Ayaan Hirsi Ali interview in Reason Magazine

[Abdul Alhazred]

She is an ex-Muslim atheist and has now has a resident fellow position with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.

If you don't know the rest of her background, you should click the link and read the interview (but you should anyway).

The Trouble Is the West (http://www.reason.com/news/show/122457.html) (Reason)

Teaser:

...

Reason: But do you feel at all uncomfortable with that heavy emphasis on religion in American public life?

Hirsi Ali: Yes. And the good thing is—and that’s what I’ve tried to tell all my European friends—I’m allowed to say so.

I think that it’s a great mistake for this country to reject a very good atheist. I mean, when you have two candidates, and one is an atheist and the other is a religious person and the atheist would make the better public official, it’s a great loss not to elect him. Anyway, atheists here can forward their agenda and fight back safely without risking violence.

...

Please note, the last country she had to leave in a great big hurry was The Netherlands.

One of my personal heroes in modern times.

[Elind]

And some other quotes for the samplers:

Reason: Don’t you mean defeating radical Islam?
Hirsi Ali: No. Islam, period. Once it’s defeated, it can mutate into something peaceful. It’s very difficult to even talk about peace now. They’re not interested in peace.
Reason: We have to crush the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims under our boot? In concrete terms, what does that mean, “defeat Islam”?
Hirsi Ali: I think that we are at war with Islam. And there’s no middle ground in wars. Islam can be defeated in many ways. For starters, you stop the spread of the ideology itself; at present, there are native Westerners converting to Islam, and they’re the most fanatical sometimes. There is infiltration of Islam in the schools and universities of the West. You stop that. You stop the symbol burning and the effigy burning, and you look them in the eye and flex your muscles and you say, “This is a warning. We won’t accept this anymore.” There comes a moment when you crush your enemy.
Reason: Militarily?
Hirsi Ali: In all forms, and if you don’t do that, then you have to live with the consequence of being crushed.
Reason: Are we really heading toward anything so ominous?
Hirsi Ali: I think that’s where we’re heading. We’re heading there because the West has been in denial for a long time. It did not respond to the signals that were smaller and easier to take care of. Now we have some choices to make. This is a dilemma: Western civilization is a celebration of life—everybody’s life, even your enemy’s life. So how can you be true to that morality and at the same time defend yourself against a very powerful enemy that seeks to destroy you?
Reason: George Bush, not the most conciliatory person in the world, has said on plenty of occasions that we are not at war with Islam.
Hirsi Ali: If the most powerful man in the West talks like that, then, without intending to, he’s making radical Muslims think they’ve already won. There is no moderate Islam. There are Muslims who are passive, who don’t all follow the rules of Islam, but there’s really only one Islam, defined as submission to the will of God. There’s nothing moderate about it.
Hirsi Ali: The Western mind-set—that if we respect them, they’re going to respect us, that if we indulge and appease and condone and so on, the problem will go away—is delusional. The problem is not going to go away. Confront it, or it’s only going to get bigger.

[Abdul Alhazred]

Everyone should read the whole thing, please.

[webfusion]

In this week's James Randi Commentary, "Linda Reports" has an excellent review of her experience in Washington DC hearing Ms Hirsi speak.

I was struck by the following comment:
"Prof. Richard Dawkins asked her during her Q&A if he could nominate her for the Nobel Peace Prize!"

In fact, she has already been nominated for that Prize --- in 2006.
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1137527411.shtml


Yes indeed, I am reading what she herself says, reading what others are saying about her, and absorbing her words while she is still alive, rather than in an obituary. From what I understand, her life is in mortal danger, even here in the USA.

[Elind]

I don't however, as much as I admire her, follow the logic regarding the Peace Prize. Was he smiling?

[Abdul Alhazred]

IMO, the Peace Prize would be demeaning to her.

But in the unlikely event that she gets it, I won't criticize her for taking it.

