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”Parting Words from Moristotle” (07/31/2023)
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Protecting and defending the rights of women
From the back matter of
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's 2010 memoir,
Nomad: From Islam to America:
The Ayaan Hirsi Ali Foundation was set up in 20081 as a charitable organization to help protect and defend the rights of women in the West, especially in the United States, against militant2 Islam and harmful tribal customs. Its aim is to investigate, inform, and influence against several types of crimes against women, including the denial of education for girls, genital mutilation, forced marriage, honor violence, and restrictions on girls' freedom of movement.
The AHA Foundation seeks to raise awareness in America that some of these violent practices against women are increasingly carried out in the United States. The foundation also exists to provide girls and women in distress with information and assistance, by creating a database of people and institutions qualified to deal with cases of maltreatment and abuse. [p. 275]
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- The AHA Foundation website gives 2007 as the year of foundation.
- The use of "militant" here might be an attempt by the AHA Foundation to avoid the appearance of indicting Islam generally, but the tenor of Ms. Hirsi Ali's writings is that Islam generally promulgates values detrimental to women and personal freedom, due primarily to Islam's teaching that the Quran rules in all matters and that "Allah's laws" (including laws based on the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, who she said, "measured by our western standards, [was] a pervert") override all man-made laws. In other words, Islam, her writings seem to assert, is essentially totalitarian and therefore inimical to democracy, which would seem to raise some provocative questions about "freedom of religion" in America when it comes to Islam.
Although it is from last year, I think you may find this book review useful. The author comes from a Muslim perspective and reviews her works. The link is here ... it is good to hear other opinions and ideas.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.alhamdulilah.info/2008/11/defending-our-diin-ayaan-hirsi-ali.html
Hope you find it interesting.
Thank you, Anonymous. I read the article linked to in its entirety and all of the comments currently posted there. Interesting indeed, and I appreciate familiarity with the perspective offered. My readers are of course also invited to check it out.
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