Lifting the Veil on Ayaan Hirsi Ali
February 20, 2007
Every once in a while, a native informer comes along who is willing to affirm his or her own inferiority in order to help the West rationalize its neocolonial grip on the South. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the latest, and one of the more ambitious among them. This 38-year-old Dutch citizen of Somali origin has built a career on her criticisms of Islam, the religion she renounced after the 9/11, for its “brutality”. Through her unrestrained attacks on Islam, her close friendship with far-right Dutch politican Pim Fortuyn and rabid xenophobia, she rode a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment all the way into the Parliament [on a ticket from the right-wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD)] only to leave for the United States after an uproar over lies she had told to obtain asylum. Presently, she works for the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute. In 2005, Time magazine named Hirsi Ali as one of its 100 Most Influential People of the World.
As her new book, Infidel, scales the charts to reach the New York Times Bestseller list, let us look at who this intrepid feminist really is.
Fact and Fiction
Over the years, Hirsi Ali has produced three books: The Son Factory, The Caged Virgin and Infidel. The latter, presently sits at No. 6 on the NYT Bestseller list, aided, no doubt, by the glowing reviews it received from Washington Post and New York Times. However, in Britain, reviewers seem less sanguine: The Economist writes:
- The facts as Ms Hirsi Ali tells them here do not fit well either with some of the stories she has told in the past or with her tendency in her political writing to ascribe most of the troubles of the Muslim world to Islam…As a young woman, Ms Hirsi Ali’s mother, Asha, does not seem to have inhabited “the virgin’s cage” that the author claims imprisons Muslim women around the world. At the age of 15, she travelled by herself to Aden where she got a job cleaning house for a British woman…Ms Hirsi Ali sounds less frank when she tells the convoluted story of how and why she came to seek asylum at the age of 22 in the Netherlands. She has admitted in the past to changing her name and her age, and to concocting a story for the Dutch authorities about running away from Somalia’s civil war. (In fact she left from Kenya, where she had had refugee status for ten years.)…
- However, last May a Dutch television documentary suggested that while Ms Hirsi Ali did run away from a marriage, her life was in no danger…the facts as she tells them about the many chances she passed up to get out of the marriage—how her father and his clan disapproved of violence against women; how relatives already in the Netherlands helped her to gain asylum; and how her ex-husband peaceably agreed to a divorce—hardly seem to bear her out.
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not the first person to use false pretences to try to find a better life in the West, nor will she be the last. But the muddy account given in this book of her so-called forced marriage becomes more troubling when one considers that Ms Hirsi Ali has built a career out of portraying herself as the lifelong victim of fanatical Muslims.
In the United States, however, the book received a much different treatment. Both the top newspapers, Washington Post and New York Times, gave it glowing reviews (This is in stark contrast with the treatment they usually meet out to authors critical of Israel: the papers got people who are linked to the Israel Lobby to review books by Norman Finkelstein, Jimmy Carter, Robert Fisk, for instance) Each one offers its own gem for our modest amusement.
Washington Post:“The press began to explore her past, discovering the “inventions” that she had used to get her refugee status…Along the way, Hirsi Ali displays what surely must be her greatest gift: the talent for recalling, describing and honestly analyzing the precise state of her feelings at each stage of that journey.”
New York Times: “Ms. Hirsi Ali, at her English-language school, devoured Nancy Drew mysteries and English adventure series, ‘tales of freedom, adventure, of equality between girls and boys, trust and friendship’.”
Girl Power
While she describes herself as a woman who “fights for the rights of Muslim women, the enlightenment of Islam and the security of the West,” Hirsi Ali, according to Lorraine Ali of Newsweek, “is more a hero among Islamophobes than Islamic women”.
This statement would be clealry unfair if all that she and her sister had to suffer, and all that she has courageously decided to make a stand against, are indeed true. The Economist writes:
Another, even more disturbing story concerns her sister Haweya’s sojourn in the Netherlands. In her earlier book, “The Caged Virgin”, which came out last year, Ms Hirsi Ali wrote that her sister came to the Netherlands to avoid being “married off”. In “Infidel”, however, she says Haweya came to recover from an illicit affair with a married man that ended in abortion. Ms Hirsi Ali helped Haweya make up another fabricated story that gained her refugee status, but the Netherlands offered her little respite. After another affair and a further abortion, Haweya was put into a psychiatric hospital. Back in Nairobi, she died from a miscarriage brought on by an episode of religious frenzy. “It was the worst news of my life,” Ms Hirsi Ali writes.
