It should come as no surprise that self-described “Muslim refusenik” Irshad Manji says she elicits a “vigorous and feisty” response from the crowds who attend her lectures. The lesbian author’s treatment of hot-button issues is as forthright as it is unapologetic.

Informed by Bill O’Reilly during a recent visit to his Fox News show that she was the only gay Muslim he knew, she shot back her response rapid-fire: “You ought to get out more then, Bill.”

Engaged in a media and lecture tour since the U.S. release in January of her hard-hitting critique of Islamic fundamentalism, “The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith,” the Canadian television journalist is slated to speak April 15 to the Atlanta Executive Network, a gay professional networking organization.

Manji will speak later that evening at an Emory University event sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillels of Georgia.

AEN members are “very excited” to hear what Manji has to say, according to Bonnie Barton, the group’s president.

“She is, as a Muslim, an element of the community that we have not had represented as a speaker before,” Barton says. “It’s empowering to hear someone who’s a woman, a lesbian and a Muslim who’s taken such a public, visible stand on what she believes in and who she is.”

Manji says she plans to appeal to AEN’s members to “use the privileges that they have as leaders in their workplaces and in their communities to encourage thoughtful questioning of ourselves and each other.”

“That’s part of the matrix of liberties and freedoms and rights that we have in this part of the world that protects our ability as gay and lesbian people to be out,” she says. “Let us not turn our back on the very human rights that we claim for ourselves.”

Encouraging debate
Since the release of her book, Manji’s name has appeared on the pages of major news publications across the country. Her outspoken stance on Islam and its practitioners has earned her ample praise and criticism — and incited a fierce backlash by those who claim she is a traitor to her faith.

“I’ve received very concrete threats to my safety since the release of this book, and some of them have been up close and personal,” Manji says. “But I do not live my life in fear, and that’s because I know that what I’ve done has been done with integrity and with a sincere desire to heal the faith into which I was born.”

Some have accused Manji of conspiring with Zionists to undermine the interests of Muslims. But she asserts that her goal is to promote a tradition of independent thinking once embraced in Islamic culture.

“I’m not saying that we need to import some kind of foreign tradition into our faith — not at all,” Manji says. “We simply need to find again that spirit of critical thinking that once allowed Arab Muslim civilization to lead the world in curiosity and creativity.”

Manji, a practicing Muslim who calls herself “openly but not arrogantly” gay, says she acknowledges “the possibility that my creator will not accept my same-sex relationship.”

“I don’t claim to know what is right,” she says. “But I do claim that there is not nearly enough debate within the world of Islam as there needs to be in order to do justice to the majesty that we claim God represents.”

The need for discussion is as critical among Muslims as it is among others, she says, noting that many non-Muslims are afraid to challenge the merits of Islamic societies for fear of being deemed racist.

“What I see happening among my fellow liberals is self-censorship — an unwillingness to engage in asking tough questions about how Islam is practiced today,” Manji says. “I’m all for understanding, and I’m all for multiculturalism, but I don’t think I can defend those who tolerate intolerance. I don’t believe any culture, any ethnicity, any religion ought to be immune from scrutiny.”