The next book...

Dear friends: First, a hearty welcome to all recent subscribers. In my previous newsletter, I announced that I'm starting to write my next book. Let me explain what it's about.

My previous book, The Trouble with Islam Today, is a "why-to." Why, that is, should a new generation of Muslims stick our necks out to ignite a liberal reformation within Islam?  This next book is a "how-to." How can liberal Muslims and non-Muslims advance a 21st-century reformation in Islam? It's not enough to analyze the massive challenge; each of us can take small but meaningful steps to meet the challenge. I'll show you how.

Meanwhile, you can get sneak peeks by visiting my website and reading the blog posts marked with the logo below -- "Notes From My Next Book."

The next book should be released in fall 2011. Between now and then, I'll be consumed with editing the manuscript as well as crafting a multi-media strategy to get its message out. Speaking of which...

Our Internet strategy is working

To reach readers in parts of the Muslim world where my book is banned, I've posted Arabic, Urdu and Farsi translations on my website for free-of-charge download. To date, they've been downloaded more than 1.2 million times. Often, the downloads are also photocopied and circulated. 

Recently, an Arab media expert informed me that my PBS documentary, Faith Without Fear, is also being spliced and watched widely in the Muslim underground. He suggested that I produce a discussion guide to the film and post it on my site. He, in turn, will recruit his vast network of dissidents to distribute the guide throughout the Middle East and Iran.

How can I resist? (Get it? "Resist"? A little dissident humor for you.) The Faith Without Fear guide should be online by the time my next e-letter hits your inbox. Stay tuned.

Free expression!

Since my last e-letter, the media interviews have been non-stop. I've discussed moral courage and politics, Iran's democracy movement, the Fort Hood shooting, Europe's burqa debates, the Detroit "jockstrap jihadi" and the Times Square would-be bomber, to name only a few themes. You can catch all my interviews and commentaries on the media page of irshadmanji.com.

One story that's brought thousands of new supporters our way is the Islamist death threat against, and subsequent censorship of, Trey Parker and Matt Stone -- creators of the cartoon series, South Park. Click here for the background.

Through Web and TV interviews, I've asked audiences to sign my petition for secular values and to write their cities next to their names. What can any of this achieve? I’m planning to present all signatures to Comedy Central, the channel that airs (and now censors) South Park. I want broadcasters to see that if “ordinary” people have the guts to stand up to Islamist criminals, media executives should have courage, too.

Signatures have come in from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Nigeria and beyond. If you haven't already signed the petition, please do. Let me also ask you to pass around the link irshadmanji.com/petition so that, by the time I secure a meeting with the execs, we'll have thousands more names and cities to present.

If you'd like to discuss the issues in this newsletter, now or later, the best way is to join my Facebook forum or to follow me on Twitter. I look forward to seeing many of you there.

Finally, if you send your friends this link so they, too, can view my newsletter, be sure to tell them that they can sign up for future updates by clicking the subscribe button on my homepage.

Thanks for your on-going support!


Irshad