The Identity Crisis
On May 15, 2006, officials of the Netherlands government cast doubt on Hirsi Ali’s status as a Dutch national, because she had provided false information in her application for refugee status. She had later used the same false information when she had applied for, and been granted, Dutch citizenship. The Dutch minister of immigration and integration, Rita Verdonk, moved to annul her citizenship, a move that was later overridden on the urging of Parliament.
Shilling for the Israel Lobby
Hirsi Ali is at present a resident scholar at the neocon hotbed, American Enterprise Institute and in an interview with the Chairman of the Board of Fellows at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Manfred Gerstenfeld, she expressed a remarkably favorable view of the country.
- My main impression was that Israel is a liberal democracy. In the places I visited, including Jerusalem as well as Tel Aviv and its beaches, I saw that men and women are equal. One never knows what happens behind the scenes, but that is how it appears to the visitor. The many women in the army are also very visible…
- Whether one arrives from Ethiopia or Russia, or one’s grandparents immigrated from Europe, what binds them is being Jewish. Such a bond is lacking in the Netherlands.
The only problem she saw with Israel, on the other hand, was that the country “has a problem with fundamentalists,” he ultra-Orthodox, “will cause a demographic problem because these fanatics have more children than the secular and the regular Orthodox.”
The responsibility for the “dilapidated” condition of the Palestinians, on the other hand, she lays on Palestinians themselves, and she chides Europeans for seeing an end to occupation as the solution to their problems.
- “The crisis of Dutch socialism can be sized up in its attitudes toward both Islam and Israel. It holds Israel to exceptionally high moral standards. The Israelis, however, will always do well, because they themselves set high standards for their actions.
- “The standards for judging the Palestinians, however, are very low. Most outsiders remain silent on all the problems in their territories. That helps the Palestinians become even more corrupt than they already are. Those who live in the territories are not allowed to say anything about this because they risk being murdered by their own people.”
Freedom of (Hate) Speech
One of the incidents that propelled her to stardom was her collaboration with Theo Van Gogh on a film, Submission. Van Gogh was subsequently murdered by an enraged Moroccan over the offensive content of the film, who also left a death threat against Hirsi Ali on the corpse. Although Van Gogh was immediately hailed as a martyr for freedom of speech by some liberals — and every Islamophobe — few mentioned the man’s (well known) rabid racism and bigotry, which included calling Muslims “goatfuckers” and suggesting that Eveline Gans, a Jewish historian, “gets wet dreams about being fucked by Dr Mengele”.
February 20, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I think this post addresses exactly your point:
http://homeyra.wordpress.com/2007/02/20/critique-of-diasporic-memoirs/
February 20, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Just now I finished writing a comment on somebody else’s blog. I’ll copy and paste:
her eloquence struck me. one has to be beaware of her eloquence while listening to her. As you pointed out while talking about chomsky.
First and foremost, she seems to be oversimplifying. She says “the world was divided into Muslims and the enemies of Islam, and we have to take on the enemies…”
How many of the Muslims you know think this way?
2
I found it rather funny: When told that most women choose to wear the veil, the interviewr responded: “why do women believe in their own oppression?”
Reminds me of a story. A man, sure that he was dead, was taken to the psychiatrist. When the doc pricked his finger, and showed him that his blood is still flowing, he came “oh! I didn’t know dead men have blood flowing!”
3
The analysis how the fundamentalists come to be seems to be correct. They project themselves as a viable alternative to a non-benefitial government. Even in India, that is how ASSU, a fundamentalist organisation took hold.
4
She said that “even though many of the muslims may dislike the 911, when bin Laden confronts you with the Qur’an and the Hadeeth Muslims admit that they are defying God!” I found this absolutely baseless. Lots of Muslims are trying to shout on top of their voice, to confront bin-Laden with quotes from the Qur’an and the Hadeeth!
