April 15, 2014

Ayaan Nations?

Who is this Ayaan Hirsi Ali person?  I've been away for a little over a week and I've seen this former Somali former Muslim in various parts of the blogosphere, mostly in connection with an invitation/uninvitation from Brandeis University.

So where to turn when you have no clue about a bit of a news item?  Wikipedia of course.  First up I looked for Brandeis Uni.  Scrolling down I find the Hirsi Ali controversy.  Here's the opener:
In 2014, Brandeis courted controversy when first inviting, then after public pressure from amongst others the Council on American-Islamic Relations publicly uninviting Hirsi Ali, the outspoken campaigner against female genital mutilation, and withdrawing her nomination for an honorary degree. [32].
Now according to this Flying Rodent chap, who I keep quoting lately mostly because he wades through all manner of far-right but mainstream stuff so that you and I don't have to, this reported "outspoken[ness]... against female genital mutilation" is somewhat reductionistic.

He seems to be saying that Hirsi Ali makes the following claims:
- Muslims are inherently incapable of negotiating in good faith because of their religion, or that

- We should have a war on Islam generally and specifically not a war on Islamists or extremists and terrorists, or that

- Repressive, religiously-targeted laws intentionally aimed at one faith only are highly desirable
Me? I don't know what to think.  I just noticed that her first name looks a bit like Aryan and her politics look a tad Aryan too.

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