Irshad Manji Quotes

Islam was Europe's teacher. From the eighth to the 12th centuries.

The medieval Islamic world, from Central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and system of belief, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history.

The superiority of the Arab civilization, especially in Spain and Sicily, was the chief agency which awakened Europe after six centuries of barbarism.

A large percentage of Moslems living in Europe believe that Europe is decadent and that they should work to destroy it.

This is not a clash of civilizations or religions, and it reaches far beyond Islam and America, on which efforts are being made to focus the conflict in order to create the delusion of a visible confrontation and a solution based upon force. There is indeed a fundamental antagonism here, but one that points past the specter of America (which is perhaps the epicenter, but in no sense the sole embodiment, of globalization) and the specter of Islam (which is not the embodiment of terrorism either) to triumphant globalization battling against itself.

Once Europe existed in a Dark Age and Islam carried the torch of learning. Now we Muslims live in a Dark age.

The contribution of Islam to history and modern civilization is the product of the efforts of peoples of many races and tongues which came to accept its way of life.

Iraq was home of the Abbasid Caliphate, a golden age when the Muslim world was at the forefront of math, science and medicine.

Early Islam was a time of great creativity. Scholars excelled in sciences and literature.

Conspiracy theories are the way Muslims avoid facing up to their responsibility to be self-critical.

O Muslims! When a Muslim blindly imitates the West, he turns into a loyal supporter of their beliefs and customs; he is like one who tries to reform something but spoils it while he is unaware. He is just like a defeated follower, like a baby who bites and severs his mother's breast while it is in his mouth. Such a person does not know that blind copying of the West involves hidden hazards and that our rights, honor and dignity are violated by such imitation and imbecilic pride.

Muslims have not been doing anything to change their own helplessness and they do not deserve to be helped by Allah. To be very crude, the fate of the Muslims today is of their own making.

The trouble with Islam is that lives are small and lies are big.

Yesterday’s Jews are evil predecessors and today’s Jews are worse successors. They an ingrate people, they altered God’s words, worshipped a calf, killed Messengers and denied their Messages. They are exiled people and the worst of mankind. Allah cursed them and cast His wrath upon them. He turned some of them to monkeys and pigs and worshippers of creatures. …

Don't forget your own self while preaching to others.

Do not underestimate the importance of Islam on the continent of Africa.

The Holy Koran, the Prophet’s teachings, the majority of Islamic scientists, and the actual facts all prove that the sun is running in its orbit ... and that the earth is fixed and stable, spread out by God for his mankind.... Anyone who professed otherwise would utter a charge of falsehood toward God, the Koran, and the Prophet.

Stop blaming the world—look inside!

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

As long as you blame someone or something else - something outside you that's bigger than you are - as the source of your problems, the problems won't get solved.

Twelve-step promotes spirituality, not religion. It gives a practical, day-to-day spirituality that tells me what I can and cannot control. There is room to be imperfect and to be someone who struggles to find God.

I used to blame my problems on other people. But my moment of clarity, if you want to call it that, came when I was looking in the mirror one day and just burst into tears. It wasn't just that I looked bad, it was that I knew my problem was me.

So, this war is against the Islam that the West does not control.

We must exchange the philosophy of excuse - what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change.