Somali born Dutch parliamentarian, and women and refugee rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, resigned her government post, after admitting to lying on her application, for Dutch citizenship. She has been under attack from Islamists, since renouncing her faith in 2002, and being the producer and writer of "Submission," a documentary she made with slain by Islamists filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, depicting the oppression of women under Islam.
A few years ago, Ayaan admitted to lying, to get entry into Holland. It wasn't mentioned until a television show recently, brought up the issue. That fostered the Immigration Dept to revoke her Dutch citizenship.
She is outspoken against Islamists, and has been guarded, since she referred to Islamic culture as backward. Ayaan moved to a fenced community, but was forced to leave, because the residents protested her living there. They thought it put them also in peril.
She was a signer of the Manifesto Facing The New Totalitarianism along with this blog's team member Maryam Namazie.
It is rumored she will be moving to the USA, to work for the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute. I think the European left, should have stood up in her defense. Ayaan should have had all the security and housing, taken care of by the Dutch government. If they didn't give it to her, it should have been done by the left.
She plans a sequel to "Submission."RENEGADE EYE
33 comments:
I meant she should have housing that provides security. She was evicted, by her frightened neighbors.
I noticed that she is being castigated by some on the left because she is going to the American Enterprise Institute(?). The reaction is disappointing since she is a brave and principled voice.
She ought to be commended for her stance against radical islam. I am not real familiar with her personal politics, but I know she was an MP for a conservative liberal party and is going to work for a Neo-con think tank in the US. The last thing this country needs is another neo-con, even if they are an atheist.
I have trouble supporting someone who is going to align themselves with the likes of the American Enterprise institute simply because they have enough common sense not to whisper sweet nothings to a parental figure in the sky. Ayn Rand was an outspoken atheist for christ sake.
Again, i am going off of a limited knowledge of Ms. Ali's personal political beliefs, so i could be way off track.
It is one thing for her analysis to see the totalitarian aspects of radical Islam in a cultural context,like Hitchens and that crew, making her a darling of the Right, and another to extend that analysis, ala Arendt,to see the historical context and the play of superpowers and global capital in fostering and sometimes abetting their attitudes.These structural issues are ignored by the likes of the Enterprise Institute gang .There are other ways of looking at"totality"
"For totalitarian is not only a terroristic political coordination of society but a non-terroristic economic-technical coordination which operates through the manipulation of needs by vested interests...a specific system of production and distribution which may well be compatible with pluralism.." Herbert Marcuse
Here's some of her video interviews, there's also this doctor.
There is the serious problem of radical islam, and anybody can hire as many scholars as they want on that subject.
How were women treated during the golden age of Islam? The wikipedia article, doesn't mention women, and I'm feeling a bit lazy right now.
It is sad that she lied. But people coming from desperate countries can't be blamed too much. Nice that she bashed islamic mullahs. I hope she doesn't become a Billy Graham fan in America.
What else did she lie about?
Interesting discussion here:
http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/530#comment-21160
Ren,
I agree that the European leftists should have taken on her cause, but I am not surprised that they didn't. The hatred of George W. Bush is blinding many leftists to reality; since radical Islamists are reliably anti-American, many leftists feel sympathy towards them, despite other differences.
However, I don't think Bush will invite her to the White House just yet. The American government is quite two-faced about Islamism as well (remember the Danish cartoon controversy, when Bush backed the mullahs against the Danes ?). But AEI might be more progressive than the White House...
Correct me if I'm wrong RE, but isn't Ayaan Hirsi Ali a conservative? Isn't she totally oppossed to the Jihadist/left-wing tandem?
Do you support Ali or her Jihadist detractors?
Though I hear the straw man accusation all the time, I've never met a leftist who felt any sympathy for Islamists. I mean, Islamists are about as far away from leftists as you could possibly imagine. As theocrats, anti-women's rights, anti-gay and pro "traditional values", Islamists are far closer to the American RIGHT than they are to the left.
noserubber: What is your story? Why the tone?
Maps: She told Immigration whoppers. She lived in Kenya, before Holland, for 10 years, not Somalia. I'm sure that is done all the time. Great link.
