Choosing liberty, one mind at a time


Which would you rather live under?
If you don't know who Hirsi Ali is, you should.

Several factors make Hirsi Ali's argument devastating. Personal experience is one. The description of her and her sister's genital mutilation, one of many episodes rendered in harrowing detail but with a tone that is elegantly contained, is the fate of young Muslim girls in many countries, including in the "multicultural'' West, today. Another factor is her compassion. This is not the enemy of Muslims speaking, but a conscience that came to value individual freedom above loyalty to clan and obedience to the Koran, precisely because she saw the suffering of those among whom she was raised.

And then there is her autonomy of thinking. She was not converted by anyone nor did she succumb to any party from the "other side." She absorbed the Western canon by herself, often against the advice of Westerners, learning, little by little, the secret of the West's rise: the separation of church and state, individual sovereignty, freedom of trade, the rule of law.

Hirsi Ali does not deny that courageous efforts are made by some Muslims to bring enlightenment to that part of the world. She is aware that, centuries ago, Muslims practiced trade and science, and were instrumental in helping the West rediscover Aristotle and the classics. But she thinks that this history is no justification for Muslims to practice barbaric acts today. The more liberal manifestations of Islam, she maintains, are personal deviations from the Koran and the prophet. "I could no longer," she says, "avoid seeing the totalitarianism, the pure moral framework that is Islam. ... True Islam, as a rigid belief system ... leads to cruelty."

I first heard about her after the van Gogh murder. Intelligent, devout, willing to ask questions, and above all female, she represents in one person all that threatens radical Islam. I will be looking for her book.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - March 16, 2007 at 04:50 AM  Tag


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Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
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