Ayaan Hirsi Ali Quotes
The problem is that those of us who were born into Islam and who don't want to live according to scripture - we don't have what the Jews have, which is a rabbinical tradition that allows you to ask questions. We also don't have the church tradition that the Christians have.
Ali, Ayaan Hirsi. Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now. Harper, 2015.
He was out of office and speaking as an individual. The then President was spewing hate and barbaric fundamentalism which represented the views of the Mullahs who control Iran. (The President has very little power and he can be overridden by the religious authorities whenever those authorities feel that Islam is being compromised.
Ironically, while Radical Fundamentalist Muslims abroad claim that Western materialism and dem0cracy is not only anti-Islamic but a danger to Islam, in America there has been a growing and thriving Islamic community which has had far less difficulty reconciling their religion and American democracy and values than have other religions such as the Amish and orthodox Jews. This ease of the transition and Islamic compatibility with modern America is perhaps the central reason for the hatred of America. Aslan argues that the Muslim reformation is succeeding very smoothly in America and is the model for Muslims throughout the world.
This was early in his career. As he got older, he was very frustrated with the Jews who would not convert to Christianity even after he had “purified” the religion and freed Christians from the “evils” of the Papacy. He became a virulent anti-Semite. See {617773}.
This quotation is an excellent summary of view of most fundamentalist Muslims’ current views towards Christians and Jews. In the Koran, the Prophet made exceptions about required conversions to Islam for Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians (the pre Islamic Iranian religion). However, although they were to be allowed to maintain their religion. They had to pay a special tax called “Jizya” described in the quotation. Islam interpreted these words of the Prophet very differently in different places and times. Jews and Christians were not only treated very well in Islamic Spain and in Ottoman Turkey when Turkey was the seat of Islamic religion and power in the world, but they achieved some of the most important positions of power in the Empire and in the professions: law, military, teaching, philosophy, science and medicine. However, in other times and places, non Muslims were not allowed to worship in public or hold any position of influence or power and certainly never teach Muslims. So Jews and Christians in this world view will be tolerated but they must exist under a Muslim theocracy. That is the view that most of the ultra fundamentalist Muslims have today, which of course sets up a serious conflict potential.
Much of the Catholic Church was greatly influenced by Aquinas long past his death. This quotation laid the foundation for the view, that anything the Church does, even if seemingly wrong or absurd, has some positive value. Here, Aquinas refused to totally condemn the Church practice of giving indulgences (official absolution for serious sins) to the rich in exchange for money. His view assumes that there must be some good in all acts of the church, even if we can not now determine it. This view makes reform very difficult even after the evil is recognized. Some theologians argue that although this perpetuates some bad practices, it provides stability and prevents leaders of the church from constantly trying to adapt the church to meet current popular or civil criticism.
Earlier in the Nazi movement he had criticized some of the more absurd anti-Semitic positions of Hitler and his henchmen. However, when it became clear that the Nazis had the upper hand he publicly recognized the Nazi government as legitimate, required Catholic clergy to remain loyal to the Nazi government, and maintained bridges between fascism and the Church while over 6 million Jews, Gypsies, and handicapped were murdered—many by his faithful.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist, feminist, author, scholar and former politician. She received international attention as a critic of Islam and advocate for the rights and self-determination of Muslim women, actively opposing forced marriage, honor violence, child marriage and female genital mutilation. She has founded an organisation for the defense of women's rights, the AHA Foundation. Ayaan Hirsi Ali works for the Hoover Institution and the American Enterprise Institute.
