Thursday, January 22, 2009

IJTIHAD: An Arab word to learn




Ijtihad.
Ever heard of it? Neither had I.
The word means discussion, dissent, independent thought, and refers to a proud tradition inside Islam.
The world will be a better place when more people from both inside and outside Islam know about it.


I was alerted to it by Irshad Manji, Canadian feminist author, open Lesbian, and devout Muslim. 
Find out more about ijtihad and Irshad's writing at her website http://irshadmanji.com/


I am proud to say that I knew of her when she was a beginning writer in her twenties. She used to do a column in Herizons, a feminist magazine. She was always a breath of fresh air, and she still is.


I stopped subscribing to Herizons when it started to suffer from 'Old Warrior Syndrome' and overdo the PC thing. The white women were beating themselves up for being racist just because they were white, and everyone else was claiming moral superiority based on various form of victim hood. 

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