Tuesday, June 27, 2006


Irshad's jihad: ijtihad

The New York Times dubbed Irshad Manji “Osama Bin Laden’s worst nightmare.” Well, her ideas anyway. I interviewed this brilliant and very aimable lady about two years ago regarding her book The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith, which is a plea for a reinterpretation of Islam through the islamic concept of ijtihad. This time Irshad is back as a Fellow of the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD) to present a lecture on Islam and routes to pluralism.The evening was hosted by Eutopia.

Date : June 29th, 2006

Place : De Balie, Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, 1017 RR Amsterdam

Time : 8 pm

For additional information, please contact Roberta Bonazzi at +32 2 401 6899, roberta@europeandemocracy.org or Joanna Gordon at +33 6 60 37 76 50, info@europeandemocracy.org

Irshad and Ayaan

Every year TIME Magazine publishes a list of the 100 most influential people in the world today. The names span politics, business, the arts, science and more. In 2005, this list included the name of the Dutch controversial politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali. FYI, it was Irshad who had a hand in this. Why? I hope to find out soon why Irshad thinks Ms Hirsi Magan is or has been so influential in the Netherlands.