That outspoken advocate of the right to criticize Islam was in Montreal's Dorval Airport with her female companion in late February, 2004, waiting for a lift, when a "self-identified Arab man" approached her friend.
"He said to her: 'You're luckier than your friend,'" Manji recalled for an audience of 400 at the Canad Inns Hotel, Polo Park March 3, 2004. "He put his hand in the shape of a gun, and pulled the trigger. My friend said: 'What are you getting at?' He said: 'Never mind. You'll find out later.'"
"I have and continue to receive very specific threats on my life," the 35-year-old journalist, author and television producer told the crowd.
"Luckily, we haven't found out yet," she said of that Montreal Arab's mysterious threat. "We won't if the security presence here tonight is any indication."
Manji, whose latest book, The Trouble with Islam: A Wakeup Call for Honesty and Change, is a bestseller, spoke here on the topic Israel, Islam and Diversity.
The Asper Foundation Lecture Series, Winnipeg Zionist Initiative and other Jewish and non-Jewish groups sponsored her talk.
Gail Asper, managing director of the Asper Foundation, introduced her to the crowd, including large numbers of university students, admitted for free to the tightly-guarded lecture.
"My father never backed down from speaking his mind, whether or not it was the popular thing to do," Asper said of the late Israel Asper. "Irshad told me her mother is sometimes a little concerned about what she says. I do think she is a wonderful, courageous fighter for human rights, clarity of vision, and ability to speak... what she believes is the truth."
Manji championed Israel as an isolated island of democratic freedom and diversity in her lecture, and appealed to the Muslim world to follow the Jewish state's example.
"I first discovered Israel has a level of cultural diversity surpassing even Canada's when I walked up to the El Al kiosk at Toronto's Pearson Airport," she recalled of a trip she took to Israel two years ago. The El Al staff member was a "south Asian Jew."
Until then, she'd "bought the line" that all Israeli are Europeans," and that's what makes them "imperialists."
Driving from Ben-Gurion Airport to Tel Aviv, she also noticed all the road signs were in "both Hebrew and Arabic" - a degree of bilingualism that Canada can't claim, nationwide.
Manji was impressed with the "freedom of expression" in Israel, "epitomized by a ferociously free press."
She noticed that the Tel Aviv daily, Ha'aretz, has a weekly supplement listing free prayer services in Israel for Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Manji also appreciated the Israeli government's responsiveness to public criticism, Arab and Jewish. While she was there, Israeli Arabs and Jews argued in a TV debate over whether a proposed land policy was "racist against Arabs."
A few days later, that proposed policy died, "under intense Israeli criticism."
A lesbian and founder of QueerTelevision, an awardwinning TV show broadcast on the Internet, Manji also noted Israeli tolerance of gays and lesbians.
She had a hard time deciding whether to accept a Zionist organization's invitation to see Israel, for herself.
"I had to think long and hard. If you go, what will this mean for my credibility a Muslim? If I don't go, what will it do for my credibility as a journalist?"
She accepted the invitation only after attaching two conditions: As a journalist, she could ask "any damn question I wanted, without editorial censorship."
She would also have to be able to meet "non-Zionists, and perhaps anti-Zionists, with Arabs, not merely with Zionist Jews."
Manji, who also visited the West Bank, also had some criticisms of Israeli government policy. She saw "humiliating lineups" of Palestinians at security checkpoints, and Palestinians having to walk "miles" to get to a grocery store, to "avoid the hassles" at those checkpoints.
Manji also saw "sprawling" Jewish communities in the West Bank, looking more like large city "suburbs" than settlements - "so big, it would take years to dismantle them all."
Overall, though, she feels the freedoms Israel extends to people of diverse religions, as well as to gays and lesbians far outweigh the negative points.
They also serve as a stark contrast to her experiences, growing up as a Muslim.
Born in Uganda to parents of Egyptian and Pakistani heritage, Manji and her family were expelled in 1972, after Idi Amin came to power there.
Her family settled in the Vancouver area, and starting at age 8, Manji had to attend Saturday morning classes at a local madressa, a Muslim religious school.
"I imbibed two messages: That women are inferior and that Jews are treacherous, not to be trusted."
"Even back then, I had enough faith to ask questions."
She wanted to know why girls couldn't "lead prayer services".
Manji also asked why Mohammed "killed an entire Jewish tribe" if he was a "messenger of peace".
Booted out of the madressa at age 14, she could have "walked away" from her Muslim faith.
Instead, she decided to "give Islam another chance", and over the next 20 years, she studied that religion on her own.
She found that Islam has a "progressive side in theory". But she remains a "struggling Muslim" because of what's happening "not in theory, but on the ground."
Muslims in the past embraced "independent thinking", and "we need to rediscover that," Manji argues.
She's learned, however, that "Muslim tolerance" today "ends at the border with Israel".
In discussions with other Muslims, she's been warned not to publish "self-criticism of Islam today" because "the Jews are watching."
"They ought to be watching," Manji responds. "We ought to be watching. That's part of alert citizenship."
More liberal Muslims she's spoken to, however, have been frightened into silence.
"A huge motivation" for starting her book came from "young Muslims".
"After many of my speeches, young Muslims would emerge from the audience, start chatting among themselves, and say: 'Irshad, we need your voice to open up this religion of ours. If it doesn't open up, we're leaving it.'" On the other hand, many other young Muslims writing to her through her website, www.muslim-refusenik.com, tell her they're afraid to "go public" with "struggles about their faith" or "their interest in learning about Israel", because "they fear persecution".
By that, they mean "physical retaliation against themselves and their families."
"Every day, I experience what these young people fear," Manji added.
During a question-and-answer session, Steve Rockwell, host of a local Muslim TV show and self-described leader of a local mosque, challenged Manji's knowledge of Islam.
"Thousands of my listeners and members would like to debate you on things you said in your book against Islam," Rockwell said, inviting her to debate him publicly in Toronto this summer. Manji didn't respond to that offer at her March 3 lecture.
"I take it as a compliment when non-Muslims ask tough questions about our faith," Manji later said. She challenged "interfaith groups" that include Muslims to discuss whether they see "parallels" between the birth of the "first Muslim state" and the "first Jewish state".
"It's not a matter of picking fights with Muslims, but asking questions of one another," Manji added.
The crowd responded by awarding her a standing ovation.
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