Anti-dhimmitude at...Harvard??? Hirsi Ali to speak Tuesday!

Let the protests (and death threats) begin.

l would love to be there! l wonder how long it will take before you get the usual rabble condemming this women from the usual chair gang!

Who won't be there? Stephen Walt of the Kennedy School won't be there, because he knows what the problem in the Middle East -- and the world, come to think of it -- is. Roger Owen won't be there; he's busy repackaging himself as a student of British quasi-imperialism ("Cromer") to escape from that pro-"Palestinian"-groupie (as J. B. Kelly once described him) past as a lowly lecturer at St. Antony's. Roy Mottahedeh won't be there -- he may already be on the wing (the exams and papers can be phoned in). Diana Eck won't be there; she's busy with the "Pluralism Project." William A. Graham won't be there; he's busy wondering if Summers's departure will guarantee the continuation of his reign as Dean of the Divinity School. Leila Ahmad -- oh Leila Ahmad not only is not going to be there, but she is going to make sure all of her students and colleagues have, in advance, already been slyly poisoned against Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Something like this: "a sad case, one feels for Hirsi Ali as a victim of clitoridectomy, it's a cultural practice that we really are doing our best to stamp out, but she draws so many unwarranted conclusions from that about Islam that, well...all I can say is that she is not a guide to anything, and you of course are free to go, but I wouldn't waste my time if I were you."

Those are just some of the people who won't be there.

Yes but you can be certain that every bearded sexually repressed, hate seething, pimply faced Muslim student will be there, all wondering what access to 1 virgin would be like let alone 72.
(poor ad for celibacy)

Have any of you ever experienced "hate vibes"?
I have, although I will not say how or when, but it is a feeling of physical pressure, as though the air around your body became more heavy, leading to nausea and eventually you become quite claustrophobic and must flee. Very unpleasant. At the time I was with someone else who also experienced it so I did not imagine it(for the sceptics).

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is especially critical of intolerance for dissenting opinions among Muslims, and especially their oppression of women.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali says the emotions incited by her statements among Muslims, underscores the state of Islam. She says that Muslims are incapable of self-reflection. Consequently, any critical remark is perceived as an offensive one and to often it is dealt with a violent or threatening response.

She believes that the Dutch are not sufficiently aware of the threat which a rapidly growing Islam poses for the basic values and norms of Dutch society. Because of her outspokenness on these issues she has received death threats and needs permanent personal protection.

Hopefully there may be some objective MSM writers that will follow this young brave woman while she continues to tour the US.

I think the woman is remarkable. Unlike Ali Sina for example, she always tempers her remarks so that they are free of hyperbole and are thus politically digestible. Yet, she pulls no punches.

(She's not hard on the eyes either)

"And please send us reports, photos, etc."

And your digital audio recorder to post an .mp3 to download (please!).

Good interivew with Ayaan hirsi last year with spiegel

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,356485,00.html

Yes, if anyone gets an audio recording of this I would be happy to post it on my blog for all to hear at their leisure.

Wonderful news. This discussion is worth attending. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a courageous woman who is not afraid to confront Islam and its repressive ways. I hope that dhimiiwatchers and jihadwatchers will attend this discussion to support Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Unfortunately, I live on the westcoast and won't be available to attend this discussion. But I would love to hear a tape recorded link from the discussion.

More on this incredibly courageous woman here:
http://www.somebodyhelpme.info/righteous/righteous.html#hirsi_ali

Isn't that poster a little much? It looks like a Vogue cover rather than a lecture poster. Hirsi Ali is good and all, but isn't she getting too much coverage? Her talks on women and Islam are important but they are hardly as pressing as Eurabia. When will Bat Ye'or be speaking at Harvard? Can we talk about Eurabia now and Muslim women later, please?

Hayaan Hirsi Ali along with Wafa Sultan have made me a neo-Feminist man. What strong brave beautiful women they are. I just listened to Hayaan Hirsi's 60 Minutes interview and somehow it is the same voice as Wafa Sultan in her famous interview on Arab TV. Brave, clear, strong, life-affirming.

We are waiting for a 'Churchill' to awaken the West. Maybe it will be a woman's voice.

Igor:

Your comment reflects a somewhat shallow and supercilious attitude that is a bit narrow and highly uneccessary. We need to hear from all those who can speak about Islam.

Ayaan Hirsi, as well as Bat Ye'or help us to connect the dots regarding Islam as well as many other who bravely, and courageously come forward.

The event is also organized around free speech, and I suspect this is why Thomas Scanlon is involved. This issue has everything to do with Eurabian censorship and the de facto hostile environment on North American campuses when it comes to criticism of Islam. The event itself seems to have a surreal aura: the most important issues of our age discussed by a Dutch-African woman, living under police protection, at an event sponsored by the 'Harvard Dutch Cultural Society', announced (apparently) just one week in advance (one wonders why).

