Ayaan Hirsi Ali spoke to a group in Palm Beach the other day, and the fair and balanced reporter made sure to get both sides of the story. Ali is the brave Somali refugee who broke with Islam, became a member of the Dutch parliament, and ended up here in the U.S.
In his introduction to her talk, Winston Churchill, a Palm Beach resident and the British prime minister’s grandson, called her “quite the most courageous woman it’s ever been my privilege to meet.”
Some aspects of her biography have been disputed, and her political views are controversial.
There are two schools of thought in the West regarding Islam, she said. One says that radicals have hijacked Islam and that peaceful co-existence is possible with adherents of the faith.
Ali subscribes to the second point of view.
“Islam is not a religion of peace,” she said. “It’s a political theory of conquest that seeks domination by any means it can.”
In her opinion, European society is in danger of being hijacked by a rapidly growing population of Islamic immigrants, who lack the means or the inclination to assimilate and are supported by Muslim nations in their efforts to undermine their host countries.
But this isn’t really a report of Ali’s speech; it’s apparently a forum on Islam. So:
But John Ederer, imam of the Islamic Foundation of South Florida, said Ali is ascribing the teachings of fringe elements to all Muslims.
“… I can say with certainty that poor Ayaan is a victim of some men who call themselves Muslims but are not in accordance with our 14-century-old legacy of authentic scholarship,” he said in a statement. “It is their lack of knowledge of the ‘fundamentals’ of Islam that would have them interpret a few texts to hold such unorthodox beliefs and practices.
“No doubt Ayaan and the people who affected her thinking can bring you a few verses of the Koran or sayings of the prophet Muhammad to prove their point. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups can do the same with the words of the Bible to convince a commoner of their ideology.”
Ah, yes, that handy old Klan. And those dumb commoners. What the heck is a commoner in the United States anyway? Never mind, as long as both sides are presented it doesn’t matter.