Times Literary Supplement

January 26, 2007

"A photograph in the New York Review of Books (October 5, 2006) shows the attractive Hirsi Ali at a TIME-sponsored party chortling with fellow influential person, Condoleezza Rice. In the accompanying review, Timothy Garton Ash notes his 'enormous respect for her courage, sincerity and clarity.' The American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a think-tank close to the Bush Administration, apparently feels the same way. They made Hirsi Ali a fellow following her abrupt withdrawal from Dutch politics. Hirsi Ali's resignation was owed in part to the controversy surrounding her falsification of personal data when requesting asylum, but also her opposition to Dutch tolerance and multiculturalism on the ground that it perpetuates 'backwardness', especially in Muslim immigrants.

'[Muslim immigrants] only rarely take advantage of the opportunities offered in education and employment' she writes in The Caged Virgin, and a restrictive Islam is what is holding them back. 'By our Western standards, Mohammed is a perverse man. A tyrant. If you don't do as he says, you will end up in hell. That reminds me of those megalomaniac rulers, Bin Laden, Khomeni, Saddam…..You are shocked to hear me say these things…you forget where I am from. I used to be a Muslim; I know what I'm talking about."

This credential may have impressed the AEI, but it falls somewhat short when attempting to prosecute a religion and the multifarious peoples that profess it. It's not that Hirsi Ali says outright that all Muslims are fundamentalists; she just attributes fundamentalist beliefs and practices to all Muslims.

Hirsi Ali is tired of hearing 'ad nauseum' that 'a single Islam does not exist', implying she knows it is the dominant faith in 40 countries, and that Arabs constitute a quarter of all Muslims. Yet she finds it appropriate to make statements such as these: 'In a community of over 1.2 billion faithful, knowledge, progress and prosperity are not primary aspirations'. 'The cultural expressions of the majority of Muslims are still at the premodern stage of development'. 'Human curiosity in Muslims has been curtailed'.

Although it is admittedly hard to footnote sprawling generalizations, Hirsi Ali cites her references infrequently. A favored source, however, is David Pryce-Jones, senior editor of the National Review, an influential publication in US neocon circles. Hirsi Ali echoes Pryce-Jones and the like-minded Bernard Lewis in her discussion of 'the mental world of Islam', a dark planet governed by 'tribal values' essentially at odds with the enlightened West's." (thanks Nader) Send me the link NOW.