When Ayaan Hirsi Ali was 19, she “piously, even gleefully” participated in a rally in Kenya to burn Salman Rushdie’s book—despite having never read it.
Ali, whose cover story was published today in Newsweek, uses her own personal experiences of what she calls "Muslim Rage" and unquestioning fanaticism as a lens to view the protests in the Middle East.
Her own blind rage is not unique, too: The brother of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, had not seen the internet video that sparked many of these protests, despite condemning and calling his supporters to act out against it, she said.
“I was taught to be loyal and fanatically loyal to the Qaran and the Prophet Mohammed,” Ali exclusively told The Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell. “I understood one thing and that was anyone offended or said anything insulting about the Prophet Mohammed should die. I did that unthinkingly and I think the huge mobs we’re seeing are doing that unthinkingly but that does not excuse the individual responsibilities once they leave the company of the crowd.”
That responsibility is to value human life above religious outrage, Ali said. “The vast majority of Muslims, even though they may condemn violence, they may condemn murder, they haven’t found a way to bring themselves to understand that they may be offended but human life is more valuable than the offense taking in the name of human icons,” she added.
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Absolutely amazing, O'Donnell! Two duplicating post topics on the same subject while you totally ignore the swirling controversy on the lack of proper security in Libya specifically, but throughout the Middle East and North Africa in our consulates and embassies, especially with the unrest leading up to the 11th anniversary of 9/11, the very day of the first assaults on our embassy in Cairo, and the armed with heavy weapons jihadists' carefully planned and executed lethal attack on our Ambassador and his colleagues in Benghazi, Libya. And that is to say nothing of the disrespect and disdain to our posture of weakness in these regions due to President Obama's policy of withdrawal economically, diplomatically, and militarily contrary to the policies of his past four predecessors over a 28 year period. Quite the distraction Lawrence.
I watched the interview tonight and was rather disappoint that you praised Ayaan Hirsi Ali for her influence in our western world, but failed to mention her murky past: She manipulated the Dutch government in order to gain citizenship, only to concoct a story of a forced arranged marriage when her lies were discovered. Her entire family denies such a marriage ever happened. Her fables become more transparent when she writes so called autobiographies, but the details fail to correlate between books. She goes as far as to call the Prophet (pbuh) a "pervert." It is evident that she exploits the West's hate for Islam to further her popularity. That she was allowed to continue her anti-Islamic agenda in the Newsweek article, was a travesty. At a time when peace should be encouraged by all intellectuals, Ali and Newsweek encourage ignorance. I would expect such behavior from Newsweek, but not from MSNBC. I would appreciate a more thorough coverage of such a controversial character in the future. If I seem to be overly critical of Ali, here is an article from The Economist echoing my concerns.
Well I can say that I am done listening to your show after your disgraceful interview with the bigoted piece of $hit that calls itself Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Think Progress did it better:
"Somali-born Dutch AEI scholar Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the cover story’s author. In the article, Hirsi Ali claims that extremist Muslims “are not a fringe group“:
In a speech back in May, Hirsi Ali expressed sympathy for one of the justifications for Norwegian anti-Muslim terrorist Anders Breivik‘s attacks, explaining that Breivik said “he had no other choice but to use violence” because his fringe views were “censored.” Breivik was convicted of mass murder last month, which he admitted to perpetuating in order to save Europe from a “Muslim takeover.”
As this blog has previously noted, in a 2007 interview with Reason Magazine, Hirsi Ali called for Islam to be “defeated.” The interviewer asked: “Don’t you mean defeating radical Islam?” Hirsi Ali replied bluntly: “No. Islam, period. Once it’s defeated, it can mutate into something peaceful. It’s very difficult to even talk about peace now. They’re not interested in peace.”"
Good bye
Anthropologiest is absolutely right. Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an opportunist of the highest order. Her extensive and very clever lies earned her the very best of educations anyone could wish for at the Dutch taxpayers' expense. Her lies got her elected into Dutch Parliament. She co-authored the tome on which the Theo van Gogh's extremely anti Muslim movie "Submission" was based and for which he was brutally murdered. On his chest was a message attached with a knife that warned Ayaan Hirsi Ali that she was next. At the Dutch taxpayer's expense she received the strongest police protection ever given a politician and when she decided to come to the US and work for the American Enterprise Institute her protection was paid for by the Dutch taxpayer. Ali is currently married to the Conservative Niall Fergusson who recently wrote a very scathing article about President Obama and his policies using misleading and untrue facts.
I am astounded that the Lawrence O'Donnell show neglected to do their research into that lady's past. Anthopologiest is kind when he calls her past "murky".
She has the credibility of a serpent. She is poison. I expect better from the "Last Word" in the future. I am a dual citizen of The Netherlands and the U.S.
So uhm, ayaan says those who commit murder as part of a crowd are still responsible and any offense taken must never lead to murder as human life should be valued more. Who cares about her past, these words are true, even if hitler spoke them, the words would still be true. Stop slagging off this woman, listen to what she says and tell me it's not true? Because it is true. In a sense all muslims are extremists. 85% of Egyptians believe the deathpenalty should be given to all those who leave their religion. This is Egypt!! supposedly progressive. You think 85% is a minority? Think again. YEs we are being lied to, but not by Ali, by the governments who try to create a peace between the arab world and the west, so the lie to us and hope that in the future the muslims naturally take on a less extremist view. It's one big gamble that so far, is not paying off, but I concede that the alternative (ie admitting they are all extremists) may very well be worse.
whether she is an opportunist or not is unimportant. Her commetns are right. Human life IS more important than religious icons. Or do you disagree simply because some you don't like the one making this statement? As for the extremists : 85 % of Egyptians are in favour of the deathpenalty when muslims decide to leave their religion. 85% !!! is that a minority? Or do you think putting people to death for questioning their own religion isn't extreme enough?