Muslim critics of Islam are rewarded for dramatizing their own endangered status

Evidence

As with Fallaci and Chesler, reviewers of Manji’s book, such as Andrew Sullivan of the New York Times, quickly bypass the book’s evident lack of scholarship, conceding that The Trouble with Islam is not the ‘most learned or scholarly treatise on the history or theology of Islam’ and that Manji is a little ‘naive,’ ‘haphazard in her geopolitics,’ and ‘a mite attention-seeking.’ Nonetheless, Sullivan concludes of the book: ‘Its spirit is undeniable, and long, long overdue.’ Manji is lauded for bravery in daring to criticize people well known for their murderous tendencies towards critics. Thus Manji, who considers herself one and the same as Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen, is admired for having dared to write a book that apparently endangers her life. Reviewers comment that Manji has installed bullet-proof windows in her home and is accompanied by bodyguards. Itemizing these measures in his review, Daniel Pipes observes: ‘And non-Muslims wonder why anti-Islamist Muslims in Western Europe and North America are so quiet.’ Not unaware of the currency of these images, on the eve of publication Manji’s publishers announced that it was just possible that Manji might be the subject of a fatwa, as Salmon Rushdie had been. They approached the federal solicitor general to grant ‘international protected person’ status to Manji, a request the Canadian government denied. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 239

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to my knowledge of performative martyrdom in publishing and the moral-economy framing of dissident Muslim writers; parallels the ‘heroic refusenik’ narrative in contrarian exile discourse.
• SEED: Essay angle: the economic incentive structure that rewards evangelical-anti-Islam Muslim authors for performing danger — death threats as a marketing asset rather than a cost.