Yesterday (9/19/13), I conveyed in a tweet {@ingridcarlqvist @DispatchIntl @Fjordman1 “Still the used car saleswoman of ijtihad” http://bit.ly/1c7hkMa http://bit.ly/19gzZzj} my own longstanding discomfiture (see this 2005 essay, reproduced in my 2012 book, Sharia Versus Freedom), shared by Fjordman (see his essay from 2006), with the shallow, self-aggrandizing “reformist” Muslim, Irshad Manji. My assessment of the disingenuous Manji then, and now, is that she was, and remains, “The Used Car Saleswoman of Ijtihad” (i.e., ijtihad being a formalized process of “independent reasoning” on Islamic Law, which ended in ~900 C.E.; see Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law, p. 70).
Here is a revealing commentary by Lars Hedegaard, “What’s the Problem with Irshad Manji?”, based upon his own experience after a favorable article on Manji was posted in Dispatch International’s Swedish language publication (which Hedegaard co-edits with Ingrid Carlqvist), just yesterday:
Moments after receiving a tweet from one of the many ultra-left Swedish outfits that Dispatch International had published an article about her and her recent book, that eminent ijtihad artist
Irshad Manji wrote to us that we had to take down her picture.
In fact it was a picture of the cover of her book.
We anticipate that her next move will be to seek a worldwide ban on book reviews in papers she doesn’t like.
Interestingly, Ms Manji’s move came before we had published Maria Celander’s article in English, so unless she is conversant in Swedish, she wouldn’t have a clue about the content.
As anyone can read for himself, it happens to be a kindly article. Not that it matters. Most authors will from time to time encounter bad reviews but in this part of the world, no dejected writer has ever demanded that newspapers remove a picture of their book from the review.
But we are living in a time of ijtihad, says Irshad Manji. Well, not exactly. As it is commonly understood by Islamic scholars – ulema as they are called – the ”door of ijtihad” was closed eight hundred years ago if not before. This means that there can be no reinterpretation of Islamic law and no reinterpretation of the Koran. And anyone claiming that this is not the case had better watch out.
Irshad Manji would expose the Koran to inspection by human intelligence and common sense with the aim of humanizing Islam. A noble endeavour that must be supported and encouraged by good people around the world.
Imagine our surprise that a tweet from totalitarian forces in Sweden, who wouldn’t hesitate for a minute before kicking the teeth of their political opponents down their throats, moves Irshad Manji to impose censorship on us.
It reminds us of a highway robber featured in the Koran who wouldn’t listen to arguments. But perhaps Irshad Manji hasn’t come to that part yet.
