I think I have to elaborate on the case of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, since one individual messaged me in private on MySpace a little while ago and I found his remarks very odd indeed. He actually tried to make Christopher Hitchens and Ayaan Hirsi Ali look suspicious. Moreover, he denigrated one of my friends on MySpace who supported Hirsi Ali on his blog.
In my honest opinion, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is without a doubt the bravest woman on this earth and her treatment by the Dutch government is an outrage against humanity. Every single individual and state that is supposed to support the precious Enlightenment values like freedom of speech, civil rights, freedom of religion (including freedom to not to believe) etc., should of course protect people like Hirsi Ali with all their might. Without people like her, the world would be one miserable place indeed.
I don't see what all this would have to do with Hitchens's opinion piece supporting Hirsi Ali and especially about his past beliefs and his views on the war in Iraq. I don't agree with Hitchens on every issue, but I find all this totally irrelevant to the issue at hand, that is, to the fact that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is hunted by some fundamentalist hitmen and needs 24-hour protection.
Politically correct individuals and other Islam apologists can of course always beat around the bush about the picture some individuals paint of Islam, but the fact is that Irshad Manji, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Salman Rushdie and Ibn Warraq (a pseudonym) are on the Muslim fundamentalists' hitlist. This is because they have criticised Islam (Salman Rushdie originally didn't even do that, he just wrote a satire and they wanted his head for that!).
Who announced a Fatwa for Rushdie's head? Ayatollah Khomeini, a religious Shiite leader of the HIGHEST RANK, a specialist in Islamic law and practise appointed by other erudite Islam specialists. Who are moaning about the Scandinavian cartoons of prophet Mohammad? Yes, the Muslims of HIGHEST RANK, Ayatollahs, Imams and Mullahs, and even the top politicians of Muslim countries. The same goes with Sir Salman's later knighthood by the queen of England.
So, from this fact we must conclude that there are certain forms of Islam that don't accept satire, free speech and criticism of its core tenets. These tenets of course come directly from the Koran and Hadiths. Moreover, from the current state of affairs we indeed must conclude that these forms of Islam are on the rise and in fact the status quo among the Islamic world at present. So, in my opinion, every individual who wants to be intellectually honest, must admit that the core of the problem in the case of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and other people like her is Islam itself. Islam doesn't seem to tolerate free speech and human rights. Quite the contrary.
The first step in making the world a better place is facing the facts. There's no use in trying to change an IMAGINARY world, where Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Nothing changes if we tinker with a world that doesn't exist. So let's face it and make the Muslims understand that they must change their views - based on brutal Iron Age tribal superstitions - and adapt to the ways of the liberal, civil and humane Western world. In other words, they must revamp their religion radically, that is, secularise it. There's no other way out. And we, the Westerners, must help them in this. So let's face the facts and tell the Muslim world what we think about their brutal head-hunting.
