
Episode 146
Don’t Label Me: How to Do Diversity Without Inflaming the Culture Wars | Irshad Manji

Episode 146
Irshad Manji
Don’t Label Me: How to Do Diversity Without Inflaming the Culture Wars | Irshad Manji
summary
In Episode 146 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Irshad Manji, a public intellectual, best-selling author, and Emmy award nominated documentary filmmaker whose latest book “Don’t Label Me,” attempts to educate readers on how to have conversations about politically sensitive subjects without inflaming the culture wars. It should not surprise anyone to learn, therefore, that today’s conversation with Irshad is one of the most pleasant, honest, and meaningful that we have ever had on this podcast.
Unlike this conversation, public discourse today often feels like a series of battles and skirmishes between two monolithic view points. Discussions likewise, are often seen as opportunities to try one another in the court of public opinion. If we accept that a pluralistic, democratic society is the best way to safeguard the values and freedoms that have allowed us to manifest our individual identities, then how can we be told that in order to protect those identities we should curtail the very freedoms that gave rise to them in the first place?
We are living through a very dark period in American life. Diversity has become a sort of “rallying cry” whose champions espouse exclusively in terms of race, gender, and sexual orientation. When it comes to opinions, values, and beliefs, tolerance for diversity of opinion is nowhere to be found. And yet, a pluralistic society demands that its citizens are granted the freedom to express themselves and their beliefs without fear or reprisal or condemnation. Those who seek to silence us therefore are not champions of liberty. They are tyrants masquerading as victims who seek to exercise power over the very people who they label as their oppressors.
Today’s conversation should serve (hopefully) as an inspiration for the types of discussions and free exchanges of ideas that we should all strive to have and which we need to have if we want to make it through this difficult period in our history.
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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
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Episode Recorded on 07/15/2020
bio
Irshad Manji is a Canadian educator and the author of The Trouble with Islam Today (2004) and Allah, Liberty and Love (2011), both of which have been banned in several Muslim countries. Her latest book, Don’t Label Me, was published in February 2019. Manji is a senior fellow at the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy of the University of Southern California. Manji also produced a PBS documentary in the America at a Crossroads series, titled Faith Without Fear, which was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2008. A former journalist and television presenter, Manji is an advocate of a reformist interpretation of Islam and a critic of literalist interpretations of the Qur’an. In 2016, Manji and her partner, Laura Albano, were married in Hawaii. They live there with their rescue dogs.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quid enim me prohiberet Epicureum esse, si probarem, quae ille diceret? Hoc Hieronymus summum bonum esse dixit. Et quod est munus, quod opus sapientiae? Praetereo multos, in bis doctum hominem et suavem, Hieronymum, quem iam cur Peripateticum appellem nescio. Sed erat aequius Triarium aliquid de dissensione nostra iudicare. Duo Reges: constructio interrete.
Qui ita affectus, beatum esse numquam probabis; Si mala non sunt, iacet omnis ratio Peripateticorum. Ita fit beatae vitae domina fortuna, quam Epicurus ait exiguam intervenire sapienti.
Re mihi non aeque satisfacit, et quidem locis pluribus. Si autem id non concedatur, non continuo vita beata tollitur. Ex rebus enim timiditas, non ex vocabulis nascitur.
Scaevola tribunus plebis ferret ad plebem vellentne de ea re quaeri. Vulgo enim dicitur: Iucundi acti labores, nec male Euripidesconcludam, si potero, Latine; Respondent extrema primis, media utrisque, omnia omnibus. Laelius clamores sofòw ille so lebat Edere compellans gumias ex ordine nostros. Quo plebiscito decreta a senatu est consuli quaestio Cn. Laboro autem non sine causa; Hic nihil fuit, quod quaereremus. An me, inquam, nisi te audire vellem, censes haec dicturum fuisse?
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quorum sine causa fieri nihil putandum est. Qui autem esse poteris, nisi te amor ipse ceperit? Quod eo liquidius faciet, si perspexerit rerum inter eas verborumne sit controversia. Mihi vero, inquit, placet agi subtilius et, ut ipse dixisti, pressius. Primum cur ista res digna odio est, nisi quod est turpis?
Quid ergo attinet gloriose loqui, nisi constanter loquare? Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Cenasti in vita numquam bene, cum omnia in ista Consumis squilla atque acupensere cum decimano. Quod autem magnum dolorem brevem, longinquum levem esse dicitis, id non intellego quale sit. His enim rebus detractis negat se reperire in asotorum vita quod reprehendat. Non potes ergo ista tueri, Torquate, mihi crede, si te ipse et tuas cogitationes et studia perspexeris; Quod eo liquidius faciet, si perspexerit rerum inter eas verborumne sit controversia. Nam ista vestra: Si gravis, brevis;
Sin te auctoritas commovebat, nobisne omnibus et Platoni ipsi nescio quem illum anteponebas? At hoc in eo M. Similiter sensus, cum accessit ad naturam, tuetur illam quidem, sed etiam se tuetur; Sin aliud quid voles, postea. Tollitur beneficium, tollitur gratia, quae sunt vincla concordiae. Id mihi magnum videtur.