Florian: I was anti-Islamist before it was fashionable. I supported the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. I don't think she is rightist.
Troutsky: No illusions about AEI.
Sonia: Unfortunately you're right to some degree. The Socialist Workers Party (UK) and their friend Gallaway, always accusing leftists against Islamism, as Islamophobic.
Graemeanfinson: Maybe AEI wants a left cover? When Theo Van Gogh was murdered for filming her project, exposing women's plight under Islam, to me that was an attack on the left.
Brian: It's more than a straw man accusation, in practice. See notes to Sonia. It is not so much as supporting Islamism, it is the hatred of Bush, which diverts from seeing the whole picture.
According to Radio Farda (for Iranian audiance), Ayaan Hirsi Ali denied the report that she accepted the invitation by the American Enterprise Institute. I personally admire her courage and position against the Islamists, but I have always been disturbed because of her affiliation with the leberal party.
By the way, her case right now is being reexamined becuase of international pressure. There is a good possibility that her citizenship might be reinstated.
She's a fake self centred individual with carefully calibrated views which not only helped her establish herself in Holland but became a member of the establishment based on lies and deceit. Now having been rumbled she wants to head off to become a neocon in the states. Sounds to me like the European left should have no truck with her whatsoever. Also sounds like she's heading home.
I suspect a genuine Somalian refugee would be welcomed in the same way.
Yep exactly she is a drifting right winger and a bigot. Claiming to speak out against the bigots only shows her to be a bigot herself as she tars all muslims with the same brush. The left should have no sympathy with her at all.
Jim, what is a "genuine refugee"? Someone 1. already dead, 2. beaten up, raped, starved to death, etc? We can't forgive her that she is alive (and not so well)?
Morbo, and why not? Were she a Catholic tarring Catholics, she would be the perfect anti-bigot, worth of simpathy?
Ayaan Hirsi Ali may have used some deception to gain entry to the Netherlands as a refugee (well she wouldn't be the first asylum claimant to bend the truth). That she lied is academic: what she has said and done since arriving in The Netherlands would very much put her in danger were she be to removed. What Verdonk is or isn't doing about Hirsi Ali's citizenship is just "dick swinging".
General Cucumber: See Mahmood Ketabchi's post about Ayaan Hirsi Ali. If she turns into an imperialist mouthpiece, you're right. The jury is still out.
It was the equality of women, that sparked the uprising, against the PDPA regime. At that time, out of a population of 17-20 million people, the manufacturing sector had 35,000 people. The government supported mullahs were about 250,000 people. The PDPA did a land reform program, established mandatory education for both sexes etc. They did move too fast, considering they didn't have the economic base for their reforms. That forced the Soviet Union to have to intervene. That was the time when Ronald Reagan was proclaiming Osama as a hero. It turned into a proxy war of US against the Soviet Union.
When you hear about an Islamist training camp, remember the CIA was their trainer.
General Cucumber,
I fail to see the difference between her being co-opted by the right wing, and the right wing's claim of Cindy Sheehan being coopted by the left for their own agenda
There is a HUGE difference. Cindy lost a son who VOLUNTARILY enlisted in an army, knowing full well he could be killed. Hirshi Ali was mutilated against her will by Muslim fanatics. Hirshi Ali has a right to hate Islamofascists. Cindy can only blame her son for volunteering...
Ren,
They did move too fast, considering they didn't have the economic base for their reforms. That forced the Soviet Union to have to intervene
Strange cause-and-effect analysis. Let me get it straight: Afghan Communists did a complete mess of things (like all Communists always did, everywhere), and so this 'forced' the Soviet Union to intervene, and that's why you support that intervention.
Communism was an insane, criminal system that had to be eradicated by force. It destroyed the economic prosperity of every country in which it was implemented. It destroyed all freedoms there as well. It was a Communist that killed your hero Trotsky. So why do you defend it?
The only Communist interventions that can be justified are those where moderate Communists overthrew radical Communists (like Vietnam's overthrowing Pol Pot in 1978, Gorbatchev overthrowing Caucescu in 1989, or Krushchev killing Beria in 1953)...