And these strange circumstances might serve as exclamation points to the truth.

Reality is fuzzy, even a little painful, when waking from a dream.

Mackie,

I did not belittle her work, I actually praised it. I showed "Submission" to a very liberal feminist acquaintance of mine and she admitted at how moved she was by the piece. She did not invoke "orientalism" or "racism" because it was "authentic" enough for her. Hirsi Ali is very talented, but so are many other ex-Muslims and Islam critics. I am only suggesting that she step aside for a while and let them speak. I think it is a travesty that people like Ali Sina, Anwar Shaikh, Ibn Warraq, Hugh Fitzgerald, Andrew Bostom, and Bat Ye'or have been either ignored or denounced while Hiris Ali is getting all the praise and media coverage. Some of her detractors (Paul Beilin for example) have pointed out that she is more interested in promoting herself and her pet causes rather than helping the West defend itself from Islam. This glamour shot for a simple speaking engagement certainly makes it harder to defend her against these critics.

My point was that there are more pressing issues than gender apartheid in Islam. Hirsi Ali and Sultan can do much to raise awareness about the plight of Muslim women but how does that help us defend ourselves from jihad and da'wa? As good as she is, is it too much to admit that there are speakers who are more talented than her, who are more knowledgable than her, and that have more IMPORTANT things to say? If so, shouldn't they get more media access than Hirsi Ali? That is why I want to see more Bat Ye'or than Hirsi Ali. Media access is limited so let's not waste it all on someone who is not going to the heart of the argument.

Igor-

You're arguing against human nature.

And a good part of it. Hirsi Ali's natural appeal, and reasoned appeals, each trumps Islam.

Take every voice we can get.

She is living under the literal "shadow of swords" that the Koran encourages.

She needs bodyguards not notpickers.

(I'm not an alumnus, and have to be elsewhere that day, otherwise I'd be in the audience, watching the crowd, so she could watch her declensions.)

Given that she regularly receives death threats and has been evicted from her home after pressure from frightened neighbours, I figure she would appreciate any words of support.

http://ayaanhirsiali.web-log.nl/mailform

Goes to show that with more of the truth of Islam getting out, it is now panic time for the jihadists.

Igor--why should she step aside? The more voices that speak out against that vile religion, the better. And, the better to be done in unison.
I would sure like to see and listen to her. And I would like to listen to everyone who speaks out about islam.

Igor, it's not Hirsi's fault that people are ignoring Ye'or and others.

Video: Ayaan Hirsi Ali Interviewed In Norwegian TV (english)

Forgot to tell:

The interview is from February 2006

Igor,
Ali Sina is hardly a guy to come out and speak publicly. He has stated very often that he prefers the net and communication by writing. He is, like most of us who actively fight this cult, a prime target.

Robert Spencer is very courageous as well.

Fortunately there are more and more like those who are coming forward in spite of the danger of being attacked and killed. Hugh has not posted his picture on the internet, and he´ll probably stick with writing too, instead of going out debating and speaking at universities.

Igor: are you British? If not, you have the classic feature of the worst British kind of behaviour - perfectionism, the habit of qualifying any success story with "of course, not everyone is happy about it" and so on, the notion that nothing must be done until everyone benefits and (even more impossible) everyone is happy. If Hirsi Ali is beautiful, that is hardly her fault; if she looks well on a photograph, sneers about "Vogue shots" will not do anything to help the cause. Beauty itself is something worth pricing and even fighting for, just as the Muslim destruction of beauty is one reason to hate Islam. (It was the destruction of the Bamyan Buddhas that turned me, at the hardly tender age of forty, for ever against the death cult.) And if one person can draw the attention of the world to the horrors and terror of Islam, then for the love of Heaven and of everything decent do not CARP at her! I do not in the least agree with her aggressive atheism, being Catholic, but by God she has done more good than any of the numerous Catholic opponents of Islam from Sandro Magister to Cardinal Pell. An Italian proverb for you: "Il meglio e' il nemico del bene"; "better is the enemy of good". Think about it.

Hirsi Ali is far more than a pretty face. She is a very good speaker - I've heard her on the radio. I have heard Bat Ye'or speak on the internet, and, unfortunately she is not a good speaker.

These things matter. Paolo is right, although I don't think that making the perfect the enemy of the good is a particularly British trait. We have not had here the kind of barmy utopianism that has plagued continental Europe at times.

Bat Ye'or is more impressive in the flesh. When I saw her lecture she was best during the question and answer afterwards.