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| Ayaan Hirsi Ali Upends Leftist Stereotypes in Santa Monica |
| 2010-06-10 |
| Ayann Hirsi spoke in Santa Monica.... On May 24th, at Track 16 Gallery in fashionable Bergamont Station in Santa Monica, CA, dozens of marginal works of art were nearly destroyed by the exploding heads of some of SoCal's finest and most dogmatic liberals, as a roomful of them were injected with some cognitive dissonance when author Ayaan Hirsi Ali spoke. One very confused and shaken white-haired gentleman could barely form a question, stammering that he had "great respect" for her but disagreed with almost everything she said. As he rambled on, many of his colleagues began to call at him "What's your question?" and "No speeches, ask a question!" He finally concluded with a semi-coherent plea along the lines of, "Well, how do we deal with these extremists?" Ali replied that once you have decided to "deal" with the jihadists, you have legitimized their demands of submission, and that you cannot "deal" with fanatics who wish to destroy your nice free society with bike paths and reusable shopping bags and replace it with a totalitarian theocracy. She deftly fielded a question about the "perversion" of Islam by fanatics by proclaiming that she was more concerned about the perversion of the word "liberalism," because of the willingness of many Western liberals to accept and excuse some of the most heinous criminal acts committed by practitioners of the Muslim faith, like arranged marriages, spousal abuse, subjugation of women by force, denial of education to females, and female genital mutilation in the name of multiculturalism and a so-called "respect" for other civilizations. American liberals, she said, appear to be more uncomfortable condemning the ill treatment of women under Islam than most conservatives are. This led her into a repudiation of multiculturalism, and how, despite some honorable intentions in its origins, it had mutated into a belief system that actually denies access to the freedom and justice guaranteed by the American Constitution by allowing injustice to continue within protected minority communities by not encouraging them to assimilate and become full Americans. The best question of the evening came from a young man who simply asked what would be the best way to bring about an "Enlightenment" in the Muslim world. She replied that the best way would be to ask them questions about their religion and cause "cognitive dissonance" among those who blindly follow the violent exhortations of their imams. I actually laughed out loud when she used those words, as the cognitive dissonance occurring at that moment in the Track 16 gallery was practically audible. I could swear I heard the word "What?!?" thudding over and over again in the formerly comfortable brains of those around me. The only applause of the night (!) signaled the end of the evening, and as I lined up to have my book signed by Ms. Ali, I was struck by how short the line was. Out of the 150 to 200 people I guessed were in attendance, only about 25 or so lined up to greet this remarkable individual. As I made my way down the line, I passed pockets of fervent discussion, and caught fragments here and there. I overheard one rather agitated gentleman say, "I just think there are problems in this country that she just doesn't understand! I mean, what's the difference between a fanatical mass-murdering Taliban regime and a mass-murdering evangelical Christian in the White House, which this country voted in for eight years?!?" Not a very scintillating exchange I know, but as I left the gallery that evening, I realized that the real crux of the matter, and the truly paralyzing aspect for the liberals around me, was simply that -- her courage. To the Hollywood community, a community that did not even have the courage to list Theo Van Gogh during the 2005 Oscar ceremony as one of the people in film who had died that year, a woman willing to continue espousing her deep convictions after being threatened with death by the same people who had murdered her colleague was utterly confounding. And for someone like me, a person who writes from behind a mask, not even for fear of death but of the economic retribution I might face from the supposedly tolerant community in which I live and work, the evening I spent in a room with Ayaan Hirsi Ali was all the more humbling. |
| Posted by:CrazyFool |
| #4 "I mean, what's the difference between a fanatical mass-murdering Taliban regime and a mass-murdering evangelical Christian in the White House, which this country voted in for eight years?!?" IOW: Muslims are bad, but it's OK because we have decided the man who took them on killed lots of their more fanatical ranks. Why don't you go move your sorry a$$ to Afghanistan or Somalia and tell me what you think after living there for a while. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-06-10 23:33 |
| #3 Don't confuse wisdom with education, and education with credentials. I knew the former by first grade, but it took the ivy league to teach me the latter. |
| Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division 2010-06-10 23:14 |
| #2 As I have said many times; I used to believe that liberals were, collectively better educated and likely smarter than we conservatives/libertarians. I truly do not believe that anymore. The conservative and libertarian movements have their share of bozos and idiots. However, the liberal movement is chocked full of educated ignoramuses with little common sense or wisdom. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2010-06-10 21:11 |
| #1 “I mean, what’s the difference between a fanatical mass-murdering Taliban regime and a mass-murdering evangelical Christian in the White House, which this country voted in for eight years?!?” Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2010-06-10 20:50 |