The Caged Virgin (excerpt)

[brianold]

Ayaan Hirsi Ali fled an arranged marriage in Somalia and ended up as a parliamentarian in the Netherlands, which is now trying to expel her. She is moving to the US. Here are some excerpts from her book, "The Caged Virgin:"


"While you may have heard of the death threats that have been made also against me for this film (note: her film with the murdered Theo Van Gogh), you may not know that when I initially spoke on the immoral practices of the Prophet Muhammad, more than one hundred fifty complaints were made against me to the police and the government. Fur ambassadors visited my party leaders - ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan, Malaysia. They carried a letter attached to which was a list of 21 countries belonging to the Islamic Conference -including Turkey - that supported the letter. The main complaint in their letter was that I had insulted the Prophet and had deeply hurt the feelings of more than 1 billion Muslims. Death threats followed against me and also against the leader of my party when he refused to take seriously this complaint and evict me from Parliament".

"A quick look at Islamic history shows us that critical voices from within Islam have almost all been either killed or exiled. I find myself in good company: Salman Rushdie, Irshad Manji, Taslima Nasreen, Muhammad Abu Zaid. they all have been threatened by fellow believers and are now being guarded by non-Moslems."

"...normally I would have looked to the West for help in reforming Islam, from secular liberals, Westerners who are traditionally opposed to the enforcement of religious beliefs and customs. In certain countries, "left-wing" secular liberals have stimulated my critical thinking and that of other Muslims. But, these same liberals in Western politics have the strange habit of blamiing themselves for the ills of the world, while seeing the rest of the world as victims..."

"The adherents to the gospel of multiculturalism refuse to criticize people whom they see as victims. Some Western critics disapprove of United States policies and attitudes but do not criticize the Islamic world, just as, in the first part of the 20th century, Western socialist
apologists did not criticize the Soviet labor camps."

"Along the same lines, some Western intellectuals criticize Israel but they will not criticize Palestine because Israel belongs to the West, which they consider fair game, but they feel sorry for Palestinians, and for the Islamic world in general, which is not as powerful as the West.
They are critical of the native white majority in Western countries but not of Islamic minorities. Criticism of the Islamic world, of Palestinians, and of Islamic minorities is regarded as Islamophobia and xenophobia. I cannot emphasize enough how wrongheaded this is.
Withholding criticism and ignoring differences are racism in its purest form."

"My own criticism of Islamic religion and culture is felt by some to be "harsh", "offensive", and "hurtful". But the attitude of the cultural experts is, in fact, harsher and more offensive and hurtful. They feel superior and do not regard Muslims as equal discussion partners, but as
the "others" who should be shielded."