4
And then when the presenter asks her: “are all the muslims who call us and tell that Al-Qaeda is perverted”, she confronts “there is a verse in Qur’an “kill the unbelievers”
There is a verse that asks to kill “those who fight you”. no verse in Qur’an asks to kill anyone unprovoked. If you doubt, go to my blog or, download the Qur’an and read it.
By the way, there lives a few millions of christians by descent in Arab from the times of Muhammad.
The most funny statement: “The Jews and the Christians have found a way to live with the present, to reconcile humanism with religion- well we see examples of humanism in and around Israel everyday.
Not to forget that she is being funded by the Neocons.
February 21, 2007 at 4:51 am
Very well said Manas.Actually let me elaborate on the humanism of christians and Jews as we all know that whatever this woman has said about Quran is false and baseless.Everyone must be knowing the Jenin messacre in Palastine.A Jewish soldier said this in a documentary by ‘Australian network’.The soldier said his general called them and said ‘we are going to attack them.get ready’.they entered Jennin (a city) with tanks.Then the soldier asked ‘Sir what is our target’.The reply was ‘Whatever you see is your target.destroy everything’.UN wanted to investigate on this issue but then Israel was lucky to get away.Arab prince visited Bush and asked him to pressurise Israel to stop the massacre or else he would end ties with the US.In Irael, prime minister allowed the surveys by UN inspectors.But the general was so angry at this decision that he announced ‘If they come to survey us, I am going to resign’.When asked why he reacted in such a way, he replied ‘If the inspectors come, they will find our soldiers at fault and charge them under ‘crimes against humanity’.So the prime minister set a deal with Bush – ‘We will withdraw our troops from Jennin in return, you have to stop the UN inspection’.Bush agreed and the inspection was siezed.Even if these people are caught red handedly (like Bush was caught lieing about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq), they wont stop their mass destruction of cities out of greed and vengeance.
February 23, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I just thought I’d mention my own views on hijab…
The Abrahamic faiths emerged in the Middle East, one of the sunniest regions on earth. Most of the Middle East has over 3000 hours of sunshine per year. The Abrahamic faiths tend to recommend long, loose, flowing clothing – exactly the type which is best to wear in a desert climate, from a utilitarian point of view. Perhaps the Abrahamic religions’ modesty exhortations are actually a form of Middle-Eastern cultural imperialism?
By contrast, modern Western civilization emerged in northwestern Europe, which is one of the cloudiest regions on earth. Most of Scotland and Ireland for example get less than 1000 hours of sunshine per year. Many Westerners feel acutely deprived of sunlight and long to take holidays in sunny countries where they can expose themselves. Given this, is it not surprising that when many Westerners see the covered-up Muslim woman they think: “She can’t possibly be wearing all that out of her own free will – someone (ie her husband) must be forcing her to”? Also, one may note that the culmination of this tendency – nudism – is most popular in Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands, rather than the warmer countries of southern Europe.
(Incidentally, I wonder if sunny places colonized by Westerners – Australia for example – may see a gradual trend towards more modest clothing, as they move away from their northern European cultural roots?)
An interesting aside is that almost all of the regions of Europe with more than 2000 hours per year of sunshine were under Muslim rule at some point in their history (peninsular Italy being the exception), while almost none of the parts of Europe with less than 2000 hours per year were ever controlled by Muslims.
March 6, 2007 at 3:48 am
No one really believes in the Jenin ‘massacre’. It was an invention for the gullible idiots who believe what they see on the 10 second sound-byte of CNN. Ahmed, grow up and stop believing nonsense.
March 6, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Yep, no one, except Israel’s acclaimed historian Ilan Pappe, and the rest of the world.
March 20, 2007 at 1:12 pm
[...] I notice that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is making the rounds in the US and Australian media even when her fabricated past has been exposed and thoroughly discredited. I wonder what this savior of Womankind has to say about the following: As the UK marks 200 years [...]
April 22, 2007 at 1:48 am
[...] discrimination in the United States. The warm welcome that Ayaan Hirsi Ali has received, despite her fabricated past and her association with the far-right American Enterprise Institue, is a good indication of how [...]
