| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Ayaan Hirsi Ali | ||||
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Yes, she's an atheist--but remember she became an atheist because of the faith-tradition she came out of: Islam. It was a reaction to Islam. She experienced FGM (female genital mutilation) at 5 yrs old. If you don't know what that is, Google it. It's horrific. She hangs with the atheist crowd: Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, etc., but, if I'm not mistaken, Rick Warren ("Purpose-Driven Life") was enlisted to help pay for her 24-hr security! She is also a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
What we really need to listen to her for is our own American principles that are being thrown to the wind. She loves this country more than many Americans. She understands the good philosophical principles we were founded on and wants those to spread (in a special way to liberate women in Islam). She has great ideas and solutions for us. She is warning us about playing with crazy ideas like allowing Sharia law in Muslim neighborhoods in the U.S. and Britain. I think she is in a very unique position to be listened to: African (Somalia), female, experienced the worst of Islam, speaks English, was in politics (Dutch parliament), and is under the death-ban like Rushdie was. Very calm, intelligent and articulate. She says what no one else will dare: "some ideas are better than others." WOW. Go Ayaan!
I think Colbert was truly evangelizing her in his own kooky way. Every so often his "character" coincides with his Catholic Faith and I think he goes for it. In a humorous, postmodern way. Go Stephen! (Notice she doesn't say she was at a Catholic church when she took the "wafer," but Stephen just went with it as though she was....)
Ayaan is not really about being anti-God. She is anti-oppression. She is pro-human dignity. Notice she names philosophers as people she looks up to (albeit philosphers with flawed philosophies: Locke, Mills....) If anything, philosophy is her religion, and she admires the philosophers/phies that this country is founded on. As Catholics, we know that our founding American democratic principles are very, very good, although not perfect. Some would argue that the seeds of our own destruction are embedded in these principles, but if the citizenry has good philosophy/religion, I believe that can't/won't happen. And of course they have to elect the right leaders.
Read her books!!! "The Caged Virgin--An Emancipation Proclamation for Women in Islam," "Infidel" (autobiography), "Nomad--A Personal Journey through the Clash of Civilizations."
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