All Forums  Tim Reynolds Message Board  Friends Aboard the Space Pod  Best Lecture EVER!!!!!

Note: You must be registered in order to post a reply.
To register, click here. Registration is FREE!

Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Antispam question: How many total fingers does a human have? Answer: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by PJK[/i] [br]I attended the most outstanding lecture I have ever heard the other night, and believe me, I have heard many a great speaker in my life time. The speaker was Irshad Manji, author of the book "The Trouble with Islam today." Irshad was 4 years old when she had to flee with her family from the African nation of Uganda when Idi Amin was in power. Amin said Africa was for the blacks and as Irshad puts it "those of us with brown skin had mere weeks to leave or we would be killed." Her family fled to Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia in 1972. She grew up there attending regular school during the week and the Muslim school on Saturdays. It was there that she was told she couldn't say the prayers because she is female. It was there that she was told that Jews are evil. When she was 12 she started asking a lot of questions.....OUT LOUD! She demanded to know why she couldn't say prayers and was told it was because Allah said so! She was told she should hate Jews because they worshiped Moolah, not Allah! Her teacher told her that their idolatry would pollute her piety if she hung out with them. She looked around Richmond and the new business signs were those run by Pakistani's, Indians, Koreans, and many other Asian countries. Very few if any were run by Jews. If it was the Jews who were going to take her money, where were the Jewish businesses? She told her teacher she couldn't understand why Muhammad would have commanded his army to kill an entire Jewish tribe when the Koran supposedly came to him as a message of peace. Her teacher couldn't answer her. She realized that she was not getting [b]educated[/b] in the Muslim school she was getting [b]indoctinated![/b] She decided to read the whole Koran. (her Muslim school only taught selected passages from the Koran) What she learned was that Islam the way many practice it today, is not what true Islam is all about. She started to see the flaws........serious flaws. Irshad is one of the bravest women I have ever met. The place I listened to her at was swarming with state police. When I met her and had my books signed after the lecture, two policeman flanked her on both sides. Why? Because like Salman Rushdie, she is on an Islamic hit list. There were death threats made at the University the night I saw her. Why? Because, while she is still very much a Muslim, she is speaking out for what is wrong with Islam today. She is trying to reach out to female Muslims (particularly those from Muslim fundamentalist families). You see, even as I write this, somewhere in the world a Muslim woman is being murdered and it is perfectly OK with her family. Not only is it OK with her family, the person who is killing her is a relative, an uncle or brother. These women have NO rights! Don't think for a moment that this is only happening in Iran and Iraq. Last Saturday, NOV 7th, three Pakistani sisters were killed in the Netherlands by their brother! Why? Because they were getting too independent! OH and lest you think this man will be punished for this obvious "honor killing" you should be aware that his family is saying he had a history of mental illness and didn't know what he was doing! (Read more about this and other similar incidents that you won't read about in our newspapers or hear on the news at www.brucebawer.com then click on his blog.) Bruce wrote the book While Europe Slept and he happens to be a good friend of Irshads. She is, in fact, giving Bruce a message from me, which I thought was pretty cool of her to do. She did tell the story of a Pakistani woman who was tried for premarital sex. In fact she had been raped and had 7 witnesses to prove it, therefore she only received 100 lashings for punishment instead of 180! Irshad's book has been banned (no surprise there) in Iran and Pakistan and some other countries. She therefore translated the book into those languages and made them free downloads from her website. I forget her website address but you can find it by just searching her name, Irshad Manji. I don't know how many of you know who Salman Rushdie is, but he wrote the book Satanic Verses in which there was a dream sequence which had some representations of the prophet Muhammad in them. Iran, who was at war with Iraq at the time, used his book to divert attention of the war. They fueled a huge protest which resulted in a 2 million dollar bounty on his head. (BTW, it is up to 2.5 million now due to interest.....no kidding!) Anyway, Irshad got to meet Salman and she asked him why, after all he was going through with the death threats, would he advise her to continue to write her book and he said "because a book is more valuable than a persons life." At first she thought he was joking, making light of his situation and she really wanted a serious answer. Then she realized that WAS the serious answer. When she asked him what he meant by that he said, because people can destroy a book, they can vihemently disagree with what is written, but they can't destroy the thought once it is published! I know this is a serious topic for a music message board, but it is an important one. I would urge people to go hear Irshad if she comes to a University near you to speak. Unfortunately, I think Universities are probably one of the few places she does speak. OH and one last thought, one last reason why she is such a hero to me. She had a bodyguard. He was big and burly and from what she said, quite good looking (LOL) but she had to fire him. She said it was done in a most friendly way, and that he still has some of his things in her apartment, but the reason she fired him was because she didn't feel she could tell Muslim women to speak out, knowing their lives would be in danger, when she had a body guard and they didn't. She said she would be a hypocrit if she did that! I applaud her! Peace~ [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.