May 16, 2007 at 2:15 pm
People need to wake up!I never would have believed that the left would turn against a woman like Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It has become a truly backward and twisted world when the left attacks an individual who is attempting to shine light on abuse, tyranny, corruption, and oppression of free thought, and speech. What the hell is going on! All of her detractors should be ashamed of themselves. But of course you do have the freedom to express your wrong headed opinions anyway don’t you!
May 16, 2007 at 2:21 pm
attempting to shine light on abuse, tyranny, corruption, and oppression of free thought, and speech
Wow, had I known that, I would have supported her with all my heart. At least she is in the right place for that. US in general, and the American Enterprise Institute in particular. At least I know that Hirsi Ali’s mutilated clitoris is about as real as the WMD’s AEI promised we’ll find in Iraq.
So tell me o enlightened one. Which other American Enterprise Institute projects you are also concerned we aren’t supporting enough?
May 17, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Would anyone like to attempt an informed, intelligent response to my post? If so I will gladly engage in discussion.
May 17, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Since you asked for informed, lets talk about the woman who gets raped every third minute in the United States. I am curious what your contributions have been towards highlighting the abuse inflicted on them. Perhaps you could also tell us what you have to say about other AEI connected commentators who think those women deserve it because they were asking for it?
May 18, 2007 at 1:12 am
@Tara
All of sudden the shamelessly biased western media has become a “crusader” for Muslim women.
I just want to tell you all that we Muslim women are not dumb enough to think of those people as our sympathizers, who label our sons and husband as terrorist and carpet bomb them alongwith our women and children wherever and whenever they can.
What do you people know about Muslim women????? We are treated like queens by our husband and our sons worship even the dust under our feet.
If you hate our men PLEASE hate us too since we are the mothers, wives and sisters of these men and we are the greatest influences in their lives. WE HAVE MADE THEM WHAT THEY ARE!!!!!!!!!
p.S. speaking of this aryan woman instead of pining over this scam artist why don,t you take care of the thousand of real aryans in your own streets.
May 18, 2007 at 5:01 am
Tara,
The very connection she has with Israel, as pointed out in this post, clearly says what she is, and about her goal.
Forget about her fabricated past to seek asylum in netherlands.
Just have a look at her statements once again during her Israel visit. It is crystal-clear to everyone that Israel is a state of terror, and violates every bit of human rights. Do you think, besides her pro-israel stand, she is an advocate of human rights.
I am not to deny that Wahabism, a form of what they call as Islam, being practised in corrupt countries like Saudi Arabia denies the rights of Women. Wahabism’s backward stand roots on the scriptures written 200 years after the death of Muhammad. Instead of tackling these scriptures for the cause of women rights, Hirsi Ali Attacked Koran without any basis in her movie, Submission. Was n’t the haterd the reason behind ? Certainly she is not the mentor of Muslim women.
Let me not go into religion since it may not be of your interest. Just go by her political-stance. It does n’t say she is after human rights.
May 18, 2007 at 11:16 am
People shouldn’t have preconceived, even racist views about how Muslim men treat Muslim women. This, however, works both ways. A small minority of Muslim men should not think all western women are without any morals/self-respect.
May 18, 2007 at 4:35 pm
[...]A small minority of Muslim men should not think all western women are without any morals/self-respect.[...]
Would you please state who are the small minority of Muslim men? These generalizations have become redundant and is in itself “racist”…
May 18, 2007 at 4:57 pm
I agree, I was surprised too
May 18, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I’m not generalising I’m saying there are the odd one or two. I’m quite happy with people generalising that there are some people in the west and elsewhere who have preconceived and wrong ideas about how Muslim men treat Muslim women. I have spoken to some of them and they are supremely ignorant. However they do not have a monopoly on ignorance unfortunately. To be fair, a great many women, particularly in the west,(look at our cultural icons) are quite loose…not all of us, though.
May 18, 2007 at 7:39 pm
One or two examples have only anecdotal value, with little scientific significance. The question here is not of perceptions (or misconceptions), which may or may not be widespread. The question is to what degree they receive institutional sanction from the ruling elites. Hirsi Ali has been courted by people on both sides of the political spectrum — perhaps understandably by the right, but surprisingly enough also by the progressives. In supporting her bigotry, which validates their own prejudices, the progressives seem to have overlooked the minor fact (accuracy aside) of her ties to the same extreme right neoconservative American Enterprise Institute that only recently sold them the Iraq war on fabricated evidence. There is no evidence of a similar bigot assuming star status in the Muslim world.
