Dean's World

On Sunday, Judith, Jeff and I went to hear Ayaan Hirsi Ali speak at PEN's 'World Voices' tour.

The basic points of the talk: Ayaan Hirsi Ali told New York Liberals to respect their enlightenment values. Interviewer Gourevitch wondered what was to be done with this difficult woman. The audience responded by giving her a five minute ovation. I'm surprised we didn't light candles and do the wave.

Speaking for myself, we weren't just clapping because we agreed with her or because we admired her bravery. We were clapping because she could express feelings that we no longer can. Like Wafa Sultan and many pro-democracy activists in the Middle East, Hirsi Ali understands and loves liberal and enlightenment values. Ms. Ali tried to communicate that love and passion to us, but even the basically sympathetic audience didn't really get it. Some people giggled uncomfortably when she mentioned freedom and the joys of owning property; they were like a bunch of junior high-schoolers listening to passionate love song - they wanted to hear more, but the subject was so embarrassing.

The best surprise: Salman Rushdie, author of the Satanic Verses, sat near the stage. Early on, the soft-voiced Ali confessed that as a young Muslim, she protested in favor of his death. Later she admitted that she had wanted to burn his book. "Not just the book" he quipped.

Ali describes herself as a Muslim atheist. She speaks out in favor of bringing the enlightenment to the Muslim world. Like Irshad Manji, her message is that Muslims need to question the authority of their Imams and of Mohammed. Muslims need to think for themselves.

She said that there are many Muslims and former Muslims out there who believe the same thing - but they're not willing to say so out loud, because they fear the wrath that the Islamists will stir up. She hopes that the West would defend their own values and the lives of the whistle-blowers of the Muslim world.

That is basically the message that has prompted death threats, accusations of Islamaphobia and extremism against this soft-voiced, elegant and reasonable woman.

Unfortunately, we've gotten so used to living with the kill-all-apostates brigade - their message often raises fewer eyebrows than Ali's.

Honestly - does Hirsi Ali's message sound extreme to you?

[More details from the New York Sun, linked to by Atlas ]

UPDATE: I should also mention that while Hirsi Ali was on tour, her neighbors successfully evicted her from her home. Of that, Callimachus writes

Of course, for her bravery, Hirsi Ali has been rewarded by the Eurocrats by being evicted from her home because the neighbors are afraid to live next to someone who makes waves.

I remember the aftershock week that followed Sept. 11. The attacks cracked through America's shell and some of what oozed out was darkly ugly. My girlfriend at the time lived in Birmingham, and one of her best friends was a pretty Persian girl, identifiably Middle Eastern on sight. Nobody knew what was happening, or what was going to happen next. There were stories of physical attacks on anyone who looked vaguely Islamic; there were fears of how law enforcement would react.

But her neighbors rallied to her, and every time that girl left the house, for an errand, for her job, for anything, someone went with her. Just in case. There were stories like that everywhere. People who had never been inside a mosque turned out to stand guard over one, just in case. Those of us with Middle Eastern neighbors kept an eye on the, always asked how they were doing, if they needed anything. Just in case.

I don't think we're better than the average European. But I do think we're different. How could we not be? We're the same people, 300 years back, who segregated themselves voluntarily. Those who took religion seriously, those who were greedy and ambitious, those who felt the stirring of individual spirit stronger than the urge to stay safe in the herd — they came here. At tremendous risk, they crossed half a world. They survived here, in part, by keeping an eye on each other. They're our grandfathers and grandmothers.

Those who were content, or unwilling to take risks, stayed. Modern European history has many heroes, brave men and women. But they are, on the whole, exceptions. The mass of Europeans kept their heads down and hoed their own rows. When the knock on the door came in the middle of the night at their neighbors' houses in 1942, they closed their eyes tighter and pulled the covers around them tighter and pretended to sleep.

I owe Mary a (minor I hope) apology. She wrote an excellent article last week about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and my immediate response was rather dismissive. What I said was, "Argh. Another atheist."

This was based on the fact that I'm not particularly religious myself, but, I am always looking for voices in the Muslim world who are progressive but not dismissive of the faith.

But I was wrong to be so callous. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an amazing person. In many ways she's more of a man than I am. I doubt I have half her courage. I think we need voices in the Muslim world who are still faithful who reject terrorism and tyranny, but that does not mean that someone like Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be ignored. Indeed, faithful Muslims ought to look at her and ask themselves why she abandoned her faith, and ask whether it was something they did wrong to make her feel that way. She's a gentle, beautiful, courageous soul, with a spine made of titanium and balls of steel.

Rumor has it that she will soon be an American. If so, all I can say is "welcome my sister." If America is anything at all, it is a refuge for souls like yourself.

Bill Ardolino has an update on her case.

Africa. The Dark Continent.

I referred to it the "single highest locus of barabric misogyny on the planet, irrespective of religion" for the simple reason that no continent has had a more wretched history of genocide, imperialism, colonialism, plunder, and exploitation. The origins of the human species are there, shrouded in time, and the origins of human civilization are there too, stained with blood.

Bringing light to Africa should be the greatest human rights priority of the human race.

But whatever stereotypes we have of Africa, it is true that for hundreds of years Africans have strived to bring themselves out of the darkness and empower themselves. Some efforts are more publicity than pragmatic policy; look to Muammar Ghadafi's United States of Africa proposal which is a fine concept in the ideal but has never amounted to anything more than rhetoric.

The real work being done to change the direction of the Mother continent is painstaking and slow, by the usual flawed yet still essential levers of democracy. However, the blogsphere has been largely silent on the matter of African liberty, preferring to focus more on the Middle East.

With one exception: Jonathan Edelstein, of Head Heeb blog. He's better known for his essential Israeli-Palestinian conflict analysis (which I credit with single-handedly convincing me that the Israeli Wall was a good policy move and not a brazen land grab). But the Head Heeb has been blogging on Africa for years - both Politics and Society. I strongly urge everyone with any interest in African liberty to be a regular reader.

Jonathan is as essential a voice in African politics as Abu Aardvark is to middle-eastern media analysis.

Aziz has much more to say.

I hope his fellow Muslims here in america take the same position, which strikes me as eminently sensible.

And you know, the more I read things like this, the more convinced I become that my own professed atheism is merely a shell, and that deism may better define me. For whatever that's worth (or not).

Africa is a sad story. In their long history, the poor Africans have had to suffer from their own bloody kings and headman; from war and slavery among their tribes and empires; from European, American, and Arab slavery, and from bloody colonialism. And with decolonization, their lives were made worse by rapacious, corrupt, thug mortacracies. An excellent book on what has happened in Africa since decolonization is Martin Meredith's The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair—A History of Fifty Years of Independence. The book is long at 752 pages, but worth the reading. It is well researched, balanced, and does not sugar coat who is responsible for the plight of Africans.

Virtually on each page, I had to shake my head at how the Africans were ruled by their own people and with few exceptions, still are. They were often murdered as one would swat a fly. The conditions they often were forced live under were such that if they lived for thirty or forty years, they were lucky. Many African countries had the resources for their people to live comfortably, but the gang of ruling thugs took almost all of it for themselves. They nationalized or took over profitable companies for their own benefit, and demanded foreign companies pay millions of dollars in bribes to do business in their countries. Many were rich beyond measure, while their people were made to live in life threatening conditions. The understanding that he who controls the state owns the state and everything was most glaring in the postcolonial history of Africa.

I did an accounting of world democide from 1900 to 1987, and from this I calculate that for African postcolonial states, they’re most likely democide range is from 1,788,900 to 6,395,540, within which I estimate a probable 3,840,240 murdered. And this does not even take into account those killed in the frequent civil wars and rebellions. For this I estimate the toll as 2,456,790, or including democide, 8,852,330 murdered or killed for an average of 15.4 years of independence.

(Continued here)