This woman would be safer (and better off) as an atheist. Instead, she has taken the time to read the Koran and study the hadiths, and make an impassioned plea for Muslim tolerance. For this (and for her self-described lesbianism) she has received death threats.

Is freedom of speech incompatible with Islamic fundamentalism? (A lot of links follow, but they're all worth reading.)

How about critical thinking? Here's Irshad Manji again, interviewed by MacLeans, on Israel:

Q. In your book, you depict Israel as an example of what a modern Islamic state could look like. For a Muslim, that's pretty courageous.

A. Why is it that those who bash Israel don't want to acknowledge Israel's multi-ethnic, pluralistic, democratic nature? Is it an insecurity about the fact that the Arab Muslim world still hasn't created such a country? Is it a sense of inadequacy that Muslims have before Israel? Is there jealousy? What is it? All I'm asking for is honesty. And I know that Muslims crave what we in the Western world already have, and it would be the height of ideological arrogance to deny masses of people the very thing that we take for granted. That is neo-colonialism.

What I would like to know is why did I have to hear about this lesbian activist (described as host and producer of "Queer Television" -- "the world's first show on commercial television for gays") from an online conservative publication?

Where are the major news media on this? Are they afraid of "Muslim sensibilities?"

Only after I was clued in was I able to find such gems as this:

we have ceased to be aware of the values we are in danger of losing — freedom of expression, freedom of assembly. They are taken for granted as magical, as a birthright, but we immigrants can tell you, you need to exercise these freedoms every day lest they atrophy.

On the lighter side, maybe she can help this poor man. (I hope you can all manage to stream it, because it will make your day....)

I may be wrong, but I don't think this courageous woman will get much support from either gay or Christian fundamentalist groups. The former are described as "conspicuously and hypocritically silent" and as to the latter, I could find nothing, so I think they are silent. (Whether such silence is hypocritical is another matter.)