AEI hires Controversial Critic of Islam

[JCMach1]

As a child, Ayaan Hirsi Ali fled violence in Somalia with her family. As an adult she fled Kenya to escape an arranged marriage. She left her adopted Holland after she was caught up in political turmoil and had her life threatened.
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Now Hirsi Ali — a brave critic of Islam to her supporters, a bigot to her critics — has found refuge in the intellectual bastion of leading U.S. conservatives.

Hirsi Ali joined the American Enterprise Institute last September, after a sometimes stormy 14 years in the Netherlands, where she was a member of parliament and became a central figure in two events that jolted the nation.

First, after she wrote a script for a film that depicted naked women with Quranic verses scrawled on their bodies, a Dutch-born Muslim gunned down the filmmaker, Theo van Gogh. A letter threatening Hirsi Ali was left on a knife plunged into van Gogh's chest...

Ali Hirsi's book provides a graphic account of how her grandmother had her subjected to genital mutilation, sometimes called female circumcision, when she was 5 years old. The practice began in Africa, before Islam, but some African Muslim societies still see it as a requirement of religion.

She also describes a time when she was a teenager in Kenya, a majority Christian country with many Muslim Somali refugees, and a Quran teacher cracked her skull after she challenged his insistence that students write Quranic verses on wooden boards and memorize them.

"I started to call him uncivilized and backward and said he lived in the time of ignorance before Islam had come around and this was an outrageous system," she said. The man bashed her head against the wall.

She lied to be accepted as a refugee in Holland, became a Dutch citizen, graduated from prestigious Leiden University and won a seat in the Dutch parliament for a party that was tough on immigration. She became known as a firebrand...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' Hooper contends that she exaggerates to further her agenda.

"She is just one more Muslim-basher on the lecture circuit," he said... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070210/ap_on_re_us/islam_critic



WHILE SHE HAS AN INTERESTING BIOGRAPHY, I FIND IT DISTURBING THAT AEI FEELS TO BRING IN A SELF-HATING, ANTI-MUSLIM IDEOLOGUE... IT SEEMS THAT THEY WANT TO MAKE ANTI-MUSLIM IDEOLOGY THE CENTER OF THEIR VIEW ON ANY NUMBER OF ISSUES... YUCK!!!

[CJCRANE]

1. The neocons are very clever...

they foment all this anti-muslim hatred but then use it as political capital to attack a select group of countries (Iraq, Iran, Syria) while continuing to do billion-dollar business deals with the arab monarchies.

The freepers/Repub base are so gullible, they don't notice this sleight of hand...

[JCMach1]

2. I also appreciate the irony that she was anti-immigration--

and then lost her citizenship in the Netherlands because she lied on her application!

Not to mention living most of her life in exile...

What is clear is that her modus operandi is provocateur. No doubt she will continue that role at AEI.

[rpannier]

3. I'm not sure I'd call her self-hating

I read the article.
Based on her life's experiences, including the murder of van Gogh and the threat on her life that was included in the murder, she probably has good reason to believe what she does.
While the AEI is nothing more than a neocon front, it doesn't make her self-hating.

[JCMach1]

7. anti-immigration, anti-Islam

Wonder where she stands on social issues?

On Edit: it seems like AEI really intends to use her... :(

Someone rescue her before she completely turns to the dark side of the force!

[KharmaTrain]

16. Strange Bedfellows...

I agree with you that there's more to this lady's life than to broad-brush it as "self-hating". Had any of us been exposed to what she had (or claims to), our opinions would be affected as well...it's only human.

AEI is just beefing up on their "Islamofascist" stable...and her "victimhood" is her selling point. The term Provocatur really does apply here as AEI will use her to whip up faux outrage about how women are treated in the Islamic world and she has a platform that will feed her need to "speak out" or feed a need to get attention or both.

[Robbien]

4. AEI hires her in September, Bolten gets UN to turn attention to Somalia in December

Bombs marked made in the USA are dropped on Somalia in January.

[Jonathan50]

5. How can one be a "bigot" toward one's own group?

big·ot (bĭg'ət)
n.
One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

[JCMach1]

6. Seems as if she has almost managed that...

:(

[Jonathan50]

8. Has she renounced Islam? n/t

[JCMach1]

9. From the article it appears so...

[Jonathan50]

10. Given the way she was treated by Muslims I can't blame her for being bitter

[mix]

11. 'Muslims'

perhaps a better way to put it would be to say that certain Musliims oppressed her, i.e. fanatical islamists

she's at the AEI because she tells white reactionaries what they want to hear about 'Islam'

she is being utterly used

[Jonathan50]

13. She certainly has more experience with Muslims than I do.

How about you?

I don't recall hearing about any great outcry from Muslims regarding the way the lady was treated.

If there were so many Muslims giving her support in her battle perhaps she wouldn't have left the faith.

She may be being used, but it is of her own accord.

Most majority Muslim nations are under a greater or lesser extent of Sharia.

[mix]

14. "Muslims" part 2

what do you mean by this term?

also, she is a militant atheist and has little constructive to say about the reform of Islam ; in other words she has cut herself off from this community, from its radical as well as from its moderate elements

her purpose at AEI is to confirm prejudices about 'Muslims' ; i.e. her story, which is highly personal and moving, appeals emotionally and prevents many from seeing that like Judaism or Christianity or whatever, there are many types of Islam and there are many kinds of 'Muslims'


don't fall for it

[Jonathan50]

17. What is a "militant atheist"?

And how does it differ from a "militant Muslim" or a "militant Christian"?

To me "Muslim" means someone who follows the teachings of Mohammed, an adherent of Islam.

Is that a reasonable definition to you?

I hear of radical Muslims, I hear of conservative Muslims and I hear of moderate Muslims.

Is there such a thing as a *liberal* Muslim? I've certainly never heard the term used.

There are indeed liberal Christians.

Do you disagree that most majority Muslim nations live under some form of Sharia?

[mix]

18. sharia

this is a tricky question, since you are right that Islamic law plays an important role in most 'Islamic' or 'Arab' countries ; but why is this?

take Saudi Arabia or Egypt for example, American support has prevented the liberalization or reform of such states and in a sense this is the legacy of colonialism and the result of continued western interference that prizes stability over progressive change : you buy gas, you support sharia-dominated societies

re her militant atheism, this is self-evident : she has taken a hard public stance against Islam and monotheism in general, and considers western liberal secularism as the sole hope of the Islamic world; she is a very polemical and political figure

re 'liberal' Muslims, they exist, they're there if you look

[Jonathan50]

19. So you see colonialism as contributing to the radicalization of some Muslims?

As far as militant atheism goes, I suppose that you could call me a militant atheist. I don't proselytize but I would like to see religion play a less important role in public life in the USA.

No offense intended but I suspect I would be quite unhappy living in most Muslim countries.

Where would one go to find liberal Muslims?

[CBGLuthier]

15. Ask Clarence Thomas

He has had 60 years of experience at it.

[magellan]

12. I love how the AEI/PNAC/neocons like to get indignant over radical Islam

...and will use women like this to spread rancor, but at the same time they're very happy to try and foist fundamentalist Christian values on American women. The oppression and abuse of women under any radical interpretation of faith is a problem, but you won't hear that from these misogynistic liars.