Re: women in the west. No one here is trying to assail their character. What is being pointed out is that domestic abuse etc is just as widespread, if not more so, in UK and US. So even if Hirsi Ali’s stories were real, it would still be hypocritical for some American woman (more often it is white males, and usually they choose time and location for their benevolent attention according to the intended targets for the latest imperial adventure) to claim to champion their cause. Prmarily because they haven’t even educated themselves on the history and achievements of the struggles of the women they are claiming to support.
May 18, 2007 at 7:48 pm
I completely agree.
November 25, 2007 at 5:30 am
Unfortunately, this blog is characterized by ad hominem attacks. There is no rationality to it. It is unbelievable, discreditable. Hirsi Ali’s work is too important and too widely accepted to be affected by the contents of this blog. In fact, the attacks herein serve only to support Hirsi Ali’s contentions. All religions have this in common, that they are incapable of enduring the light of truth and reason.
November 25, 2007 at 1:56 pm
‘truth and reason’ — like the ones about her childhood, her sister and her marriage you mean?
Or perhaps you are so defensive of her because she provides a useful cover to the racism of the likes of you? (as Uncle Tom did, in the days of slavery).
January 14, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Has it really come to this, after decades spent trying to raise the consciousness of both women and men on the issues of female oppression? I can hardly believe what i have read in some of these comments, in the degree to which they are denigrating a brave woman who has dared to speak out against one of the basest forms of brutality against women, ie genital mutilation and the slicing off of a woman’s clitoris. A woman who has spoken out not just from her own first hand horrific experiences, but with intelligence and sensitivity in what is mostly a superbly well-written book.
Reading her story as a woman, it took me beyond party politics and religious politics to a place of seeking human justice, and in this case, female human justice. i’ve marched out countless times against the invasion of Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq and will continue to speak out against the attempts to villainise the Muslim faith, but this does not stop me from responding in a simple human way to Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s call to bring an end to the unbelievable cruelty she and her sisters around the world have suffered, all couched in the name of religion. If I didn’t support her call that would make me a hypocrite, and a callous one at that.
I don’t subscribe to Ayaan’s political leanings, but i unhesitatingly admire her rare degree of strength and courage. She’s a true heroine and i hope she succeeds in her campaign to free women from this torture.
January 14, 2008 at 7:53 pm
…a brave woman who has dared to speak out against one of the basest forms of brutality against women, ie genital mutilation and the slicing off of a woman’s clitoris.
She actually speaks about Islam, and genital mutilation has nothing to do with Islam. As for her alleged circumscribed clit, as I said, it is about as real as the WMDs her employers told us we’d find in Iraq.
with intelligence and sensitivity in what is mostly a superbly well-written book.
American Enterprise Institute is one of the most well funded neoconservative think tanks. I have no doubt they’d arrange a first class ghost writer for her. As for intelligence, I guess it is in the eye of the beholder. To some racists even the rants of Strum Thurmond sounded ‘intelligent and sensitive’.
Reading her story as a woman, it took me beyond party politics and religious politics to a place of seeking human justice, and in this case, female human justice.
I hope the story of women’s slavery in Britain and the fact that the primary cause of death in UK for women under 35 is domestic violence (in other words, ‘honour killings’) makes you feel the same. Since you are much better placed do so something about that. Unless of course you merely want to relive your colonial fantasies of saving them brown, black and yellow ones.
responding in a simple human way to Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s call to bring an end to the unbelievable cruelty she and her sisters around the world have suffered, all couched in the name of religion.
Curious. I am sure you are aware that Hirsi Ali vocally supported the invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan. 1 million dead in Iraq. 4 million made refugees. 1.1 million internally displaced. A large number of the refugees reduced to prostitution. All that misery wreaked not by religion, but a commercial crusade cheered on by the likes the of ’sister’ you are here to defend.
If I didn’t support her call that would make me a hypocrite, and a callous one at that.
You are not just a callous hypocrite. You are also rather ignorant.
