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May 09, 2006
Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Harvard
Two reports from Hirsi Ali's talk at the Harvard JFK School of Government this afternoon: Ms Kelly and Michael S.
The format and content of her presentation are similar to what she did at the PEN Festival. Apparently most of the questions were from Muslim students, and they exasperated Ms Ali.
The last questioner (Bangladeshi woman) asked "Do you identify yourself as a woman? If so, why aren't you concerned with domestic abuse? Why are you only harping about Islam?" Ayaan was amused. "Yes, I identify myself as a woman, I think that's self-evident." She replied that much of her work is against violence and oppression of girls and women around the world, which is easily confimed by reading her books and lectures. At this point, given the overt hostility of the questioner, Ayaan noted that debate and criticism of Islam is not the same as attacking Islam. "I'm not attacking Islam, I want to reform Islam." Here Ayaan asked "I really wonder what you (referring to all the grad students) are doing here." It was along the lines of "What are they teaching you anyway? Do you not know how to debate or discuss an issue?"Apparently, Ms Ali hasn't gotten the memo about Harvard. She still thinks it's an exemplary educational institution, instead of a partisan haven for slapdash polemics like this (collected critiques here).
UPDATE: Audio of Hirsi Ali's conversation at the PEN Festival, and some photos (scroll down the right column 2/3 of the way). Unfortunately it doesn't include the unctuous introductions.
UPDATE: A third report from Harvard, with more details of her talk. Some people have complained about her going from being a Muslim all the way to a typical European militant atheist who wants to drive religion out of public life, but she is simply following in the Dutch tradition of Spinoza, Erasmus, and van Leeuwenhoek.
She described herself at various times as a Muslim, an atheist, a women's rights advocate, a member of Parliament, a liberal, a refugee, and a rational being.Let me remind those fearful of secular democracy that this attitude, common to our Founding Fathers as well as the thinkers of the Dutch Golden Age, created societies more hospitable to religion than any before them. Jews and Christians persecuted by the Inquisition fled to Holland. Protestant sects persecuted by Catholic France fled to America. I'm not crazy about how Hirsi Ali (like Christopher Hitchens) lumps all religions together when their respects for difference vary widely, but I do think we're on the same side.Rational being fit her best, I thought. She is rational. She is also very beautiful, poised, and has a firm handshake. There was a sadness to her, though she kidded and smiled. No matter her last name, she is a women of the West. She weighs information and scrutinizes it, holds it to her mind's crucible and determines if the matter is sound enough to be temporarily accepted, or, if it is too fanciful and backward, discarded with the the rest of the superstitious tripe. She is a scientist.
Judith | 05/09/06 at 09:08 PM | Categories: - Wackademia
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