Ayaan Hirsi Ali lauded by rights group as example of living the "courage of her convictions"

Outspoken critic raises public awareness of civil-rights concerns about Islamic orthodoxy.

Former Dutch parliamentarian, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is presented the inaugural, "Ziegler Prize for Courage of Convictions," from Community Advocates human-rights group, led by David A. Lehrer in Los Angeles. Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan introduced and presented Ms. Ali with the award.

Ms. Ali describes her courageous transformation from a repressed woman under Islamic culture, to a Western freedom-icon. For exposing the repressiveness of orthodox Islam (including oppressing women, subjugating non-Muslims, and hatred towards Jews), she has been forced to live under constant fear of murder for perceived apostasy. She gives an acceptance speech in this video (runs about 20 minutes):
(Please note that the stage-microphone kicks-in at around 10:55 & adjusts to normal volume at 14:22).

In describing the message Ms. Ali conveys through her auto-biography, "Infidel," Pulitzer-prize winning author, Anne Applebaum wrote in The Washington Post:

Ms. Ali (also) describes how horrified she felt as an adult after Sept. 11, 2001, reaching for the Koran to find out whether some of Osama bin Laden's more blood-curdling statements -- "when you meet the unbelievers, strike them in the neck" -- were direct quotations.

"I hated to do it," she wrote, "because I knew that I would find bin Laden's quotations in there." And there were consequences: "The little shutter at the back of my mind, where I pushed all my dissonant thoughts, snapped open after the 9/11 attacks, and it refused to close again.

I found myself thinking that the Quran is not a holy document. It is a historical record, written by humans. . . . And it is a very tribal and Arab version of events. It spreads a culture that is brutal, bigoted, fixated on controlling women, and harsh in war."

That moment led Hirsi Ali to her most profound conclusion: that the mistreatment of women is not an incidental problem in the Muslim world, a side issue that can be dealt with once the more important political problems are out of the way.

Rather, she believes that the enslavement of women lies at the heart of all of the most fanatical interpretations of Islam, creating "a culture that generates more backwardness with every generation."

Ultimately, it led to her most controversial conclusion too: that Islam is in a period of transition, that the religion as it is currently practiced is often incompatible with modernity and democracy and must radically transform itself in order to become so.

"We in the West," she writes, "would be wrong to prolong the pain of that transition unnecessarily, by elevating cultures full of bigotry and hatred toward women to the stature of respectable alternative ways of life."

That sentiment, when first expressed in Holland, infuriated not only Hirsi Ali's compatriots but also Dutch intellectuals uneasy about criticizing the immigrants in their midst, particularly because both Hirsi Ali and Theo van Gogh went further than the usual criticism of radical, political Islam: Both believed that even "ordinary" forms of Islam, such as those practiced in Hirsi Ali's Somalia, contain elements of discrimination against women that should not be tolerated in the West.

Thanks to this belief in female equality, Hirsi Ali now requires permanent bodyguards. But having "moved from the world of faith to the world of reason," Hirsi Ali now says she cannot go back.

Amazement, Fury, Contempt over the Squandering of Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Hugh Fitzgerald speaks out about Ayaan Hirsi Ali's forced departure from America to the Netherlands due to the Dutch government ceasing funding security for her while residing outside the Netherlands.

"But in any case, what has the American government been doing? Has it offered to pay for her protection? For that matter, has the American government thought about establishing a permanent security force that can be called on whenever speakers on Islam feel the need for such protection? Otherwise, the situation will become like that in Europe, and in the Netherlands itself -- where many will simply fall silent, and a large part of what constitutes free speech will have been silenced.

We have seen examples of people being shouted down in North America, in Montreal and San Francisco, for daring to present a point of view favorable to Israel. We have seen examples of death threats being made. The F.B.I. should be at work, with the police, and all those who make such threats tracked down, charged, and prosecuted.

But it is not the Dutch government alone that may be too hasty, or not sufficiently appreciative of the force and fervor and power of Hirsi Ali. Even more shameful has been the failure of the American government to immediately step in and offer to take over. If Blackwater can be paid billions to protect State Department bureaucrats planning to hand out still other billions in Iraq, then some security firm in this country can be employed to protect Hirsi Ali. She is worth many dozens of battalions, if only what she does and says and stands for were properly understood and promoted.

Ayyan Hirsi Ali, brilliant and beautiful, who should have been on talk-shows, who should have met with Congressional leaders, who should have addressed audiences of generals and other officers at the Pentagon, who should have met with Bush and the National Security staff and the upper (and lower) echelons of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., who should have met with the Clintons and Barack Obama and all the other Democratic candidates, who should have addressed the Senate, instead was denied what she needed -– a life-and-death matter for her -– that security detail. And not a billionaire in America, now busily organizing to “support the Iraq war effort,” not a single person in the Pentagon or in the Executive Branch or in Congress or in the media, appears to have taken note and demanded that she be protected. And not just she, but all others who have proven themselves to be articulate enough to be valuable, or invaluable, in the real war effort.

And what should be done is for Infidels to arm themselves: arm themselves with a knowledge of Islam, not the Islam of the armstongs and espositos and ernsts and bulliets and safis and assorted MESA-nostrans, but rather the Islam of C. Snouck Hurgronje, and Joseph Schacht, and Antoine Fattal, and K. S. Lal, and St. Clair Tisdall and Henri Lammens, the Islam of Ray Ibrahim and Bishop Moubarec and Habib Malik and Charles Malik and Youssef Ibrahim, the Islam of Ali Sina and Ibn Warraq and Irfan Khawaja and Azam Kamguian and Wafa Sultan, and mediagenic, brilliant and beautiful Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whom the government of this country simply couldn’t afford to protect, just couldn’t be bothered. After all, it needs the money to win hearts, to win minds, in Iraq. Or Afghanistan. Or Pakistan. Or Jordan. Or Egypt. Or the so-called “Palestinian” territories.

Amazement. Fury. Contempt." You may read Mr. Fitzgerald's full column in Jihad Watch.

"My View of Islam" OpEd by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

In Newsweek/WaPost's "OnFaith" blog, Ayaan Hirsi Ali chimes in to try to set the record straight:

"The western world would be wise to recognize the realities of Islam, a religion laid down in writing over a millennium ago with violence and oppression at its heart."

Read entire article.