I don’t subscribe to Ayaan’s political leanings
..and this is why you are a callous hypocrite. As I pointed out, Hirsi Ali’s ‘politicial leanings’ have caused mass misery.
but i unhesitatingly admire her rare degree of strength and courage.
…you forgot to add ‘imagination’. Why? Because she confirms your racist prejudices?
She’s a true heroine and i hope she succeeds in her campaign to free women from this torture.
Like the half a million Iraqi women who have been freed from the torture of existence? Or the other 2 million who have been reduced to destitution and in some cases prostitution?
January 15, 2008 at 8:55 am
Just recently, I was frantically looking through my local library catalogue in an effort to find children’s literature pertaining to Islam and Muslims that might help foster an understanding and appreciation of religious and cultural diversity. Unfortunately, though I had the displeasure of finding a section in the catalogue called Islam – controversial literature, which included an assortment of books from authors jumping on the current Islamophobic literature bandwagon. Titles included, ‘Beyond belief: excursions among the converted peoples’, ‘Why I am not a Muslim’, ‘The malady of Islam’, ‘The trouble with Islam’ and even more sinister, ‘The truth about Muhammad: founder of the worlds most intolerant religion’.
Feeling disgusted and frustrated, I made a request for the library to purchase some more Muslim friendly juvenile literature. I would also like to do the same thing at my children’s public school library when school resumes, but would like to ask the Muslim brothers and sisters who might be reading this blog, if they can recommend any specific titles?
I was prompted to do this search after having a conversation with my youngest son (he’s 7 yrs old) when during the course of the discussion he mentioned the word “terrorist”. I can’t recall what we were even talking about now, but at the time I was so shocked to hear him use this word that I just stood their like stunned mullet wondering how I might reply. After a little while, I managed to muster up the courage to ask, “do you know what a terrorist is, love? To which he disturbingly and simplistically replied, “those people that wear those things over their faces and they cover their faces and just their eyes can see out.”
At that moment the world seemed to stop and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Realising he was talking about Muslims or more specifically Muslim women, I just stood there trembling, heart racing and feeling overcome with panic and distress. Given that I’ve always despised all forms of racism, and bigotry and my children’s father is a Muslim, the whole scenario was incomprehensible to me. Feeling nauseous, and at that moment completely bereft of anything intelligent to say, I can vaguely recall blurting out a whole heap of stuff that is now a blur.
In the past my family and I had a lot of contact with certain segments of the Muslim community in Sydney, and we had lots of Muslim friends but after my mariage breakdown and my ex returned to his country of origin, and I moved to a small predominately anglo town, I lost all contact with the people I previously knew. There are very few Muslims here and I’ve just realised, as a result of this incident, how insular weve since become.
Also, there’s no way my son could have made any association between Muslims and terrorists from me, so he’s obviously picked this up somewhere in the wider community. It’s a very difficult issue to address and I’m now wondering how I can give my children a more meaningful understanding and contact with Muslims and other cultures in general. Any advice would be dearly appreciated.
My apologises Muhammad, for taking the discussion/replies on a different and more personal tangent. Stuck Mum.
all the best.
January 15, 2008 at 9:29 am
P.S Geez my post sounds truly awful, I know. My sincere apolgises to the Muslim brothers and sisters for any unintended offense caused, especially to the hijab and burqa wearing sisters.
January 15, 2008 at 10:14 am
Muhammad,I condone the suffering and oppression of fellow human beings wherever I see it, and sadly there is plenty of it as you say in my own country (UK). I agree with you that this is where i am best placed to make a difference and try to help bring about the changes many of us would like to see, and this is why first and foremost my campaigning efforts concentrate on bringing pressure to bear on my own government to change their hideous policies.
It is also true that i am in no position myself to work directly in outlawing the brutality of female genital mutilation, but that does not forbid me from deploring it, and supporting those, such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who are actively trying to ensure that other women do not have to endure the same fate as her own.
And before you come back yet again with your unproven assumption that she lied about her own horrendous genital mutilation, i defy anyone who has read her book to accuse her of lying about this. The writing rings unbearably, chillingly true. The graphic detail of how her clitoris was sliced off like the sound of a butcher cutting into meat and the rest of the sordid ritual (carried out by her grandmother, against her father’s wishes i should add)is beyond what any imagination could dream up.