Qui autem esse poteris, nisi te amor ipse ceperit? Portenta haec esse dicit, neque ea ratione ullo modo posse vivi; Sed nonne merninisti licere mihi ista probare, quae sunt a te dicta? Nam Pyrrho, Aristo, Erillus iam diu abiecti. An ea, quae per vinitorem antea consequebatur, per se ipsa curabit? Quae cum dixisset paulumque institisset, Quid est? Earum etiam rerum, quas terra gignit, educatio quaedam et perfectio est non dissimilis animantium. A primo, ut opinor, animantium ortu petitur origo summi boni. Multoque hoc melius nos veriusque quam Stoici. Quod ea non occurrentia fingunt, vincunt Aristonem;
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Istam voluptatem perpetuam quis potest praestare sapienti? At tu eadem ista dic in iudicio aut, si coronam times, dic in senatu. Sed ad bona praeterita redeamus. Ac tamen hic mallet non dolere. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Cuius quidem, quoniam Stoicus fuit, sententia condemnata mihi videtur esse inanitas ista verborum. Illa argumenta propria videamus, cur omnia sint paria peccata. Quis non odit sordidos, vanos, leves, futtiles?
At, illa, ut vobis placet, partem quandam tuetur, reliquam deserit. Nunc de hominis summo bono quaeritur; Vide, ne etiam menses! nisi forte eum dicis, qui, simul atque arripuit, interficit. Atque haec coniunctio confusioque virtutum tamen a philosophis ratione quadam distinguitur. Omnia contraria, quos etiam insanos esse vultis. Quamquam haec quidem praeposita recte et reiecta dicere licebit. Compensabatur, inquit, cum summis doloribus laetitia. Vitiosum est enim in dividendo partem in genere numerare.
Quid enim possumus hoc agere divinius? At habetur! Et ego id scilicet nesciebam! Sed ut sit, etiamne post mortem coletur? Ad eas enim res ab Epicuro praecepta dantur. Cur fortior sit, si illud, quod tute concedis, asperum et vix ferendum putabit? Eorum enim est haec querela, qui sibi cari sunt seseque diligunt. Ergo adhuc, quantum equidem intellego, causa non videtur fuisse mutandi nominis. Cyrenaici quidem non recusant;
Quis est, qui non oderit libidinosam, protervam adolescentiam? Plane idem, inquit, et maxima quidem, qua fieri nulla maior potest. Sextilio Rufo, cum is rem ad amicos ita deferret, se esse heredem Q. Quis non odit sordidos, vanos, leves, futtiles? Restinguet citius, si ardentem acceperit. Ergo, si semel tristior effectus est, hilara vita amissa est? Quae si potest singula consolando levare, universa quo modo sustinebit? Quid est, quod ab ea absolvi et perfici debeat? Tu autem negas fortem esse quemquam posse, qui dolorem malum putet.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quibus ego vehementer assentior. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Quos quidem tibi studiose et diligenter tractandos magnopere censeo. Verum hoc idem saepe faciamus. Servari enim iustitia nisi a forti viro, nisi a sapiente non potest. Et quod est munus, quod opus sapientiae?
Sed mehercule pergrata mihi oratio tua. Luxuriam non reprehendit, modo sit vacua infinita cupiditate et timore. Ergo illi intellegunt quid Epicurus dicat, ego non intellego? Hoc simile tandem est? Nec enim, dum metuit, iustus est, et certe, si metuere destiterit, non erit; In quibus doctissimi illi veteres inesse quiddam caeleste et divinum putaverunt.
Paria sunt igitur. Egone quaeris, inquit, quid sentiam? Quae quo sunt excelsiores, eo dant clariora indicia naturae. Nullus est igitur cuiusquam dies natalis. Cum autem venissemus in Academiae non sine causa nobilitata spatia, solitudo erat ea, quam volueramus. Hoc etsi multimodis reprehendi potest, tamen accipio, quod dant. Aliud igitur esse censet gaudere, aliud non dolere. Dolere malum est: in crucem qui agitur, beatus esse non potest. Laelius clamores sofòw ille so lebat Edere compellans gumias ex ordine nostros. Plane idem, inquit, et maxima quidem, qua fieri nulla maior potest. Neutrum vero, inquit ille.
Urgent tamen et nihil remittunt. Plane idem, inquit, et maxima quidem, qua fieri nulla maior potest. Sin autem eos non probabat, quid attinuit cum iis, quibuscum re concinebat, verbis discrepare? Sed quid minus probandum quam esse aliquem beatum nec satis beatum? Nondum autem explanatum satis, erat, quid maxime natura vellet. At, si voluptas esset bonum, desideraret.