By Ayaan Hirsi Ali is back at it again.
In her interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show on March 23, Hirsi Ali continued to spew the same sensationalist and Islamophobic drivel she’s built her career off of. Let’s examine some of the golden quotes, shall we?
“Muslims value death more than life.”
“Not enough reformers”
“The West respects women and gays.”
“It’s radical Islam that’s threatening Syria, Yemen, and Somalia.”
“ISIS is Islamic.”
“70% of fatalities in the world were caused by Muslims.”
Jon Stewart did a surprisingly good job of reminding her, and the audience, that making blanket statements about a religion and its adherents is not right and that Islam itself can’t be blamed. I, for one, am tired of even retaliating this woman’s ignorant statements. She’s not creative. Her ideas aren’t revolutionary. She’s not the first person to reduce the complex and nuanced issues in MENA, South Asia, Eastern Europe, and just about every corner of the globe to “radical Izlam.” But the reality is that her identity as a Token Ex-Muslim is one that is much valued and exploited by conservative and liberal media alike in order to justify Islamophobia and imperialism.
Other than the fact that many of her claims about misogynistic and violent Quranic verses and Hadith have been debunked, and that an increasing amount of Muslims are becoming more aware of biased and patriarchal interpretations of these texts, Hirsi Ali makes the fatal mistake of attributing the violence and turmoil in these states to a religious war. More importantly, she paints Islam as a monolith. She completely ignores decades, sometimes centuries, of historical context, more often than not involving colonialism. Most of these states were under Western rule at some point and have suffered political instability, further exploitation, and foreign intervention ever since their independence. Not to mention, Islam suffered extreme deformation under Western rule, especially Victorian England. Those same foreign interventions are what created many of the extremist groups we see today like the Taliban and ISIS.
Her argument that women and gay people are treated more horribly in Muslim countries than anywhere around the world is appalling. The only reason the West, especially the USA, seems so progressive when it comes to women’s rights and LGBTQIA rights is because oppression under neoliberalism is often concealed and packaged in a pretty, pinkwashed way that’s not as easily recognizable. Women, especially women of color, still suffer horrible discrimination. Reproductive rights are almost non-existent in some states, and domestic violence and rape statistics are off the charts. The bullying, beating, and killing of gay and non-binary people is alarming across the board, but do we attribute this to America’s Christian roots and influence? We could. But we don’t. Because it’s simplistic and lazy.
Hirsi Ali continues to misuse the term jihad, claims that a Sharia state exists today — when it actually hasn’t for over a century — and makes blanket statements about 1.6 billion people. She ignores the fact that Muslims are the biggest victims of extremist groups, further proving their political motives. She ignores the fact that Islam granted women rights 1400 years ago that some women still fight for today. Have these rights been upheld properly by men? Certainly not. Is the problem with Islam itself? No.
Her consistent groveling at Western liberal audiences exposes her self-hate, Western elitism, and alarming support for neoliberal imperialism. Her support for women’s rights and human rights is so transparent and disingenuous in the fact that she’d support literal carpet bombing of nations in order to “civilize” them. That is the American way, after all.
Jon Stewart made an excellent point:
“The root of the problem is the people. Not the text. The interpretations of it in a way that people will use — it’s like atomic energy. You can split an atom this way and you can light the world. You can split it this way and you can blow it up.”
Hirsi Ali was exposed a while ago for her lies in her asylum application about her forced marriage and struggles, which she then used to create her public image. She’s admitted to countless lies. Isn’t this reason enough for us to take everything she says with a bucket of salt? She paints herself as a misunderstood guardian of justice, however her motives are unknown. I think Stewart summed it up pretty well — “You would like people to buy your book.”
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Image from The Daily Show
I think that the greatest problem with Muslim religion is no back-off mechanism to stop the radicals from turning back from the Jihad. You have to realise that, for some problems like being sexual-maniac, drinking excessively, drugs we have the clinics, special care centers, reformation centers to treat these social and mental maladies but there’s none to treat the malady of someone getting radicalized. It’s time the religious leaders woke up to the growing threat of radicalization and introduce or start some serious campaign to somewhat ward-off or have some reformist set-up where these radicalized youths and people can cool off or turned back to normalcy.
Ayan Harris is a fucking moron. The only reason she is popular in Western Nations is because majority non-Muslims HATE Islam, and when I say HATE Islam is that they wish they could murder us in cold blood like they did to Germans during the holocaust or Vietnam War period.. When I say majority I do not mean all non-Muslims. After all, they are handful friendly non-Muslims.
If you take a moment and truly question with open mind, and open heart, how many Western popular media stations listen and believe every single word to word that
anything comes out of an anti-Islamic who clearly does NOT Know what she is talking about. Also, think about, how many have published anti-Islamic bullshit. Why is it a norm and not an abnormal to Insult Islam in a disgusting demonish ways. Why is it acceptable to create Islamophobia cartoons of Prophet Muhammad and create a horrible demonish disgusting false fictional characters of our prophet and our religion. Why is their a nation day to burn our Quran and yet they have not even read or understood what is in our holy scripted book expect what is constantly portrayed in our powerful propaganda media and society ? Why is it ok to insult our religion and portrayed as devil beasts, demons, monsters of dark nights. Even though, we are NOTHING like they say we are.
Why do majority western believe that 1.9 billion Muslims support since 911, ISIS, and these fucken radicals who only use “Islam” to hijack Muslims even though we are against what these radicals stand for, for they are NOT Muslim.If they were Muslims they would not commit these awful, and awful, tragic crimes.
Do you really think if Islam was some terrorist radical crazy psychotic cult, that 1.9 billion people all over the world will follow this peaceful God fearing religion and when I say peaceful religion I do Not mean humans. After all, humans are NOT perfect, but I do mean the definitions of true Islam,that constantly grows every year ?
Do you really think 1.9 billion people will tolerant killing innocent souls regardless if he or she is a Muslim ? What truly happen to common sense because I feel sorry for this society and the our world because we have truly been sucked into thinking fictional beliefs are the reality norm characters of Muslims in our society instead of abnormal fictional characters of Muslims,and reality characters of 1.9 billion Muslims are beyond all their imaginations.After all, we must truly be this horrible soulless beast that the media and our society portrays us day in night, night in and day out, even though we are NOT what they say that we are.
As a Muslim, I do not give a fuck if someone is Non-Muslim, white, LGBTQ, Jewish, Christian, Catholic, Mormon, Pagan, Sikh, Hindu, Atheist, Buddhist, feminist, humanist, activities, old, young, etc as long as you respect me with dignity, kindness, and not some false belief stereotypes, I will respect you and treat you the same. However, I am not saying that you have to like Islam, or even agree with my religion beliefs, but you do have to respect me if you would like me to respect you.