A controversial critic of Islam whisked into Cleveland Thursday night under heavy security, made a surprise appearance at the end of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards ceremony and disappeared under the protection of armed guards. When poet Rita Dove made the surprise introduction at the Anisfield-Wolf ceremony, she compared the 38-year-old Hirsi Ali to the abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. Ronn Richard, executive director of the Cleveland Foundation, which administers the awards that honor the year's best books dealing with race, said Hirsi Ali's prize was kept secret to protect both her and members of the audience. Some of the 600 celebrants gasped, then the audience rose to encircle Hirsi Ali with applause.
The soft-spoken Somali-born author came from behind the curtain in the Bolton Theatre of the Cleveland Play House. She smiled and nodded, named the winner for best nonfiction book for her memoir "Infidel."
"I'm honored, humbled, feel encouraged and acknowledged," she said. "I am very, very grateful for this award.
"Bigotry is not only a white man's disease," she said. "It's a universal disease, and the only way to get rid of it is through self-examination. And there is not self-examination if there is no self," a reference to what Hirsi Ali sees as the subjugation of women in the Muslim world.
In an interview with The Plain Dealer, Hirsi Ali acknowledged her isolation, and said she hoped eventually to become a U.S. citizen. "Yes, it is a lonely journey," she said. "But you overcome it. If you get to the plateau where you no longer have to survive and can start living again - meet people, exchange stories - a bit of that loneliness is relieved. And you appreciate life even more."
This article is from last Friday, by the way.