[webfusion]

The Nobel Prize amount is 10-million Kroner.
How is that demeaning?

[Gurdur]

IMO, the Peace Prize would be demeaning to her.
But then, you would say that. We're all aware of your prejudices and agenda.
But in the unlikely event that she gets it, I won't criticize her for taking it.
Oh, how precious. Now tell us who gives a stuff whether you do or not. Illuminate us as to your importance on the world stage.

[Giz]

Oh, how precious. Now tell us who gives a stuff whether you do or not. Illuminate us as to your importance on the world stage.

Oh come on dude, what price a politics forum if one cant criticise (or not) public figures...?



(how many bodyguard/years does 10 million kroner buy?)

[Puppycow]

I wonder why this interview was done in June but not published until now?

It's an interesting read. I confess that I don't know whether she's right, but I am worried. The key question to me is whether she's right about this:

But I don’t even think that the trouble is Islam. The trouble is the West, because in the West there’s this notion that we are invincible and that everyone will modernize anyway, and that what we are seeing now in Muslim countries is a craving for respect. Or it’s poverty, or it’s caused by colonization.

The Western mind-set—that if we respect them, they’re going to respect us, that if we indulge and appease and condone and so on, the problem will go away—is delusional. The problem is not going to go away. Confront it, or it’s only going to get bigger.

Where is Europe headed? When it becomes majority muslim in the future will muslims convert to moderate Western secular values and support The Enlightenment, as most Judeo-Christians have or will Sharia gradually become the rule? I hope its the former, but I don't know because I can't see the future.

[Elind]

Come on, give the dude a break. I think he applauded when the Arafish got it. Those Norwegians should stick to science where they know something.

[Elind]

I wonder why this interview was done in June but not published until now?

I don't know that it hasn't, but can you imagine the MSM printing something as direct as that?

It's an interesting read. I confess that I don't know whether she's right, but I am worried. The key question to me is whether she's right about this:

Where is Europe headed? When it becomes majority muslim in the future will muslims convert to moderate Western secular values and support The Enlightenment, as most Judeo-Christians have or will Sharia gradually become the rule? I hope its the former, but I don't know because I can't see the future.

How can they without rejecting at least half of the Koran? That is what her point is. From what I have read of the Koran it is a far more racist document than Mein Kampf, yet if one is critical of Islam, there is an automatic reaction from some quarters that THAT is racist. Weird.

How could you see an "enlightenment" in Islam without a rewriting? How can you imagine a rewriting ever occurring without massive civil strife that makes Shiite/Sunni rivalries seem tame?

Can you imagine a Christianity based on the Old Testament, without Jesus and the New Testament, transforming the Old Testament (the only bible in existence) into the New, and then having a Reformation on top of it?

Fantasy.

Sharia it is, and they know it.

[Abdul Alhazred]

Oh, how precious. Now tell us who gives a stuff whether you do or not. Illuminate us as to your importance on the world stage.

If you really don't care what I say why do you bother being snarky?

Could it be you're afraid others won't hate me, too?

:rolleyes:

[egslim]

Please note, the last country she had to leave in a great big hurry was The Netherlands.
Check your facts, this is untrue. She had to leave her appartment, because the neighbours considered her presence there a danger to them and the courts agreed.

Instead of finding a new place to live here, she decided to emigrate to the US, while the Dutch government continued to provide protection for her over there.

And as of october 1 she had to leave the US in a great big hurry, because one and a half year after her emigration and two postponements the Dutch government discontinued her protection and the US government does not take over, and until a week before it did not allow her to raise funds to pay for her own protection. So now she's back in the Netherlands, because as an endangered person she is entitled to Dutch governmental protection while she lives in the Netherlands.

One of my personal heroes in modern times.
I agree, and I find the way she's been bounced around like a ping pong ball a **** disgrace.

[Abdul Alhazred]

Well immigration laws in the USA are sucky, but that's a minor matter that will likely be fixed soon, unlike her larger issues.