Put on this site on June 30, 2006: See also our presentation in french of … encore Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Linked with our following presentations: ‘Muslim protests for pictures‘,
‘Talisma Nasreen – Bangladesh & France‘,
‘le coran et le prophète – in french‘.
and ‘again Muslim Protests for Pictures‘;
She says: If I were to say the things that I say now in the Dutch Parliament in Somalia, I would be killed.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali – Somalia & Netherlands
First my comment: as many Europeans, I like to know me tolerant, multicultural … as a nice, open, progressive individual, good for this humanity. And suddenly I say stop … no more tolerance with people crying at every moment ‘death to … ‘ … to whatever they do not like, to whomever saying anything wrong in their eyes.
Stop tolerance to this integrisme, say NO to this few crowds, able only to cry ‘death to … ‘…
… and we must help the normal, peaceful muslims how to handle this fanatic crowd. To do that, we must first become able ourselves to know what is our reaction. We cannot longer tolerate the continuous abuse of the human rights of women, of individuals having their own ideas … of people no more wanting follow religious rules but wanting follow modern, rational, logical thinking.
If we want the Human Rights followed, we have to defend them. For everybody.
BBC was asking migrants who have been successful in their adopted countries how they got to the top of their field. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an Parliamentarian for the Liberal Party in the Netherlands, with a brief on immigration. Originally from Somalia, she fled to Holland after her father attempted to arrange a marriage for her. Her answer: I left Somalia when I was six-years-old. I lived in Saudi Arabia for one year, in Ethiopia for one and a half years, in Kenya for 11 years, and I live in the Netherlands now. I left Kenya because my father had chosen someone for me to marry. He wanted me to go to Canada, where this man lived. On my way to Canada I made a stop in Germany. I didn’t agree with this marriage, so I didn’t take the plane – I took the train to Holland. You can say I ran away. (Read the rest of this interview on BBCnews).
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, now 36 (February 2006), is the daughter of a Somali politician, she grew up as a typical Muslim girl. In her infant years, she underwent the traditional local ritual of genital mutilation. When Somalia was plunged into turmoil, the family moved to Saudi Arabia, where she was forced to wear a veil and stay indoors. After receiving asylum in the Netherlands, she made an active effort to integrate into Dutch society and quickly climbed the social ladder. She soon mastered the Dutch language and took on cleaning jobs before going to university to study political science.
Mrs Hirsi Ali joined the Labour Party’s scientific office and made a name for herself pressing for the integration of Muslim immigrants and the protection of Muslim women. Calling herself an ex-Muslim, she documented thousands of cases of physical violence of these women, including beatings, incest and sexual abuse, and railed against the Dutch authorities for doing too little to stop these practices.
Death threats: Her statements triggered a torrent of abuse and even death threats, and Mrs Ali found herself on the run again. She went into hiding late 2002 and spent some time abroad, but returned after receiving police protection. She is determined to continue her mission to promote integration and improve the plight of Muslim women. This also explains why she made the unprecedented switch from the Labour Party to the Conservative VVD in the run-up to the January 22 (2003) polls. (Read the rest of this article on Radio Netherlands).
… It was the criticism by the late Pim Fortuyn (the Dutch politician who was killed by an animal rights activists) of the impact of Islam on Dutch society which sharpened her awareness of the threat of Muslim radicalism. Fortuyn openly qualified the Islam as a backward religion and Ayaan Hirsi Ali shares this view. When she was still in the socialist party she wanted to put the issue high on the political agenda. But the party did not support her view, because it was afraid that it would play into Fortuyn’s hands. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is especially critical of the lack of tolerance for dissenting opinions among Muslims, as well as their oppression of women.
According to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the emotions incited by her statements, especially among radical Muslims, underscores the state of the Islam. (Radical) Muslims are incapable of self-reflection. Consequently, any critical remark is perceived as an offense.
She believes that the Dutch are insufficiently aware of the threat which a rapidly growing radical Islam poses for the basic values and norms of Dutch society. Because of her outspokenness on these issues she has received death threats and needs permanent personal protection.
The political controversy now focuses on the question whether a separate Islamic pillar’ has to be created within Dutch society. This approach has been successfully applied before. It was a kind of benign sectarianism. Over more than a century, Roman Catholics, Protestants of various denominations, and non-religious groupings had organized themselves in separate pillars’, comprising primary and secondary schools, universities, newspapers and weeklies, employers’ federations and trade unions, radio and tv stations, sport clubs, holiday resorts, and all kinds of associations. There were relatively few mutual contacts between people in separate pillars. But over the years, because of growing wealth and the desire for more individual liberty, the borderlines between the pillars have worn out. And the system has not prevented the ascent of growing nationhood. Why not apply the same recipe for Dutch Muslim population? The difference is that, contrary to the other pillars’, a potential Muslim pillar’ lacks historical roots in the Netherlands. Therefore, a more promising road to the integration of Muslims in a modern society runs via common education as opposed to pillarized’ education. A Muslim pillar’ will simply perpetuate Muslim apartheid’ within society, both culturally and as regards the labour market, and will also sustain the subservient role of women.
The hostile reactions to her statements from Islamic circles have surprised Ayaan Hirsi Ali. In response, she has declared that it was not her intention to insult or unnecessarily offend people. Therefore, she lately polished her once abrasive language, without compromising, however, on the substance of her message. She now acknowledges that Mohammed is an admirable figure, but that his ideas are due for modernization.
Can this be done? Nader Fergany, the Egyptian lead-author of the ground-braking Arab Human Development Reports insists that Islam is very rich and that there are interpretations of Islam which can easily be accommodated with the values and norms of modern developed societies. (Read more on TCS Daily).
Here her books.
links:
the wandering jew;