What i am curious about is why you keep distracting the discussion away from female mutilation? Irrespective of whether you think Ayaan Hirsi Ali was telling the truth or not, and irrespective of the fact that it has nothing to do with Islam, at no time on your blog have you agreed that it is a brutal, cruel and inhumane act. Does this mean you support it? Or does it simply mean you haven’t thought about what it might be for a woman to have this done to her? Imagine what it would be like then as a four year old boy to have your testicles sliced off with the kitchen knife. Gruesome.
No one, man or woman, should have to suffer that, wouldn’t you agree?
January 15, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Paula, your prejudices are further revealed by your fervent support for Hirsi Ali without having even considered her agenda or any information that Muhammad has presented that suggests her books are exploitive of Muslims, seemingly not written in good faith and simultaneously appealing to a Muslim hating audience.
You reinforce your prejudices by swiftly and ridiculously presuming that Muhammad is either ignorant of genital mutilation or in some way supports it. That is a very Orientalist type projection and since you deem it acceptable, it really only demonstrates your own inherently bigoted and xenophobic mindset.
January 15, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Genital mutilation is a primitive African custom which is unfortunately still practiced there among. We Muslims in other parts of the world haven’t even heard of that and it has nothing to do with Islam.
January 15, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I mean its still practiced in Africa among many tribes.
January 15, 2008 at 5:13 pm
What i am curious about is why you keep distracting the discussion away from female mutilation? Irrespective of whether you think Ayaan Hirsi Ali was telling the truth or not,
To me it matters whether she is telling the truth or not. Her book is called ‘Infidel’; she has marketed herself as a commentator on Islam. She used her position in Netherlands to deny the right to those she purportedly champions, from which she herself had benefited. In US she is employed by a neoconservative think tank which has its anti-Islam political axe to grind. The veracity of her statements bear on attitude towards 1.2 billion people. She appears on TV as a commentator on Islam (and if there is any mention of genital mutilation, it is only as a subset of all the other ‘evils’ of Islam). As you just acknowledged, genital mutilation has nothing to do with Islam. It is reprehensible. But it has nothing to do with me. So I am not sure what the implications of my taking a position against it would be?
and irrespective of the fact that it has nothing to do with Islam, at no time on your blog have you agreed that it is a brutal, cruel and inhumane act.
I have also not taken a position against Penis-worship, practiced among some aboriginal tribes. Doesn’t mean I consider it a fab idea.
…i defy anyone who has read her book to accuse her of lying about this.
She has lied about pretty much everything of relevance, so it is fair to assume she is lying about her clitoris, which it is likely that no one would ever want to verify. But the question is not whether she has a mutilated clitoris or not. Maybe she does. But what’s its relevance to Islam?
The writing rings unbearably, chillingly true.
Is that not what a good fiction writer does? I just finished Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, and he describes the death of a soldier whose bowels fall on the floor. The writing rings unbearably, chillingly true. Shall I assume Heller had his bowels shot out in order to write the passage?
If you are truly concerned about the practice, which is clearly reprehensible, why are you choosing a deeply flawed advocate who is using the issue in the service of her personal agenda? I am sure you will find people working on the issue who aren’t similary tainted. The only people who turn to Hirsi Ali are those who seek to mask their racism in a humanitarian garb.
January 15, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Paula,
Ayaan Hirsi ‘Ali’ (Her correct name is: Ayaan Hirsi Magan { http://fanonite.org/2008/01/03/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-true-story/ } ), uses the common mis-attributes of Islam to further her career and oppurtunities.
The backward and women suppressing nature of the western perspective of “Islam” does not find support in the actual philosophy of Islam. In a sense, Islam was calling for justice for the people while the other religions were against them.
Later, arab traditions infiltrated the religion through certain texts which the Wahabis brand as authentic. Examples of such texts: Bukhari and Muslim. They were written after 200-300 years since the death of Prophet Muhammad. These texts enshrines the Arab traditions into Islam in the name of Prophets traditions and thus make an illusion that Islam is not compatible to all sections of the societies all over the globe.
Quran is not in this tone. It is very attractive to all, I hope.
But, even these texts do not contain anything about ‘genital mutilation’ which Hirsi ali and her AEI intelligence aides attribute to Islam.
