I must comment on Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s recent article on persecution of Christians in the Muslim World. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html
The issue here isn’t whether or not one agrees or disagrees with religious persecution. I totally agree that what goes on in Egypt and Pakistan vis a vis not only Christians but also in general how women are treated is disgusting. I am all for not measuring different societies by the West’s own warped yardstick but that is clearly wrong. I don’t know anybody who disagrees with this.
The issue here rather is what she’s left out by attempting to place a number of completely different situations under her all purpose heading of Muslim persecution part of the ongoing effort to sell the world particularly the USA on the narrative that there is a global Muslim conspiracy to take over the planet as if they were the Borg on Star Trek; The Next Generation. But more on Hirsi Ali’s motivations later.
The best way to address this to take each situation separately and breakdown what she has said.
1.) NIGERIA – Hirsi Ali here is on the same page with that coalition of right wing fundamentalist Christian groups and neo-conservative Zionists who are pushing Nigeria as a future target of US intervention. The truth is much of what feeds Islamic insurgency group Boko Haram is religious but the fervor under the religion is more about discontent with the corruption than the actual spread of Islam much like Communism in third world war countries. After all, no one wrote Newsweek cover articles when Shell Oil colluded with the Nigerian government to have environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa executed on trumped up charges?(which I wrote about here http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/675330742/boycott-shell-oil/ Oh I forgot Nigeria’s our ally so we just looked the other way. Eliminating the foes of a government who are non-violent and less extreme has the effect of driving people into the arms of more extreme groups and building them up. This has happened time and time again in US history Iran under the Shah being the prime example. In addition, The US loves to get involved when it can get control over another country’s oil. More on the Nigeria situation here http://nilebowie.blogspot.com/2012/01/dhs-targets-nigerian-islamist-group.html
2.) SUDAN – Hirsi Ali completely ignores the history of the Sudan in her writings. There was no real trouble in the Sudan until oil was discovered in the 1970’s. At that point, the CIA funded an insurgency under the banner of so-called Christians. This was finally ended by Sudan splitting into two countries but this was a phony insurgency created by the CIA to get a country’s oil. Religion was just a cover for that. I wrote more here http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/668728062/skepticism-about-darfur-more-neo-conservative-hi-jinks/
3.) IRAQ – Hirsi Ali conveniently leaves out the Iraq War and its negative effect on Christians in Iraq. By ignoring history (a favorite trick of neo-cons), she makes the readers think these events occur in a vacuum and consequently feed her anti-Muslim theories.
4.) WORLD VISION IN PAKISTAN OR ANYWHERE – Hirsi Ali complains about the treatment of World Vision in Pakistan. World Vision has long been a front group for the CIA hiding their agents within its organization. If they are in Pakistan or any third world country, Muslim or otherwise, it is not a good thing for that country. More info here http://spookterror.blogspot.com/2009/01/world-vision-greece-and-cia.html
5.) INDONESIA – Again, she shows little knowledge about the local situation and/or history. The main problem in Indonesia is race. The Chinese are a very small group but own a lot of the country’s wealth. This has led to a lot of anger on race/poverty lines. The fact many Chinese are Christians only exacerbates the problem but it is not the main issue there. Race, poverty, even overpopulation are more important –religion is just the match for the kindling.
Hirsi Ali is a member of the American Enterprise Institute, the neo-conservative think tank which pushed the Iraq War. In addition to supporting the Iraq War, she also supports military action against Iran. She supports Israel’s continued human rights violations against the Palestinians and has also lately spoken out against Muslim immigration to the Netherlands-very hypocritical considering her background.
I think she’s a scam artist -a pretty non-white mask that is worn by bigoted groups with a right wing Christian, neo-conservative agenda.
She is what I have now titled a “phony atheist”. What does that mean? Phony atheists are people like her, Geert Wilders, Christopher Hitchens who proclaim atheism and a dislike of religion but definitely criticize Islam more than other religions and align themselves with Neo-Con Christian fundamentalist and Zionist based groups. I am a true atheist. I hate all religions and have no doubts that if Christians ever got control of the US we would resemble Afghanistan under the Taliban in no time.
Also I just want to say at the heart of many Muslim vs. Christian disputes in the world is the subject of proselytizing, that is, attempting to convert non-believers or adherents to another faith to your religion. Christianity is the most aggressive in this and this behavior is illegal in a lot of Muslim countries setting the stage for conflict. As I’ve said before, I’ve had Christians come up to me and say “Have you found Jesus?” but, having been to four Muslim countries and lived in two, I’ve never had a Muslim come up and ask me “If I’d found Allah”. I have also witnessed US Christian missionaries attempt to bribe people into joining their religion. Arguments about free speech detached from human rights questions such as torture and other matters are where the West often makes mistakes in trying to force itself on other countries. The missionary as an agent of converting “heathens”, the missionary as agent of quiet subversion, should have died out a long time ago.
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