Respect for reason and the individual's right

In the past, contends Hirsi Ali, the Christian world too was equally close-minded and suffocating, but the revolution ushered in by the great thinkers of the Enlightenment - Kant, Spinoza, Voltaire, Mill, Locke - brought about a separation between the church and the state, and a new respect for reason and the individual's right to choose his or her own way of life. "The Enlightenment," writes Hirsi Ali, "cut European culture from its roots in old fixed ideas of magic, kingship, social hierarchy, and the domination of priests, and regrafted it onto a great strong trunk that supported the equality of each individual, and his right to free opinions and self-rule - so long as he did not threaten civic peace and the freedom of others.

"In her opinion Islam, too, needs a similar Age of Reformation. She is critical of the way in which Western governments and intellectuals have become nervous about this right to freedom of speech, of free debate and criticism, out of respect for the pieties of multiculturalism and a fear of being called racist. She herself defied those pieties by collaborating with the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh on a short film sharply critical of the treatment of women in Islam...Chandrahas, 8:17 AM Saturday, March 10, 2007 On Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel 2 Comments:

The debate at signandsight (which I have been following for a few weeks now) is really quite interesting. Hirsi Ali makes me very uncomfortable though. She does raise important questions no doubt but I just find her entire approach not just a bit offensive but also eventually pointless. She comes up with such blanket generalisations that you really cant take away much of any use. Plus she has a very biased and unidimensional take on Islamic history that is disappointing to say the least. Szerelem, at 12:11 PM, March 10, 2007