Posted on 02/04/2007 7:54:30 AM PST by blam
Taking the fight to Islam
In 1989, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali Muslim, supported the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. But on moving to Europe her views changed and she turned against Islam. Two years ago she fled Holland after the brutal murder of her artistic collaborator Theo van Gogh. Who is this fierce critic who lives under the constant threat of death?
Andrew Anthony
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer (UK)
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not the only critic of Islam who lives with round-the-clock protection. But surely none wears their endangered status with greater style. The Dutch Somali human-rights campaigner looks like a fashion model and talks like a public intellectual. Tall and slender with rod-straight posture and a schoolgirl smile, she is a thinker of stunning clarity, able to express ideas in her third language with a precision that very few could achieve in their first. This combination of elegance and eloquence would be impressive in any circumstances. Under threat of death, it is nothing short of incredible.
A little over two years ago, a second-generation Dutch Moroccan by the name of Mohammed Bouyeri sent a letter to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Aside from the destruction of Holland and Europe, Bouyeri called for the death of Hirsi Ali, whom he described as a 'fundamentalist unbeliever' and a 'soldier of evil'. His macabre method of delivering the correspondence was to impale the note in the chest of the filmmaker and outspoken maverick, Theo van Gogh, having already shot him eight times and cut his throat through to the spine. Van Gogh had made a short film with Hirsi Ali called Submission 1, in which lines from the Koran, detailing a man's right to beat his wife, were superimposed on the body of an actress portraying a victim of domestic violence.
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.guardian.co.uk ...
Fight? What fight?
There is no war. We're at peace.
I quit listening to that fellow some time ago. I'll start listening again when he shuts the borders down. Maybe..
Not any more.
Where does such courage come from? Even many brave soldiers would crack under the strain of a death threat that will last forever.
When you're running with tha Caravan you gotta keep yo strong pimp hand. Praise, I mean word! And the cut through to the spine comment, everytime I hear the word "feast" used in the new politically correct everyday speak I want to wretch. It's so barbaric. Where I live there's a local wine and gift outfit that's advertising to people who are celebrating holidays, feasts or events to come in. Feasts? Feast is a medeival term. When we celebrate our holiday of abundance, as a father we might give our teen son the carving knife and have him take his turn at the roasted turkey. What do these folks do for feast? Take a goat to the gutter and cut his throat through the spine whilst alive and kicking that's what. Here son, take your turn at the goat's throat. Cultural diversity my ass.
Most people I talk to about Islam don't have a CLUE to the dangers it poses to our country and our way of life. Some don't even want to hear about it. It totally amazes me. They should run clips of '911' every day on the news to remind people what they are going to face again if we don't stay on the offensive. We are like a bunch of ostrichs. Only our head is up our ...
Hirzi Ali has said many good things, but sadly her view of Islam has made her against religion in general, and in fact she seems to me not enough of a champion of liberty. F.e. did she talk against the tradition of schools in The Netherlands to be run and organized by religions, Chatholic schools, Protestant Schools, and now recently of course Islamic Schools.
I am of course afraid of what they teach in the Islamic schools, but I can´t really want to ban those but at the same time be a hard champion for school choise and the right of people to run their own schools based on christianity. Can I?
About the fight against the islamic facism, here is an interesting song, where Bush is speaking the truth:
http://twinkleboi.com/bushwhacked/8.%20Vidar%20Brennodden%20-%20Their%20Own%20Destruction.mp3
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a true hero. She is an American in spirit!
There was a great article about her in the Wall Street Journal this week, promoting her biography, "Infidel".
Her father traveled to the Netherlands to "fetch" her. She had Dutch law backing her as she told her father to go back to where he came from, and proceeded with her public bellringing about the intolerance of islamists.
What a strong, courageous woman.
Before getting all judgmental about halal methods, it is relevant to point out that halal is essentially identical to Jewish methods of kosher butchering. The Nazis and other anti-semites used kosher practices to show that Jews are cruel and unfeeling.
Yes and it occurred to me as I was writing it. No change in my opinion. Like everything else that made sense back then, it needs to be sanitized for modern life.
Does anybody else think it is a good sign that this article was in The Guardian?
Ayaan BUMP!
On what criteria do you object to halal/kosher practices? The cruelty of these practices is at the very least highly debatable. Certainly halal/kosher slaughter is much less cruel than the deaths often suffered by animals as a result of human hunting.
Perhaps it is the messiness? Such facts of life as what is involved with the slaughter of animals should be kept out of sight? It's okay for Mexicans to kill animals in Nebraska slaughterhouses, but not for Arabs to kill them in their Michigan backyard?
Perhaps half true. To be an American one should respect both the Enlightenment and the Reformation. It was an alliance of the two that made America possible. That alliance today is the GOP at its better moments (imho).
If I understand correctly, a professional kosher slaughter has strict requirements, and there is a trained butcher using implements that have to be kept faultlessly clean and sharp. A swift cut through the carotids will make an animal unconscious immediately and dead very quickly thereafter.
This is different by orders of magnitude from some Muslim who kills a goat for his family once or twice a year, hacking slowly through the poor animal's throat, as with the disgusting videos we've seen of Nick Berg's prolonged death.
One difference between halal killing and kosher, is that in kosher there is a trained butcher (shochet the right word?), whereas halal is often done by clumsy amateurs for the sake of the experience.
There is a NJ slaughterhouse that has kill-your-own halal days - all these men lined up with their families and their animals, and the animals exposed to the screams of the others and the smell of their blood.
Now I know hog butchering could be pretty festive for rural Americans back when, but it was more about the food and the working together than the kill.
Temple Grandin, the autistic designer of animal processing plants, wrote that the initial kosher slaughtering she saw was cruel, with cattle hoisted upside down by their hind legs (must have been terrifying) before having their throats cut. I believe she has since designed kosher facilities.
Mrs VS
Halal requirements for slaughter are almost identical to those of kosher.
I'm sure they aren't always implemented properly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.