Jan 24, 2006
Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the BBC
Here's a brief but essential interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch MP.
Two thoughts: First, Hirsi Ali's expression of guilt for Theo van Gogh's death is irrational; she didn't cause his death, his murderer did.
Second, I'm glad to see that the first two parts of her"Submission" trilogy have made it into existence. That puts her in a tacit competition with the Canadian-Indian film producer Deepa Mehta, whose"elements" trilogy was nearly scuttled by fanatical Hindu nationalist-fundamentalists at part 3 ("Water"). Here's to hoping that Hirsi Ali outdoes the Muslim fundamentalists as Mehta outdid the Hindu fundamentalists. And here's hoping that the brighter fundamentalists begin to see that if censorship didn't work on Rushdie or Mehta, it won't work on Hirsi Ali or anyone else.
For my own thoughts on the"reform" of Islam, check out my article in the symposium on that topic in the April-May 2004 issue Free Inquiry. NB: The title was decidedly not my idea, and the supposed distance between Ibn Warraq's views and my own is at bottom an artifact of the pro-con format chosen by the magazine's editors.
Two thoughts: First, Hirsi Ali's expression of guilt for Theo van Gogh's death is irrational; she didn't cause his death, his murderer did.
Second, I'm glad to see that the first two parts of her"Submission" trilogy have made it into existence. That puts her in a tacit competition with the Canadian-Indian film producer Deepa Mehta, whose"elements" trilogy was nearly scuttled by fanatical Hindu nationalist-fundamentalists at part 3 ("Water"). Here's to hoping that Hirsi Ali outdoes the Muslim fundamentalists as Mehta outdid the Hindu fundamentalists. And here's hoping that the brighter fundamentalists begin to see that if censorship didn't work on Rushdie or Mehta, it won't work on Hirsi Ali or anyone else.
For my own thoughts on the"reform" of Islam, check out my article in the symposium on that topic in the April-May 2004 issue Free Inquiry. NB: The title was decidedly not my idea, and the supposed distance between Ibn Warraq's views and my own is at bottom an artifact of the pro-con format chosen by the magazine's editors.