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Eboo Patel on Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Eboo Patel, a Beacon author who blogs at the Washington Post/Newsweek website, has a a fiery post about the controversial author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose criticism of Islam and embrace of Western values are, in Patel’s view, based on misconceptions about what both Islam and the West stand for:

To all those who claim Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the new face of the West:

If your ulterior motive is to deepen a narrative intended to make Muslims in North America and Europe seem and feel forever foreign – to write an entire religion out of entire continents for the foreseeable future – I suggest you reflect deeply on your bedrock principles and your core identity.

If you think the West is about marginalizing large groups of people and maligning their traditions, then Ayaan Hirsi Ali is defending it. If you believe, as I do, that the West is characterized by reason and pluralism, then Ayaan Hirsi Ali is attacking its essence.

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One response to “Eboo Patel on Ayaan Hirsi Ali”

  1. Bill Baar Avatar
    Bill Baar

    The only reason we pay attention to Ayaan Hirsi Ali is because of the maniacal Muslims who want to murder her.
    That’s a pretty good reason.
    Theo Van Gogh getting his throat sliced and a message impaled in his chesk helped focus one’s attention too.
    The Dutch filmmaker believed that insulting people was his right as a free citizen. The Muslim fanatic who slaughtered him didn’t agree.
    This is what part of the West and Liberalism is all about.
    Had the West and Liberals drawn the sword earlier in defense of Bosnia’s Muslims, Liberals might be a little more credible.
    It’s sleazy and dangerous for politicians to be scoring points against Islam [Baar: re the Danish cartoons] in a continent where Bosnian Muslims were being put in concentration camps until America intervened.
    –an advisor to Jordan’s King Abdullah quoted page 28 of The Economist of Feb 11, 2006. (My emphasis added).
    …until America intervened…. Khudayr Taher is right: America Is the Prophet of Liberty

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