Hirsi ali has found a good fortune thus succeeded in her attempt.
January 16, 2008 at 12:53 am
Waris Dirie , in her brilliant biography “desert flower” , the translation of her name into English and the UN Special commissioner for the Elimination Female Genital Mutilation ( official title) clearly states in her that this practise in totally unIslamic and is only a cultural trait in a part of Africa.
It is totally unheard of in The rest of the Muslim World.
if you are genuinely interested in the abolution of this practise then go no further than waris dirie , if you are interested in using this very serious issue to about justifying unspeakable colonial acts on the Islamic world under the guise of liberation or civilising the natives then stick to quoting intellectual Chalabites in you must.
Incidently Catch-22 is a top book , great ending of Human spirit triumphing over corporate/military ( and now , rather sadly , uber-euro-feminist-cluster-bomb-veiled) fiddlesticks.
January 16, 2008 at 6:15 am
“it is fair to assume she is lying about her clitoris, which it is likely that no one would ever want to verify”
err.. Irshad Manji might.
“Incidently Catch-22 is a top book”
Good to hear cause I had this book on my 2007 must read list but I didn’t get around to it. The recommendations here have renewed my interest.
January 16, 2008 at 11:28 am
Catch -22 is well worth the effort as it has a profound hopeful ending not a lot short of the film Shawshank redemption that is little talked about.
If , as many People do , you struggle with the earlier part of the book , which to be honest contains the constant variation of the same joke revolving around itself ( which at the time was a major breakthrough of challenging patriotism/loyalty to the flag etc , but now would be regarded as old hat ) is suggest you skip to Chapter 24 (Colonel Miko) about 2/3 thirds into the book and read on from there.
Thats when the narritive of the Book kicks off and a freshness kicks in.
Once you have enjoyed that you can start from the beginning if you see fit.
All in all a very rewarding read , and whats more , probably more relevant today than when written in that it was the first negative look at corporate entities at a time when only good was thought about them and where they would lead the world.
Good luck with it!
January 16, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I on the other hand wouldn’t recommend skipping any part of it. I found it intelligent, wickedly funny and still very much relevant throughout. I agree with RS, that that real social commentary, especially the sharp satire on ideology, free market capitalism and militarism only begins with Milo’s story. However, the iteration of the same joke under differing circumstances is precisely the device that brings it to life.
Also check out Salughterhouse-Five
January 17, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Thanks guys, I appreciate the elaboration. I went to my local library this afternoon to try and get a copy but had to end up ordering it in from another library in the surrounding district. They did have a talking book copy though which they were discarding! I cringed when I saw that but the librarian assurred me that it was probably due to being damaged beyond repair.
Anyway, I ended up getting the novel ‘Does my head look big in this?’ by Randa Abdel-Fattah which I had been wanting to read for awhile. I also thought I’d try a more seemingly incidental approach with the kids (how subtle!!) as opposed to the maniacally, hysterical one I adopted last time. *rolls eyes*
My conniving plan seemed to work as the kids were curious about my reading (hopefully not cause they saw the picture of the hijab adorned girl on the cover and thought, Oh no!! why is Mum reading about terrorists?!?!) *sigh*
I had to suppress the urge to start my whole ‘Muslim’s are not terrorists’ lecture again when my youngest son gave me his exasperated, tortured ‘ok Mum we get it now’ look!
Anyway after my eldest son showed interest, I gently suggested that he might like to read it “cause it’s really hilarious”, (all the while thinking apart from that the protagonist is totally kick ass, heroic, intelligent, wise, self aware and makes being a nerd look extremely cool!)
After smugly thinking how genius my strategy was I then wanted to slap myself after remembering an earlier incident in the week when we were looking for books together and after reading the back cover of one, I
idiotically remarked, “I don’t think this is a good book for you,love”. Naturally, his curiosity instaneously quadrupled, snatching the book out of my hands he say’s, “ahhh it’s probably really good then”. So much for my cunning plan!
Anyway, Muhammad, apart from everything else you do I really appreciate the library section on your blog and I was wondering if you might consider starting an additional section for regular blog contributors to post their specific or current reading recommendations as I suspect that many of us have common interests. Just a thought. All the best.