Not funny: Jon Stewart interviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali just published a new book which calls for reforms in Islam and she’s been making media appearances to promote it. This week she appeared on the Daily Show and came off as intelligent and well informed despite Jon Stewart’s repeated disrespectful attempts to take her off topic.
As you’ll see if you watch the video below, it’s as if Hirsi Ali was being interviewed by a member of the Obama administration. I kept waiting for Stewart to bring up the Crusades.
This is a woman who is risking her life by speaking out against Islam’s treatment of women, a subject that a liberal like Stewart should care about and yet his every response was: yes, but Christianity.
If you think I’m exaggerating, just watch:
I wasn’t the only one who noticed Stewart’s bizarre approach to the interview.
Peter Malcolm of Truth Revolt:
Hirsi Ali Confronts Jon Stewart About IslamThe interview began with Stewart mocking the title, asking, “Why does Islam need a reformation …now?”Hirsi Ali replied, “Because too many people are dying in the name of Islam, too many women live under oppression, too many Jews are being demonized, too many gays are being killed in the name of Islam, too many Christians are being killed in the name of Islam. I think it really has … the answer is to have the reformation now.”Stewart, unsatisfied with the world-wide killing of non-Muslims as a reason to reform Islam, retorted, “Aren’t we having the reformation now?” asserting that Martin Luther wanted a “purer form of Christianity.”Hirsi Ali pointed out that there are a growing number of people wanting to reform Islam, and said bluntly to Stewart, “I hope you stand with them.”Stewart, cornered, struck back by asserting, “I think people single out Islam as though there is something inherently wrong with it that wasn’t wrong with other religions … If Christianity went through almost the exact same process … I get the sense that you think Islam is different from other religions.”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali deserves better. Frankly, she deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.
Rich Lowry Knows what I’m talking about:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Hero for Our TimeAyaan Hirsi Ali should be the perfect feminist hero. Viewed from a certain level of abstraction, it is hard to imagine one person who fits the role on so many levels: She’s an escapee — literally — from an abusive patriarchy. She’s an African immigrant who made her own way in a Western country, the Netherlands, starting from nothing. She’s a fierce advocate for women’s rights. She’s a target for deadly violence by angry men who want to shut her up. She left her religion and became a scourge of its repressive practices.All this — her searing personal experience, her Third World background, her secularism — would seem fit to make her a rock star of contemporary feminism. Except for the blemish on her record: Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a dissident from the wrong religion.
Featured image via YouTube.
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