Quotes / Citations / Zitate
… It is
hard to believe that there are Dutch people who say that if Israel would follow
another foreign policy and withdraw from the territories, the problem would
disappear entirely. This attitude is infantile and utopian wishful thinking,
but one cannot get it out of their heads.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali / 2006-09-04 / interview with Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld, Chairman of the Board of Fellows at the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs
Ayaan Hirsi Ali / 2006-09-04 / interview with Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld, Chairman of the Board of Fellows at the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs
… Islam is
not a race...Islam is simply a set of beliefs, and it is not 'Islamophobic' to
say Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy.
... Und nun
zur Islamophobie, dem größten Schwachsinn unserer Zeit! Es gibt sie nicht.
… Ich bin
hier, um das Recht auf Beleidigung zu verteidigen.
(Original engl: "I am here to defend the right to offend.")
auf einer Pressekonferenz in Berlin am 9. Februar 2006 zu den am 30. September 2005 veröffentlichten Mohammed-Karikaturen; uni-muenster.de/NiederlandeNet, SpiegelOnline
(Original engl: "I am here to defend the right to offend.")
auf einer Pressekonferenz in Berlin am 9. Februar 2006 zu den am 30. September 2005 veröffentlichten Mohammed-Karikaturen; uni-muenster.de/NiederlandeNet, SpiegelOnline
… Free speech
is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to
blaspheme and offend.
Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (2010)
Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (2010)
… Islam is
not a religion of peace. It's a political theory of conquest that seeks
domination by any means it can.
"Author, activist condemns Muslim faith at Palm Beach talk", Palm Beach Daily News (21 March 2009)
"Author, activist condemns Muslim faith at Palm Beach talk", Palm Beach Daily News (21 March 2009)
… Here is
something I have learned the hard way, but which a lot of well-meaning people
in the West have a hard time accepting: All
human beings are equal, but all cultures and religions are not.
… A culture
that celebrates femininity and considers women to be the masters of their own
lives is better than a culture that mutilates girls' genitals and confines them
behind walls and veils or flogs or stones them for falling in love.
... A
culture that protects women's rights by law is better than a culture in which a
man can lawfully have four wives at once and women are denied alimony and half
their inheritance.
A culture
that appoints women to its supreme court is better than a culture that declares
that the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man.
Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (2010)
Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (2010)
…Ich habe
den Koran studiert, aber eines Tages habe ich begonnen, selbst nachzudenken.
Dabei habe ich erkannt: Es sind die Menschen, die Gott erschaffen haben, nicht
umgekehrt. Dass der Koran dem Mann das Recht zugesteht, die Frau zu schlagen,
das kann und darf nicht sein.
Die Zeit, 23. Januar 2003 zeit.de
Die Zeit, 23. Januar 2003 zeit.de
…Jedes Jahr
wird an den Frauen ein Massenmord begangen - zwischen anderthalb und drei
Millionen Frauen sterben jedes Jahr an den Folgen von Diskriminierung,
Vernachlässigung oder Gewalt.
Spiegel Online, 9. März 2006, spiegel.de
Spiegel Online, 9. März 2006, spiegel.de
…Es ist für
eine Frau zwischen 14 und 44 Jahren auf dieser Welt wahrscheinlicher, dass sie
durch ihre eigene Familie ermordet wird, als dass sie an Malaria, an Krebs, im
Krieg oder bei einem Autounfall umkommt.
Spiegel Online, 9. März 2006, spiegel.de
Spiegel Online, 9. März 2006, spiegel.de
…Every
accommodation of Muslim demands leads to a sense of euphoria and a conviction
that Allah is on their side. They see every act of appeasement as an invitation
to make fresh demands.
"Author, activist condemns Muslim faith at Palm Beach talk", Palm Beach Daily News (21 March 2009)
"Author, activist condemns Muslim faith at Palm Beach talk", Palm Beach Daily News (21 March 2009)
…The most
pressing question of our time is this: Is European society to be taken over by
a radical invasion of Muslim immigrants?
"Author, activist condemns Muslim faith at Palm Beach talk", Palm Beach Daily News (21 March 2009)
"Author, activist condemns Muslim faith at Palm Beach talk", Palm Beach Daily News (21 March 2009)
***
Infidel – 2007
Published by New York Free Press, © 2007
… The only
position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a
creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the
dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is
then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad,
confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more;
but I want nothing more.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel
… As a
reader, I could put on someone else's shoes and live through his adventures,
borrow his individuality and make choices that I didn't have at home.
― Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel
― Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel
… Wishful
thinking about the peaceful tolerance of Islam cannot interpret away this
reality: hands are still cut off, women still stoned and enslaved, just as the
Prophet Muhammad decided centuries ago.
― Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel
― Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel
… People
ask me if I have some kind of death wish, to keep saying the things I do. The
answer is no: I would like to keep living. However, some things must be said,
and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.
Introduction
Introduction
… In a
sense, my grandmother was living in the Iron Age. There was no system of
writing among the nomads. Metal artifacts were rare and precious. … The first
time she saw a white person my grandmother was in her thirties: she thought
this person's skin had burned off.
Chapter 1: Bloodlines
Chapter 1: Bloodlines
… The man,
who was probably an itinerant traditional circumciser from the blacksmith clan,
picked up a pair of scissors. With the other hand, he caught hold of the place
between my legs and started tweaking it, like Grandma milking a goat.
"There it is, the kintir," one of the women said. Then the
scissors went down between my legs and the man cut off my inner labia and
clitoris. I heard it, like a butcher snipping the fat off a piece of meat. A
piercing pain shot up between my legs, indescribable, and I howled. Then came
the sewing: the long, blunt needle clumsily pushed into my bleeding outer
labia, my loud and anguished protests, Grandma's words of comfort and
encouragement. "It's just this once in your life, Ayaan. Be brave, it's
almost finished." When the sewing was finished, he cut the thread off with
his teeth.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 2: Under the Talal Tree
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 2: Under the Talal Tree
… This was
Saudi Arabia, where Islam originated, governed strictly according to the
scriptures and example of the Prophet Muhammad. And by law, all women in Saudi
Arabia must be in the care of a man. My mother argued loudly with the Saudi
immigration official, but he merely repeated in an ever louder voice that she
could not leave the airport without a man in charge.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 3: Playing Tag in Allah's Palace
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 3: Playing Tag in Allah's Palace
… With our
grandmother staying behind in Somalia, my mother had nobody with whom to share
tasks and plans. She could do nothing on her own. She wasn't supposed to go out
on the street without these new guardians of ours, our uncles, and neither were
we. To phone them she had to scuttle down to the corner grocer, with my
ten-year-old brother in tow acting as her protective male.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 3
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 3
… We had
already learned part of the Quran by heart in Mogadishu, although of course we
had never understood more than a word or two of it, because it was in Arabic.
But the teacher in Mecca said we recited it disrespectfully: we raced it, to
show off. So now we had to learn it all by heart again, but this time with
reverent pauses. We still didn't understand more than the bare gist of it.
Apparently, understanding wasn't the point.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 3
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 3
… In Saudi
Arabia, everything bad was the fault of the Jews. When the air conditioner
broke or suddenly the tap stopped running, the Saudi women next door used to
say the Jews did it. The children next door were taught to pray for the health
of their parents and the destruction of the Jews. Later, when we went to
school, our teachers lamented at length all the evil things Jews had done and
planned to do against Muslims. When they were gossiping, the women next door
used to say, "She's ugly, she's disobedient, she's a whore--she's sleeping
with a Jew." Jews were like djinns, I decided. I had never met a Jew.
(Neither had these Saudis.)
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 3
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 3
… On
September 16, 1978, there was an eclipse of the moon in Riyadh. Late one
afternoon it became visible: a dark shadow moving slowly across the face of the
pale moon in the darkening blue sky. There was a frantic knocking on the door.
When I opened it, our neighbor asked if we were safe. He said it was the Day of
Judgement, when the Quran says the sun will rise from the west and the seas
will flood, when all the dead will rise and Allah's angels will weigh our sins
and virtue, expediting the good to Paradise and the bad to Hell. Though it was
barely twilight, the muezzin suddenly called for prayer--not one mosque calling
carefully after another, as they usually did, but all the mosques clamoring all
at once, all over the city. There was shouting across the neighborhood. When I
looked outside I saw people praying in the street.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 3
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 3
… [In
Ethiopia,] Abeh enrolled all three of us in school, which was taught in
Amharic. We spoke only Somali and Arabic, so everything was completely foreign
again for a little while. It wasn't until I could communicate that I came to a
startling realization: the little girls in school with me were not Muslims.
They said they were Kiristaan, Christian, which in Saudi Arabia had been
a hideous playground insult, meaning impure. I went bewildered to my
mother, who confirmed it. Ethiopians were kufr, the very sound of the
word was scornful. They drank alcohol and they didn't wash properly. They were
despicable.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 4: Weeping Orphans and Widowed Wives
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 4: Weeping Orphans and Widowed Wives
… Numbers
were a mystery to me. I was so far behind. It was only in Nairobi, at age ten,
that I figured out anything at all about the way time is calculated: minutes,
hours, years. In Saudi Arabia the calendar had been Islamic, based on lunar
months; Ethiopia maintained an ancient solar calendar. The year was written
1399 in Saudi Arabia, 1972 in Ethiopia, and 1980 in Kenya and everywhere else.
In Ethiopia we even had a different clock: sunrise was called one o'clock and
noon was called six. (Even within Kenya, people used two systems for telling
time, the British and the Swahili.) The months, the days--everything was
conceived differently. Only in Juja Road Primary school did I begin to figure
out what people meant when they referred to precise dates and times. Grandma
never learned to tell time at all. All her life, noon was when shadows were
short, and your age was measured by rainy seasons. She got by perfectly well
with her system.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 5: Secret Rendezvous, Sex, and the Scent of Sukumawiki
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 5: Secret Rendezvous, Sex, and the Scent of Sukumawiki
… My mother
saw herself as a victim. Once upon a time she had shaped her future and made
decisions -- she had left Somalia for Aden, divorced her first husband and
chosen my father--but at some point, it seemed, she lost hope. Many Somali
women in her position would have worked, would have taken control of their
lives, but my mother, having absorbed the Arab attitude that pious women should
not work outside the home, felt that this would not be proper. It never
occurred to her to go out and create a new life for herself, although she can't
have been older than thirty-five or forty when my father left. Instead, she
remained completely dependent. She nursed grievances; she was resentful; she
was often violent; and she was always depressed.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 5
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 5
… Drinking
wine and wearing trousers were nothing compared to reading the history of
ideas.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 13: Leiden
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 13: Leiden
… Islam was
like a mental cage. At first, when you open the door, the caged bird stays
inside: it is frightened. It has internalized its imprisonment. It takes time
for the bird to escape, even after someone has opened the doors to its cage.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 15: Threats
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 15: Threats
… In
October 2002, I flew to California. It was the first time I had ever been in
the United States, and I realized almost immediately that my preconceptions of
America were completely ludicrous. I was expecting rednecks and fat people,
with lots of guns, very aggressive police, and overt racism – a caricature of a
caricature. In reality, of course, I saw people living perfectly well-ordered
lives, jogging and drinking coffee.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 15
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 15
… Of
course, I also encountered hostile reactions in campaigning. People called me
names, even spat at me; I received more threats. The most remarkable people, to
me, were those who apparently approved of everything I said but nonetheless
wouldn't dream of voting for the Liberal Party. It reminded me of Somalia: they
wouldn't vote outside their clan.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 15
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Ch. 15
… Many
well-meaning Dutch people have told me in all earnestness that nothing in
Islamic culture incites abuse of women, that this is just a terrible
misunderstanding. Men all over the world beat their women, I am constantly
informed. In reality, these Westerners are the ones who misunderstand Islam.
The Quran mandates these punishments. It gives a legitimate basis for abuse, so
that the perpetrators feel no shame and are not hounded by their conscience or
their community. I wanted my art exhibit to make it difficult for people to
look away from this problem. I wanted secular, non-Muslim people to stop
kidding themselves that "Islam is peace and tolerance."
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 16: Politics
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Chapter 16: Politics
… I would
like to be judged on the validity of my arguments, not as a victim.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Epilogue: The Letter of the Law
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel Epilogue: The Letter of the Law
***
The Right to Offend
Gleich der erste Satz ist ein gezielter Hieb
gegen Allesversteher und Allesverzeiher:
…I am here to defend the right to offend.
…Ich bin hier, um das Recht zu verteidigen, beleidigen zu dürfen.
…I am here to defend the right to offend.
…Ich bin hier, um das Recht zu verteidigen, beleidigen zu dürfen.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali,
1969 in Somalia geboren, in Saudi-Arabien, Äthiopien und Kenia aufgewachsen,
ist vor 16 Jahren nach Holland geflohen, um der Zwangsheirat mit einem Cousin
zu entgehen. Sie hat sich als Putzfrau und Sozialarbeiterin durchgeschlagen,
Politologie und Philosophie studiert, für eine sozialdemokratische Stiftung
gearbeitet, bis sie 2003 als Kandidatin der liberalen "Volkspartei für
Freiheit und Demokratie" in das holländische Parlament gewählt wurde. Seit
der Ermordung von Theo van Gogh, mit dem sie an einem islamkritischen Kurzfilm
gearbeitet hat ("Submission 1"), hat sich ihr Leben gründlich
geändert.
Sie tauchte für ein paar Monate in den USA
unter, seit sie wieder in Holland lebt, wird sie rund um die Uhr bewacht, jeder
Weg zum Supermarkt, jede Reise ist eine aufwendige Operation. Heute war die
somalische Holländerin nach Berlin gekommen, um den Journalisten der Hauptstadt
zu erklären, worum es ihrer Auffassung nach bei dem sogenannten
Karikaturenstreit geht und was gerne übersehen wird:
"Ich bin der Meinung, dass es richtig war, die Cartoons in der Zeitung 'Jyllands Posten' zu drucken und dass die Entscheidung der anderen Zeitungen, sie nachzudrucken, ebenfalls richtig war."
"Ich bin der Meinung, dass es richtig war, die Cartoons in der Zeitung 'Jyllands Posten' zu drucken und dass die Entscheidung der anderen Zeitungen, sie nachzudrucken, ebenfalls richtig war."
AP - Dissidentin Hirsi Ali:
"Schwarze Voltaire" |
Nach diesem Einstieg legt sie erst richtig los, als wollte sie beweisen, dass sie zu recht "die schwarze Voltaire" genannt wird.
"Schande über jene Zeitungen und TV-Stationen, die nicht den Mut hatten, ihren Lesern und Zuschauern diese Karikaturen zu zeigen. Diese Intellektuellen leben von der Meinungsfreiheit, aber sie akzeptieren Zensur. Sie verstecken sich hinter Parolen wie 'Verantwortung' und 'Sensibilität'. Schande über jene Politiker, die erklärt haben, dass die Veröffentlichung der Karikaturen unnötig, unsensibel, respektlos und falsch war."
Ali lobt den dänischen Ministerpräsidenten Anders Fogh Rasmussen für seine
Weigerung, sich "mit Repräsentanten tyrannischer Regimes" zu treffen,
und bedauert, dass der holländische Premierminister nach der Ermordung Theo van
Goghs eine Verschärfung des Blasphemieparagrafen angeregt hatte.
"Schande über jene europäischen Firmen und Gesellschaften, die nun mit 'Wir sind keine Dänen' und 'Wir verkaufen keine dänischen Produkte' im Nahen Osten werben."
"Schande über jene europäischen Firmen und Gesellschaften, die nun mit 'Wir sind keine Dänen' und 'Wir verkaufen keine dänischen Produkte' im Nahen Osten werben."
Sie schaut kurz hoch und sagt wieder einen
jener Sätze, die man nicht missdeuten kann: "Ab
jetzt wird Nestlé-Schokolade nie
wieder so schmecken, wie sie uns bis eben geschmeckt hat."
Ruft man sich in Erinnerung, was in den letzten
Tagen über den Karikaturen-Streit gesagt und geschrieben wurde, wirkt das, was
Ayaan Hirsi Ali in ihrer ruhigen und glasklaren Art sagt, wie eine
Frischzellenkur für den gesunden Menschenverstand. Dabei sind es nur
Selbstverständlichkeiten. Dass Freiheit ihren Preis hat und dass Nachgeben sich
nicht auszahlt. Und dass die ganze Affäre auch etwas Gutes hat.
"Wir wissen nun, dass es eine beachtliche Minderheit in Europa gibt, die nicht verstehen und nicht akzeptieren will, wie eine liberale Demokratie funktioniert."
"Wir wissen nun, dass es eine beachtliche Minderheit in Europa gibt, die nicht verstehen und nicht akzeptieren will, wie eine liberale Demokratie funktioniert."
Hirsi Ali sagt: Es seien dänische Bürger gewesen, die statt in Dänemark auf die Straße
zu gehen oder dänische Gerichte anzurufen, reaktionäre Regimes um Hilfe gegen
Dänemark gebeten hätten. Und noch absurder: "Despotische Regierungen wie
die von Saudi-Arabien inszenieren eine Graswurzel-Revolution, die sie gnadenlos
zerschlagen würde, wenn es um das Recht auf freie Wahlen ginge."
Und Ali wiederholt: "Ich bin hier, um das Recht zu verteidigen, beleidigen zu
dürfen." Diesmal setzt sie dazu: "Innerhalb der Grenzen des
Gesetzes."
Dies sei kein Konflikt über "Rasse, Hautfarbe oder Herkunft, es ist ein Konflikt über Gedanken". Sie sei eine "Dissidentin", die in den Westen geflohen ist, wie die Dissidenten zur Zeit des Kommunismus. 1989, als Ajatollah Chomeini zur Ermordung von Salman Rushdie aufgerufen hatte, habe sie "das für für richtig gehalten, heute weiß ich, es war falsch".
Dies sei kein Konflikt über "Rasse, Hautfarbe oder Herkunft, es ist ein Konflikt über Gedanken". Sie sei eine "Dissidentin", die in den Westen geflohen ist, wie die Dissidenten zur Zeit des Kommunismus. 1989, als Ajatollah Chomeini zur Ermordung von Salman Rushdie aufgerufen hatte, habe sie "das für für richtig gehalten, heute weiß ich, es war falsch".
Eine Frau, eine Muslima, eine
Schwarzafrikanerin sagt den Europäern, worauf es in einer Demokratie ankommt:
"Es ist nicht meine Absicht, religiöse Empfindungen zu verletzen, aber ich werde mich der Tyrannei nicht beugen."
Sie sei nicht die einzige Dissidentin in der islamischen Welt.
"Es gibt uns überall, hier im Westen, aber auch in Teheran, Riad, Amman, Kairo, Khartum und Kabul. Wir sind wenige, und alles, was wir haben, sind unsere Ideen. Unsere Gegner werden versuchen, uns zum Schweigen zu bringen, uns für verrückt zu erklären. So wie es die Kommunisten mit ihren Dissidenten getan haben."
"Es ist nicht meine Absicht, religiöse Empfindungen zu verletzen, aber ich werde mich der Tyrannei nicht beugen."
Sie sei nicht die einzige Dissidentin in der islamischen Welt.
"Es gibt uns überall, hier im Westen, aber auch in Teheran, Riad, Amman, Kairo, Khartum und Kabul. Wir sind wenige, und alles, was wir haben, sind unsere Ideen. Unsere Gegner werden versuchen, uns zum Schweigen zu bringen, uns für verrückt zu erklären. So wie es die Kommunisten mit ihren Dissidenten getan haben."
Wie dieser Teil der Geschichte ausging, kann
heute jeder in der Hauptstadt überprüfen: Wo früher die Mauer stand, parken
jetzt die Autos der Journalisten.
Published by Spiegel Online, Donnerstag, 09.02.2006 /
http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/dissidentin-hirsi-ali-das-recht-zu-beleidigen-a-400031.html
http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/dissidentin-hirsi-ali-das-recht-zu-beleidigen-a-400031.html
***
The Right to Offend
Ayaan
Hirsi Ali
I am
here to defend the right to offend.
It is my
conviction that the vulnerable enterprise called democracy cannot exist without
free expression, particularly in the media. Journalists must not forgo the
obligation of free speech, which people in other hemispheres are denied.
I am of
the opinion that it was correct to publish the cartoons of Muhammad in Jyllands
Posten and it was right to re-publish them in other papers across Europe.
Let me
reprise the history of this affair. The author of a children’s book on the
prophet Muhammad could find no illustrators for his book. He claimed that
illustrators were censoring themselves for fear of violence by Muslims who
claimed no-one, anywhere, should be allowed to depict the prophet. Jyllands
Posten decided to investigate this. They -- rightly – felt that such
self-censorship has far-reaching consequences for democracy.
It was
their duty as journalists to solicit and publish drawings of the prophet
Muhammad.
Shame on
those papers and TV channels who lacked the courage to show their readers the
caricatures in The Cartoon Affair. These intellectuals live off free speech but
they accept censorship. They hide their mediocrity of mind behind
noble-sounding terms such as ‘responsibility’ and ‘sensitivity’.
Shame on
those politicians who stated that publishing and re-publishing the drawings was
‘unnecessary’, ‘insensitive’, ‘disrespectful’ and ‘wrong’. I am of the opinion
that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark acted correctly when he
refused to meet with representatives of tyrannical regimes who demanded from
him that he limit the powers of the press. Today we should stand by him morally
and materially. He is an example to all other European leaders. I wish my prime
minister had Rasmussen’s guts.
Shame on
those European companies in the Middle East that advertised “we are not Danish”
or “we don’t sell Danish products”. This is cowardice. Nestle chocolates will
never taste the same after this, will they? The EU member states should
compensate Danish companies for the damage they have suffered from boycotts.
Liberty
does not come cheap. A few million Euros is worth paying for the defence of
free speech. If our governments neglect to help our Scandinavian friends then I
hope citizens will organise a donation campaign for Danish companies.
We have
been flooded with opinions on how tasteless and tactless the cartoons are --
views emphasising that the cartoons only led to violence and discord. What good
has come of the cartoons, so many wonder loudly?
Well,
publication of the cartoons confirmed that there is widespread fear among
authors, filmmakers, cartoonists and journalists who wish to describe, analyse
or criticise intolerant aspects of Islam all over Europe.
It has
also revealed the presence of a considerable minority in Europe who do not
understand or will not accept the workings of liberal democracy. These people –
many of whom hold European citizenship – have campaigned for censorship, for
boycotts, for violence, and for new laws to ban ‘Islamophobia’.
The
cartoons revealed to the public eye that there are countries willing to violate
diplomatic rules for political expediency. Evil governments like Saudi Arabia
stage “grassroots” movements to boycott Danish milk and yoghurt, while they
would mercilessly crash a grassroots movement fighting for the right to vote.
Today I
am here to defend the right to offend within the bounds of the law. You may
wonder: why Berlin? And why me?
Berlin
is rich in the history of ideological challenges to the open society. This is
the city where a wall kept people within the boundaries of the Communist state.
It was the city which focalized the battle for the hearts and minds of
citizens. Defenders of the open society educated people in the shortcomings of
Communism. The work of Marx was discussed in universities, in op-ed pages and
in schools. Dissidents who escaped from the East could write, make films,
cartoons and use their creativity to persuade those in the West that Communism
was far from paradise on earth.
Despite
the self-censorship of many in the West, who idealised and defended Communism,
and the brutal censorship of the East, that battle was won.
Today,
the open society is challenged by Islamism, ascribed to a man named Muhammad
Abdullah who lived in the seventh century, and who is regarded as a prophet.
Many Muslims are peaceful people; not all are fanatics. As far as I am
concerned they have every right to be faithful to their convictions. But within
Islam exists a hard-line Islamist movement that rejects democratic freedoms and
wants to destroy them. These Islamists seek to convince other Muslims that
their way of life is the best. But when opponents of Islamism try to expose the
fallacies in the teachings of Muhammad then they are accused of being
offensive, blasphemous, socially irresponsible – even Islamophobic or racist.
The
issue is not about race, colour or heritage. It is a conflict of ideas, which
transcend borders and races.
Why me?
I am a dissident, like those from the Eastern side of this city who defected to
the West. I too defected to the West. I was born in Somalia, and grew up in
Saudi Arabic and Kenya. I used to be faithful to the guidelines laid down by
the prophet Muhammad. Like the thousands demonstrating against the Danish
drawings, I used to hold the view that Muhammad was perfect -- the only source
of, and indeed, the criterion between good and bad. In 1989 when Khomeini
called for Salman Rushdie to be killed for insulting Muhammad, I thought he was
right. Now I don’t.
I think
that the prophet was wrong to have placed himself and his ideas above critical
thought.
I think
that the prophet Muhammad was wrong to have subordinated women to men.
I think that
the prophet Muhammad was wrong to have decreed that gays be murdered.
I think
that the prophet Muhammad was wrong to have said that apostates must be killed.
He was
wrong in saying that adulterers should be flogged and stoned, and the hands of
thieves should be cut off.
He was
wrong in saying that those who die in the cause of Allah will be rewarded with
paradise.
He was
wrong in claiming that a proper society could be built only on his ideas.
The
prophet did and said good things. He encouraged charity to others. But I wish
to defend the position that he was also disrespectful and insensitive to those
who disagreed with him.
I think
it is right to make critical drawings and films of Muhammad. It is necessary to
write books on him in order to educate ordinary citizens on Muhammad.
I do not
seek to offend religious sentiment, but I will not submit to tyranny. Demanding
that people who do not accept Muhammad’s teachings should refrain from drawing
him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission.
I am not
the only dissident in Islam. There are more like me here in the West. If they
have no bodyguards they work under false identities to protect themselves from
harm. But there are also others who refuse to conform: in Teheran, in Doha and
Riyadh, in Amman and Cairo, in Khartoum and in Mogadishu, in Lahore and in
Kabul.
The
dissidents of Islamism, like the dissidents of communism, don’t have nuclear
bombs or any other weapons. We have no money from oil like the Saudis. We will
not burn embassies and flags. We refuse to get carried away in a frenzy of
collective violence. In number we are too small and too scattered to become a
collective of anything. In electoral terms here in the west we are practically
useless.
All we
have are our thoughts; and all we ask is a fair chance to express them. Our
opponents will use force to silence us. They will use manipulation; they will
claim they are mortally offended. They will claim we are mentally unstable and
should not be taken seriously. The defenders of Communism, too, used these
methods.
Berlin
is a city of optimism. Communism failed. The wall was broken down. Things may
seem difficult and confusing today. But I am optimistic that the virtual wall,
between lovers of liberty and those who succumb to the seduction and safety of
totalitarian ideas will also, one day, come down.
Berlin,
9.02.06
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
published on NRC Website 7 NL
http://vorige.nrc.nl//opinie/article1654061.ece/The_Right_to_Offend
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
published on NRC Website 7 NL
http://vorige.nrc.nl//opinie/article1654061.ece/The_Right_to_Offend
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