Ultimately it was the cold war being played out.
You have to choose between secularism, women's rights, and mandatory education, or the side of the fundamentalists.
I supported the Soviet Union, just lie a neocon supports the Iraq invasion. I didn't volunteer or send $$. I did at the time have a subscription to The Sparticist League's newspaper.
Sonia, communism is an economic theory and as such cannot be criminal or insane any more than the theory of relativity can be criminal or insane.Should criminally insane individuals hide their totalitarian agendas behind the facade of this theoretical framework, well...
As for "the Left" supporting Islamists, it is possible to support those resisting imperialist aggression while at the same time disavowing their particular cultural agendas. This is the complexity of the real world and modern circumstances we must deal with, a place where all is not simply black or white.
Troutsky,
communism is an economic theory
I COMPLETELY disagree with that. Communism, since Lenin, is really a METHOD of capturing and holding power, by destroying the ideological values and economic self-sufficiency of every individual human being. This METHOD consists of destroying both the individual will (by imposing a collective unanimity of opinion on every subject from atheism to zoology) and the economic independence (by removing private property and making everybody completely dependent on the state for survival).
Not sure if she would be very welcome by the Bush Administration though.
I think the good General is right. Sonia and I, both see the world in left-right terms.
John Kerry during his presidential bid, would say labels don't apply. I think when you have a consistent world view, you have a label along with it.
I think communism, is more than an economic system. There used to be a term thrown around the left. It was economism, a vulgar Marxism. It meant the means of production determined intellectual life. At the same time, communism is neutral, not evil. Capitalism even had its historical place.
Redwine, my point about genuine Somalian Refugee, wasn't about any set level of misfortune that one had to endure. It was about Ayaan Hirsi Ali claiming to be a Somalian refugee after having lived in, relatively stable Kenya for a while before moving on to Holland.
It is very difficult to comment, whilst I can appreciate the possible reasons for such risky behaviour. It only serves to reinforce the dangers of speaking about subjects without considering the wider implications. Such issues if not considered with great caution can result in dire consequences of those ignorant to the full facts of the situation.
You are absolutely right, Obokun
It is very difficult to comment for me as well, whilst I can appreciate the possible reasons for such risky behaviour as openly denouncing genital mutilation of young girls. It only serves to reinforce the dangers of speaking about genital mutilation of young girls without considering the wider implications. The denouncing of genital mutilation of young girls, if not considered with great caution, can result in dire consequences of those ignorant to the full facts of genital mutilation of young girls.
So consider with "great caution" all those "wider implication", and continue to defend those who genitally mutilate young girls...
Just don't expect me to admire you for it...
General Cucumber is quite right on the point that FGM is practised in non muslim countries too. In Kenya for example, a motion brought before the Kenyan parliament in 1996, seeking to ban FGM, was soundly defeated. FGM was also practised among the Ethiopian jewish community.
FGM is wrong but it is not just an issue for Muslims
I always admired the deeply international character of domestic abuse. (The most multiculti thing in history)>
General Cucumber,
FGM is practiced in many non-Muslim, African tribal cultures as well. Are you about to declare a veritable jihad on them too?
Yes.
According to next weeks Time mag: in as much as being an outspoken critic of Islam, she is also very critical of the role of Christianity in politics. She definitely is skilled at controversy
i say- go her!
Was again educated on your blog, Renegade. Liked the Flamenco write-up too.
Hirsi Ali actually began her political career with the left wing social democrats. She only switched to the right of centre Liberal party after she failed to convince her socialist colleaques to speak out against the Islamists.
It is hypocritical for some leftist to criticize her for working with the political right. The fact is, the left never stepped up to the plate when she needed their support.Instead they dismissed her message as "Islamophobia". Many on the left are too brainwashed by "multiculturalism",aka the racism of lower expectation.
So what do you expect her to do?
Actually, Ayaan Hirsi Ali's politics is quite at odd with the American right. She is prochoice and for gay right, among other things.These don't sit well with her fundamentalist Christian would be employer.
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