Irshad Manji Quotes

There is an ideology problem in Islam. We need to revolutionize our religion.

Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science.

The Islamic Reformation is already here. We are all living in it.

It took many years to cleanse Arabia of its “false idols.” It will take many more to cleanse Islam of its new false idols-bigotry and fanaticism-worshipped by those who have replaced Muhammad's original vision of tolerance and unity with their own ideals of hatred and discord. But the cleansing is inevitable, and the tide of reform cannot be stopped. The Islamic Reformation is already here. We are all living in it.

I think Islam is in a sense, in crisis. It needs to question and re-question itself.

Vatican II was a force that seized the mind of the Roman Catholic Church and carried it across centuries from the 13th to the 20th.

Will Islam modernize or will it be stuck where it has been for hundreds of years?

We Muslims are conspiring against ourselves. We’re in crisis and we’re dragging the rest of the world with us. If ever there was a moment for Islamic reformation, it is now.

What is taking place in the Muslim world is an internal struggle. We are now living in the twilight of the Islamic reformation. It is inevitable. It may be slowed, but it cannot be stopped.

Islam will have no truck with traditionalism, against which it campaigns relentlessly, to break its power over men's minds and eradicate its deep-seated influence.

We need a pope to oversee not simply a modernization of the church but its total transformation.

Christianity and Judaism have gone through the laundromat of humanism and enlightenment, but that is not the case with Islam.

Islam doesn't need reform, we need to reform the Muslim mind.

I have to be honest with you. Islam is on very thin ice with me... Through our screaming self-pity and our conspicuous silences, we Muslims are conspiring against ourselves. We're in crisis and we're dragging the rest of the world with us. If ever there was a moment for an Islamic reformation, it's now. For the love of God, what are we doing about it?

If Islam is to be reconciled with modernity, these voices must be encouraged until they swell into a roar.

What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air.... It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it.... Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.

During recent centuries a thorough knowledge of the history of Islam and of Mohammedan peoples has become rare in the Muslim world. This is only one of the many symptoms of its retrogression since the Middle Ages.

The Khalifa of the Muslim umma must strive to safeguard Islam in its original form, and to protect against the introduction of new things into Islam.

All religions undergo historical face lifts.

If Islam was to be saved, it would be saved by the crazy ones.

I do love this people [the French] with all my heart, and think that with a better religion and a better form of government and their present governors their condition and country would be most enviable.

Turkey is viewed as a very modern country and a great place to go and visit and yet Islamic as well. Iran is in some ways like that... with the difference that Iran is probably more influential than Turkey in affairs that are of interest to us.

Catholicism has changed tremendously in recent years. Now when Communion is served there is also a salad bar.

The things of this world take up too much of my time, of which indeed I have too little left, to undertake anything like a reformation in religion.

I don't want to change Islam, but if there is to be a European Islam, it must incorporate European values.