MaxedOutMama
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Hirsi Ali
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred has/have a post up about Aayan Hirsi Ali. She is an ethnic Somali who fled to the Netherlands to escape an arranged marriage, got asylum, worked her way up and is now a member of the Dutch Parliament. She collaborated with Van Gogh on the film about Islamic mistreatment of women that so angered a Muslim that he sought Van Gogh out and killed him in a rather horrible way. (I think the film was more than a bit inflammatory and denigratory of Islam as a whole in an unfair way, but you have to read her experiences to understand why she sees things as she sees them.) Left pinned to his body with a knife was a letter that promised a like fate to Hirsi Ali.
I have been following her story for about six months. She is under constant guard, and receives a lot of death threats. She is a gadfly, and I don't think Dutch society is totally comfortable with her outspokenness.
Here are some background links:
BBC
Aayan Hirsi Ali weblog (in Dutch)
Libertas (good short summary, English)
More updates, DutchReport (English)
Spiegel article (English)
Anyway, SC&A listed an excerpt from the Transatlantic Intelligencer in which she spoke about what she perceives as the failure of multiculturalism in the Netherlands and what she perceives as a type of betrayal by the left. This raises so many issues I can't even enumerate them. It's worth a look. Basically what she is saying is the ideal of multi-culturism as practiced in The Netherlands is willing to sacrifice women on an individual level.
The unfairness I see in her portrayal of Islam is that she is speaking not so much of a religion as a culture associated with that religion. Islam, as it is practiced many places and by many people, does not include the abuse of women shown in the film. It is fair to say that Islam as a whole rejects the western sexually liberated woman, but then it also rejects the western sexually liberated man. For that matter, so do most Christian denominations.
Update:
SC&A took me to task. No, I would never condone the murder or any attack upon a person for something he or she said. That's inconceivable to me. And I have read and reread what I wrote and I still don't see how that could be a reasonable implication, but that just goes to show you how careful you have to be.
I don't condone anything about what happened or is happening to Hirsi Ali, in her early life or later. I don't condone the death threats against her, or any threats. I don't condone Van Gogh's murder. I don't condone honor killings among Muslims and I don't condone killing your wife if she is unfaithful to you, which was still a relatively common and unpunished practice in some areas in Latin America when I was going to college. It should be obvious that killing someone is a far, far greater wrong than saying bad things about a group of people.
I am tired of reading people saying what Islam is. And I think it is wrong. Islam is what those who practice the faith make it. If you will read the story of Hirsi Ali's early life, you will see why she holds the opinion of Islam that she does. Obviously what is happening to her because she speaks out about these wrongs and Van Gogh's murder show that she is protesting about a real evil.
I am also amazed by the very idea that one could defend one's religion by murdering someone for an insult to it. What a concept. I am unbelievably shocked by the consistent attacks in Iraq on innocent people (Muslims, no less) in the name of "defense of Islam".
Nonetheless, I also am going to insist upon one more piece of reality - that most Muslims are not these people and do not hold these beliefs. I have known and worked with quite a few of them, and there was notable absence of beatings, stabbings, etc. The women I have known who have been abused by their husbands were not Muslims. I would say the Muslims I have known were true to their religion, and those who run around killing people are not.
I have been following her story for about six months. She is under constant guard, and receives a lot of death threats. She is a gadfly, and I don't think Dutch society is totally comfortable with her outspokenness.
Here are some background links:
BBC
Aayan Hirsi Ali weblog (in Dutch)
Libertas (good short summary, English)
More updates, DutchReport (English)
Spiegel article (English)
Anyway, SC&A listed an excerpt from the Transatlantic Intelligencer in which she spoke about what she perceives as the failure of multiculturalism in the Netherlands and what she perceives as a type of betrayal by the left. This raises so many issues I can't even enumerate them. It's worth a look. Basically what she is saying is the ideal of multi-culturism as practiced in The Netherlands is willing to sacrifice women on an individual level.
The unfairness I see in her portrayal of Islam is that she is speaking not so much of a religion as a culture associated with that religion. Islam, as it is practiced many places and by many people, does not include the abuse of women shown in the film. It is fair to say that Islam as a whole rejects the western sexually liberated woman, but then it also rejects the western sexually liberated man. For that matter, so do most Christian denominations.
Update:
SC&A took me to task. No, I would never condone the murder or any attack upon a person for something he or she said. That's inconceivable to me. And I have read and reread what I wrote and I still don't see how that could be a reasonable implication, but that just goes to show you how careful you have to be.
I don't condone anything about what happened or is happening to Hirsi Ali, in her early life or later. I don't condone the death threats against her, or any threats. I don't condone Van Gogh's murder. I don't condone honor killings among Muslims and I don't condone killing your wife if she is unfaithful to you, which was still a relatively common and unpunished practice in some areas in Latin America when I was going to college. It should be obvious that killing someone is a far, far greater wrong than saying bad things about a group of people.
I am tired of reading people saying what Islam is. And I think it is wrong. Islam is what those who practice the faith make it. If you will read the story of Hirsi Ali's early life, you will see why she holds the opinion of Islam that she does. Obviously what is happening to her because she speaks out about these wrongs and Van Gogh's murder show that she is protesting about a real evil.
I am also amazed by the very idea that one could defend one's religion by murdering someone for an insult to it. What a concept. I am unbelievably shocked by the consistent attacks in Iraq on innocent people (Muslims, no less) in the name of "defense of Islam".
Nonetheless, I also am going to insist upon one more piece of reality - that most Muslims are not these people and do not hold these beliefs. I have known and worked with quite a few of them, and there was notable absence of beatings, stabbings, etc. The women I have known who have been abused by their husbands were not Muslims. I would say the Muslims I have known were true to their religion, and those who run around killing people are not.
