Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Offline I am 1/3 of the way through her autobiography, "Infidel." It is an intense story of her journey from radical islam to atheism.
She is also the author of "Submission," the film for which Theo van Gogh was shot and mutilated by a nutty muslim. The 5-page letter stabbed into his chest with a hunting knife was adressed to her.
She grew up in Somalia, Saudia Arabia, Ethioipa, and Kenya with a stict muslim upbringing. She was a victim of female curcumcision and fled an arranged marriage to seek asylum in the Netherlands. She bacame a Dutch MP in 2002 at age 32, but had to go into hiding following the murder of van Gogh. She left office in 2006 amidst immigration disputes. (She admits to falsifying info on her asylum application.) Currently, she holds a fellowship at American Enterprise Institute, supposedly a center-right think tank. She is embraced by the right because of her ant-islam stance, but her book demonstrates that she has been rational from a young age.
LV
"The time appears to me to have come when it is the duty of all to make their dissent from religion known."
- John Stuart Mill
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I think it was 60 Minutes that did a piece on her. She's an amazing person with a lot of guts. They also showed "Submission" which was quite moving.
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I'm sorry I missed that. When did it air? I have only recently become aware of her. The book is quite a page turner.
LV
"The time appears to me to have come when it is the duty of all to make their dissent from religion known."
- John Stuart Mill
http://theistsanonymous.blogspot.com/
As a Dutch I can't help but have mixed feelings about her. The way she portrayed herself here in the Netherlands was more like a demagogue than someone who was driven by reason.
Although she did amazing work for the emancipation of Muslim women in the Netherlands by opening the public debate on this subject, she showed an immense arrogance and neglect of the fact that you don't become "Enlightened" after one night of thorough thought.
She is very rigid in expressing her viewpoints, and perhaps this can become usefull from an agonistic perspective. In the Netherlands it became counter-productive and surpassed the goal of trying to emancipate muslims within a democratic society.
And I would consider her route not from "radical muslim to atheist", but rather from radical muslim towards fundamentalistic enlightenment. I will elaborate sometime soon on this thing, but in the Netherlands she was considered to be a member of this group of intellectuals.
To explain my sentiments; whereas your government is heavily dominated by Christian thought, my government and country is corrupted by the uncritical belief in the superiority of "western standards", and by that claiming to be rational per definition.
According to the CBS website, it was originally aired March 13, 2005.
You can read the CBS article here.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
Regardless how she comes off in the media, you have to respect her for comming forward when she has to know that she will most likely be killed eventually for her activism.
The darkness of godlessness lets wisdom shine.
To be clear, I do not base my opinions solely on how she came off in the media.
And the fact that she takes the risk of being killed in her activism, doesn't in itself deserve my respect. I respect her for the fact that she is passionate and determinate about achieving emancipation, I do not respect her for the way she talked about the people she supposedly tried to emancipate.
In my book the kind of opportunism Hirshi Ali preached in the Netherlands is eventually only destructive and narcisistic.
An interview with her is available here.
I too have a deep respect for Ms. Ali. Her courage should be an inspiration to woman all over the world.
Since our fearless leader Sapient is extremely busy with countless projects and show preparations, I took it upon myself to request an interview with Ms. Ali.
This letter was emailed today:
Hello Ms. Ali,My name is xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx, but go by the name of "Razorcade" on the internet. I am the co-host of an Internet Radio Program, namely The Rational Response Squad, (www.rationalresponders.com), that deals primarily with the issues of irrational claims, and as you might expect, religion falls pretty neatly into that category. I have been following your life story via the local papers here in Philadelphia, Pa., and just this evening, I watched your appearance on the Bill Maher show. I am deeply moved by the sacrifices you have made and the courage of your convictions. I feel the world would be a much better place with people who share your deeply passionate concern for their 'fellow man'.I have contacted you today to request an interview with you on our radio program. We would interested in speaking to you about your views on Islam and the contributions that women can make towards positive changes in this world. We are a five member team, of various backrounds, and we pre-record our program on a six week cycle. Our next taping will be on March 3rd, and most likely too soon to book you for that day. The next time we get together for recording will be mid-April, and I hope that we could include you in this program. Since the program is pre-recorded, we can accomodate any request that you may have, such as, content of questions, suggested topics, etc. We can discuss in any future correspondence the method by which you may appear on this program, ie, via phone or in person. Please let it be known that we understand your security issues, and we will be respectful of any information that you provide. I would appreciate if you would contact me at [email protected], or by telephone, at xxx-xxx-xxxx to discuss your willingness to take part in an interview on our program.Thank you.Sincerely,xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxRational Response Squad Co-hostHi Razorcade,
Now that would make for a fantastic interview. Hope she responds positively and gives the green light.
Keep us posted!