Ayaan Hirsi Ali Receives Goldwater Award For Liberty

December 11th, 2007 Posted By Bash.

infidel

In case you haven’t heard of her she was a collaborator with Theo Van Gogh on the short film Submission, which got Van Gogh a knife in the chest on a busy street and put her in the category of “Wanted Dead or Dead” by radical islamics. She also wrote a book entitled Infidel. You read her article about Moderate Muslims here a few days ago.

From The Arizona Republic:

The hazards of expressing a controversial view in The Arizona Republic opinion sections run to outraged phone calls, indignant e-mails and caustic Internet comments. For protection, all a writer needs is a thick skin.

The risks couldn’t be more different for Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken feminist and critic of Islamic extremism.

She needs bodyguards and an armored car.

In 2004, an Islamist brutally shot and stabbed Theo van Gogh, her collaborator on a short film about Muslim women. The attacker thrust a knife into van Gogh, pinning a note to his body that threatened Hirsi Ali.

She didn’t back off. She published a manifesto for Muslim women and a personal memoir. As recently as last week, she wrote a scathing op-ed about Sudanese authorities who arrested a British woman for naming a teddy bear Mohammed.

Forced into hiding, Hirsi Ali still speaks out because “there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.”

The Goldwater Institute recognized her extraordinary commitment to freedom on Friday with its annual Goldwater Award for Liberty.

infidel

It would be hard to find a better choice.

Hirsi Ali represents one of the best examples of freedom of expression. She is incendiary, passionate and not about to mince words. She wants the West to reject a “cultural relativism” that leads us to tolerate regimes that oppress women in the name of Islam and that support Islamic schools with radical agendas.

Speaking at Friday’s award ceremony in Phoenix, she said, “We have to believe in the glory of freedom to compete with the glory of martyrdom.”

Her vision is that a vast crowd of fully veiled Muslim women will gather in Washington on some July 4 in the future and, as the bells ring out freedom, throw off their veils.

Hirsi Ali deserves the Goldwater Award not because what she says is right but because it sparks vigorous debate.

Her story has become familiar since her autobiography, Infidel, hit the best-seller lists. Born in Somalia and following her family as a refugee to other countries, she fled to the Netherlands to avoid a forced marriage to a man she’d never met. She became an activist in the cause of Muslim women and was elected to parliament. She resigned last year over a flap about her Dutch citizenship and is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank. Her latest challenge is the Dutch government’s refusal to pay security costs when she is out of the country.

The title of her book underlines Hirsi Ali’s decision to reject Islam.

Some of her critics - and she has plenty - argue that she therefore loses influence with Muslims. They say she focuses on the most repressive, extreme versions of Islam, while ignoring places like Turkey and Egypt, with secular governments and opportunities for women.

But Hirsi Ali points out real problems: the Danish cartoon controversy, the practice of female genital mutilation in many countries under the cloak of religion, the unjust treatment of women (the Saudi rape victim who is being punished herself is just the latest case).

Hirsi Ali raises hackles when she wonders whether there really are any moderate Muslims. Those are fighting words. And that’s good. Because moderate Muslims need to join the debate and raise the volume.

Nods to drillanwr.


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7 Responses

  1. LftBhndAgn

    Glad to hear it. I hope more people are made aware of her and her works due to this. She has earned my respect for her work, way before this award was given.

  2. ticticboom

    There are far too few people like her in this world.

  3. franchie

    I am not sure she is quite blank as she pretends to, cause there were kind of suspitious enquiries on her real past, how she got to Neederland, through Zwitzerland first, and then to America ; well that was what I read a while ago

  4. Dan (The Infidel)

    A brave woman. She deserves the honor. Her book BTW is a compelling read.

  5. mindy abraham

    Got Infidel as a gift over a year ago and loved it. I am glad she got recognized, she deserves it.

  6. TJ (The kafir)

    She is promoting Peace by getting muslims to start a vigourous debate amongst themselves. Only islam can reform their religion, agitators like ali are necessary to get the ball rolling. If the nobel people werent so hung up on liberal causes she would be most deserving of the that award :grin: :mrgreen:

  7. MegaTroopX

    In case you haven’t heard of her she was a collaborator with Theo Van Gogh on the short film Submission,

    If you haven’t heard of her, you are unconscionably ignorant, to put it mildly.

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