AYAAN HIRSI ALI: THE INFIDEL

The above named author (of The Infidel) is famous
and gifted and appears often on TV. Time Magazine
listed her as one of 100 of the "most influential"
people of the world. Born in Somalia, she grew up
there and in Kenya, with brief stopovers in Saudi
Arabia and Ethiopia. So she has had sufficient ex-
posure to a variety of Muslim cultures to be convinced
that she doesn't want any part of any of them, or the
religion they represent.

She makes no difference between the religion itself
and the many distinct cultures, with their baggage,
who claim to follow its doctrines. It's all equally bad,
so why try to sort it out? She also sees little, if any,
difference between moderate Muslims and extremists:
they are all equally to blame for the bad stuff (in her
view) that flows from a bad religion.

When asked on NPR whether she sees any positive
sides to Islam, she said, "that's like asking if I see posi-
tive sides to Nazism, communism or Catholicism." She
doesn't. She wants to see it stamped out -- by force if
necessary. She would like to see all Muslim religious
schools closed and banned, because they spew out poison.

Her hatred for Islam is powerful, and fully understandable,
when you read her life story. But it clouds her judgement
and blocks her vision, causing exaggeration and twisting
of the truth. For example, she said in an interview: "When
Pres. Ahmadinejad denies the holocaust we may consider
him crazy. But the concept that Jews are vermin is accep-
ted throughout the Muslim world." That, of course is to-
tal hogwash! While Jews may be persona non grata in
Saudi Arabia and many if not most Arab countries, that
is not the case in non-Arab countries like Indonesia, Turkey,
and Iran. The latter two have sizable Jewish communities
going back to Biblical times, who live in peace and worship
without opposition or persecution.

When Ferdinand came to power in Spain in 1492, he be-
gan driving Jews out of that country by forcing them to
convert to his idea of Christianity. Since Jews were wide-
ly persecuted in other parts of Europe, they had no place
to go. The Ottoman Empire thereupon invited them to
find homes there, and treated them with hospitality.
Jews there often became doctors and other professionals
and were treated with dignity and respect in that Muslim
society. Iran also has about 25,000 Jews living and wor-
shipping freely in Tehran. They are patriotic Iranians,
and their religion is not an issue. So Ms. Hirsi's generali-
zation is incorrect and misleading.

A more serious lack of knowledge on her part was re-
vealed in an interview with Guernica Magazine. In it, she
said: "I tried to explain in the book that I used to be a
member of the [Muslim] Brotherhood movement. And
listening to bin Laden, and listening to al Qaeda, listen-
ing to all those extremists the only reason these people
win from the moderates is because what they are saying
is in the Qu'ran and what the prophet wanted and how
they are acting is all consistent." (Emphasis mine.)

To know that this is completely false, and is nonsense,
all one has to do is read the Qu'ran! It clearly and un-
equivocally forbids the killing of non-combatant civilians
of any stripe or description. I'm not an expert on Islam.
Nor is Ms. Hirsi, although she presents herself as such.
Her training is in political science. A genuine expert on
Islam, who has written the definitive treatment on its
teachings, is Reza Aslan, who wrote No God But God.
In there he explains point by point how the extremists
err and why.

Further proof Ms. Hirsi doesn't know what she's talking
about: In 2005 King Abdullah II of Jordan convened in
Amman a conference of 180 of the world's top Islamic
scholars and religious authorities. They represented all
17 of the different groups, sects, and "schools" of interpre-
tation in Islam, and together issued a fatwa summed up
by the King: "Muslims from every branch of Islam can
now assert without doubt or hesitation that a fatwa calling
for the killing of innocent civilians -- no matter what na-
tionality or religion, Muslim or Jew, Arab or Israeli -- is
a basic violation of the most fundamental prin-
ciples of Islam." (Emphasis mine.)

That's what the vast majority of Muslims in the world
actually believe, regardless of what any of the Islamo-
phobes claim in their ignorance. You can take that to the
bank (if it's still in business). It's astounding and inexcu-
sable that Ms. Hirsi continues to peddle her nonsense to
the contrary. Either she doesn't know or she doesn't care!

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net

MORE ON TERRORISM

The Bush admin. went to Congress two years ago and
asked (and got) $400 million for clandestine activities
against Iran. This money is used by the CIA to support
groups of Iranian dissidents (insurgents) based near the
Iranian border in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of these
groups, known as MEK (Mujahideen-e-Khalq a.k.a. PMOI),
has had a camp in Iraq for years that was protected by
Saddam, and then by us. They have friendly relations
with al-Qaida, with whom they swap information and
hospitality. The MEK has a history of terrorist attacks
in Iran, such as bombings of mosques and other gatherings
of civilians.

Other terrorist groups in that part of the world that our
taxpayers are supporting are known as Jondollah (Army
of God), and PJAK. You can Google them if you want to
know more. Jondollah members have received special
training by our forces here in the U. S. (in Nevada). On
June 12 (last month) they claimed responsibility for a
mosque bombing in southern Iran that killed twenty-five
and injured 100+. Our taxpayer dollars at work! Aren"t
you proud? And do you wonder that the Iranian govern-
ment expresses hostility toward us from time to time?
Our "war on terrorism" is a big joke in the rest of the
world!