant shouting against Manji’s views; “How do 4.9 million Palestinian refugees, which is the largest population of refugees in the world, how does that serve diversity? A security wall cutting off entire towns and cities, how does that serve diversity?” Organizers asked the student to leave. Many who attended the event felt that Manji simply glossed over Israel’s human rights violations, and instead promoted its brighter side. Other wondered about the motivations behind the event. “What I don’t understand is why Hillel, a Jewish organization, held the event,” said Gengis Seyhun, the Students’ Administrative Council vice-president for UTM. “What is Hillel’s interests in talking about Islam, other than to spread hate and fear? If you saw a Muslim organization hold an event bashing Judaism, the whole Jewish community would cry Anti-Semitism. Such double standards should no longer be tolerated.”
