When I first came to a Western country I was astonished to find men who said, 'Ladies first,' " Ayaan Hirsi Ali recently recalled. "I was amazed because I was born and raised in a culture that put me last because I was born a girl.''
The former Dutch parliamentarian captivated about 1,500 guests at the Congress of Racial Equality's 23rd annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during which Ali received CORE's International Brotherhood Award.
...
In 2004 Ali wrote Dutch director Theo Van Gogh's "Submission,'' a provocative film about Islamic-fundamentalist misogyny. That Nov. 2, Dutch-Moroccan citizen Mohammed Bouyeri assassinated Van Gogh -- the great-grand nephew of the 19th Century Impressionist painter -- on an Amsterdam street. After shooting him and slitting his throat, the radical Muslim used another knife to bury a five-page letter into Van Gogh's lifeless chest.
"You will break yourself to pieces on Islam,'' read the communique, addressed to Ali. "Be warned that the death that you are trying to prevent will surely find you.''
Bouyeri also carried with him "Baptized in Blood.'' The poem reads, in part:
"Wherever in the world you go
Death is waiting for you
Chased by the knights of DEATH
Who paint the streets with Red.''
Since then, Ali has labored under a fatwa. Scheich Fawaz, an imam in The Hague, said Ali would be "blown away by the wind of changing times'' and would suffer "the curse of Allah.''
...
"Because the culture the U.S. leads and stands for is under threat,'' Ali tells me, "it would help a great deal if the Democrats and the Republicans were less polarized, if they understood that they are under threat, and that fighting for what America stands for is far more important than all the small differences that we have on a domestic level.''
First and foremost, Ali argues, the West should champion a culture that is superior to militant Islam, which has civilization itself in its crosshairs. As she puts it: "Human beings are equal; cultures are not.''
"A culture that holds the door open to her women is not equal to one that confines them behind walls and veils,'' Ali told CORE. "A culture that encourages dating between young men and young women is not equal to a culture that flogs or stones a girl for falling in love. A culture where monogamy is an aspiration is not equal to a culture where a man can lawfully have four wives all at once.''
...
Ali is grateful for what the West has done for her and the many others it shields from radical Islamists. She despairs, however, for the West's wavering-self-confidence.
"Unfortunately, it is this culture that is under threat today,'' she told CORE's guests. "Many of those born into it take it for granted or, worse, apologize for it.''
As Ayaan Hirsi Ali asked: "Let's join together to protect this culture of life, this culture of liberty, this culture of ladies first.''
and
The complete text of "Baptized in Blood":
Baptized in Blood
This is then my last word...
This is then my last word...
Penetrated by bullets...
Baptized in blood
As I had hoped for
I leave a message
For you...the fighter...
The tree of Tawheed awaits you...
Yearning for your blood...
Accept the deal...
And Allah will not stand in your way...
He will give you the GardenIn place of the earthly ruin.
I also have a word to the enemy...
You will certainly come off badly...
Even if you go all over the world on Tour...
Death will be on the look out...
The Knights of Death are hard on your heels...
Who will color the streets Red.
To the hypocrites, I say this in conclusion...
Wish for death or else keep your mouth shut and...sit.
Pertinent Links:
1) Exile decries militant Islam
2) C.O.R.E. (Congress of Racial Equality)
3) Baptized in Blood
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