As an American, I am not happy that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is leaving the Netherlands for the United States.
One, I think her most important work is in the Netherlands. She is the real 'Iron' lady (as opposed to Rita Verdonk) in Dutch politics. Without her, they are in much worse situation than they were with her.
Two, I am distressed that when she comes to the USA, she's going to work for the American Enterprise Institute. Certainly we can find a better place for her than that.
She is big enough that she should not have to become a tool of the right wing in America.
More on her in Sozadee.
I am Dutch and i know that Hirsi Ali is unreasonable and dogmatic. She is always anti-islam, without having a more neutral opinion.
ReplyDeleteMy take is that she is basically against theocracy and theocratic impulses in secular civil society.
ReplyDeleteIf that offends Muslims, so be it. Should it offend Catholics, so be it.
I think you Dutch don't know what you're losing.
Ayaan is leaving Netherlands under duress and not out of choice. I admire this gutsy lady who singlehandedly has taken on the cause for the voiceless millions who share her faith and her plight. Whether in Netherlands or the USA, she'll continue being the spokesperson for Islamic women across the world.
ReplyDeleteto dann
ReplyDelete"unreasonable and dogmatic" in
what way?
Good questioning of Daan, Muggins!
ReplyDeleteJust what I was going to ask him meself!
We need examples of her alleged dogmatism.
I'm looking forward to GW & Condi standing next to her as he grants immediate US citizenship to her.
ReplyDeleteDann...neutral? Take a side!
Interesting site.
ReplyDeleteI share your hopes for Hirsi Ali, but I doubt she is merely against what you think of as `theocratic impulses'.
Islam is a whole different ballgame than any other faith because it is a political ideology hiding inside a religion.
To combat jihad (which is what we're really fighting, Bush's blathering about a `war on terror' notwithstanding), we will need to fight faith with faith, to a certain degree. One of the reasons Islam has made such inroads in Europe is the collapse of Christianity there.
Humans by nature are religious, IMO, and respond to faith. And, no, I don't think we need to mount a religiously oriented Crusade, but the faith component is important.
As for the `tool of the right wing stuff', frankly I think we had better drop the partisan nonsense and the name calling pronto, if we want ANY of us to survive as free people.
The Muslims didn't differentiate between `conservatives' and `liberals' on 9/11...nor will theyin the future.
Can't you see her in the United States? Will Hirsi Ali not become a poster child in the struggle on immigration reform. Will she not become the Anti-immigratationalists' immigrant? The one immigrant persecuted because she integrated?
ReplyDelete