Sunday, January 29, 2006

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the woman who wrote Submission, the film which led to its director, Theo van Gogh, being murdered by someone who took as his own the Koran's instruction to slay those who offend Islam. She is a very brave woman, one who has to live à la Rushdie under armed guard. She is, nevertheless, going to make Submission 2.
Fergal Keane interviewed her on the 24th of January in his series Taking a Stand. You can listen again here. Among much else, she says

"That's why I'm against the theory of multiculturalism. The minute you say, in a liberal society, well, it's freedom of religion to do as you wish within your own community, then anybody who questions the principles of Islam, and anybody who explains and exposes why these principles collide with the principles of universal human rights are labelled racist or Islamophobic, or personally attacked without argument... And it's pretty stupid to say we are going to spread it [freedom and tolerance] to the rest of the world, and we're going to tell the Iraqis how to build a democracy and at the same time stand by and watch how your own democracy is being decayed from within."
There's more at the Wandering Jew, including links to the film Submission and to the script. PC-users may need to download a codec to watch it. It is available here. Download, double-click and install.

No comments: