Interview From the Somali Prophetess World Tour

Okay. I admit it. I have a crush on Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

But how can I not? She is a courageous beyond my comprehension, facing down tyranny, rationalizations, and specious excuses (what we in the offline world call “bullshit”). She is a brilliant prophetess, and yes, she is quite beautiful. If she asked me out for drinks, I would say yes. And since she’s a feminist, we would go Dutch (I know…that one was a groaner).

Anyway, in an interview with the Mainichi Daily News, the following was discussed.

Q: When did you begin to become suspicious of Islam?

A: When I came to Holland, I came to a country that was not ruled by Islam and I found it confusing to see that people like me, who are Muslims, were at war with each other. And our stereotype of the non-Muslims was that they are cursed. Coming to Holland and being cursed was clean streets, a lot of food, a lot of wealth, a lot of peace. If it was the curse of Allah, then I was very confused.
[…]
Q: Your position is that women in Muslim societies should be freed. You freed yourself from Muslim society but now you have to move around with security. Do you feel like you are freed now?

A: Well I am free intellectually. I got an education, I learned a whole new world opened up to me. After Sept. 11, discussing Islam and exercising my intellectual freedom got a price with it. Which is then that you understand the Jihadists will threaten you and some of them may want to kill you and that is for me a price I still want to pay, it is not too much.

What is so amazing to me is that at the core of her crucial resistance is a commitment to freedom of thought.