Dr. Steven Plaut sent this my way. Author Irshad Manji wrote a book, The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith,
published in 2004, that put her on the map as a sensible voice of reform within Islam. In response to the uproar over the Danish Muhammad cartoons, a petition was drawn up, the Manifesto Against a New Totalitarianism, and Ms. Manji was one of the original signatories, as was Salman Rushdie, and Muslim Dutch Member of Parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Of course, the group of 12 has received at least one collective death threat because of the petition.
Here is that petition:
THE MANIFESTO OF 12:
Together facing the new totalitarianism
After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global totalitarian threat: Islamism.
We -- writers, journalists and public intellectuals -- call for resistance to religious totalitarianism.
Instead, we call for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values worldwide.
The necessity of these universal values has been revealed by events since the publication of the Muhammad drawings in European newspapers. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the arena of ideas. What we are witnessing is not a clash of civilizations, nor an antagonism of West versus East, but a global struggle between democrats and theocrats.
Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The preachers of hate bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a world of inequality. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred.
Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of greater power imbalances: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all others.
To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed people. For that reason, we reject "cultural relativism," which consists of accepting that Muslim men and women should be deprived of their right to equality and freedom in the name of their cultural traditions.
We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia," an unfortunate concept that confuses criticism of Islamic practices with the stigmatization of Muslims themselves.
We plead for the universality of free expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on every continent, against every abuse and dogma.
We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of enlightenment, not of obscurantism.
Signed,
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Chahla Chafiq , Caroline Fourest, Bernard-Henri Levy, Irshad Manji , Mehdi Mozaffari, Maryam Namazie, Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie, Antoine Sfeir, Philippe Val, Ibn Warraq
Pretty darn good.
On Manji's homepage, however, there is this note:
Only one person emailed a disconcerting message. A gentleman named Norman Finkelstein wrote to say, "Is there a petition supporting the death threats?" Maybe he's just a researcher
Of course, it's possible someone with the same name sent her that e-mail. But considering what I know about Norman, it was probably the DePaul professor named Norman Finkeltstein.
UPDATE April 17: Steven Plaut has moron Finkelstein on the Autonomist Blog.
Tecnnorati tags: المملكة آل سنة الإسلام مسلم DePaul Norman Finkelstein Chicago Illinois Irshad Manji יהודים, Jewish Islam
No comments:
Post a Comment