Opinion: I despised satanic poetry, but now I cry for Salman Rushdie

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

To burn Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, in 1989. But I couldn't afford a copy, even just to light a fire without reading it.

I was his teenager in Kenya. A righteous Muslim of youth, he was eager to follow the decrees of the highest religious authorities.

When Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa calling for the death of the author of Satanic Verses, I thought he was standing up for Islam and for me. rice field. So our group did what they could. I scribbled the title of the book on cardboard and burned it.

If Rushdie had been killed, I would have been happy.

I am devastated now that he was nearly killed in a knife attack.

Over the next few years, I realized that the religion of my youth was an oppressive and dangerous faith. Forced to marry in the early 1990s, I fled to the Netherlands, where I successfully sought political asylum. There he studied political science and later became a member of parliament. And I have seen, with growing anger and fear, extremist Islam continue their war against modern civilization.

I cherish the freedoms brought by Western civilization, especially the freedom to speak freely. That is why, beyond the horrifying fact of his injury, an attack on Rushdie is so abhorrent. Scientific progress, women's emancipation, revolutions that overthrew monarchies and corrupt regimes - at the heart of these achievements were driven by freedom of expression.

Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Rushdie wrote: Such people are free of speech, multi-party political systems, universal adult suffrage, accountable government, Jews, homosexuals, women's rights, pluralism, secularism, short skirts, dancing, Beardlessness is against evolution. , sex.

Speaking as a former teenage believer, I agree: Islamic fundamentalism is a massive attack on Western fundamentals. We must not only protect those whose lives are threatened by the Theocracy simply because of what they say or do, but we must stand by them. It's not just one original word and foresight that is at stake when trying to rob. It also threatens the freedom to share ideas, the lifeblood of Western civilization.

But instead of the valiant confrontation and united defense that such attacks call for, there are too many limping and murmuring around me today. What should simply have been a strong defense of free speech has sparked criticism of the act itself by some on the left, but the caveat has punctured it.

The secular cult of arousalism is fundamentally hostile to free speech, using terms such as diversity, equity, and inclusion as pillars of progress. Forces a terrifying attunement to do. Indeed, Awakenists and Islamists have something in common. Both use offensive language, hurt feelings and shut down ideas. Hate speech can be just a secular version of blasphemy.

When free speech is under attack, we risk losing precious values ​​for which countless people around the world have bled — Rushdie's Blood Last Week

Enough of the weary declarations of pity and anger. The time has come to act to defend our ideals. This means unafraid and unapologetic to invoke the evils committed in the name of Islam, to support dissident Muslims who fight to reform their faith, and to defend Western freedoms and ideals. It means standing up fearlessly for freedom of expression.

Yes, many of us are scared.

Those of us who live with fundamentalist threats, both in the West and in the Muslim world, live with fear, and have done so for years. But do not let fear keep you silent.

Times like this are the time, regardless of whether our words violate the concept of blasphemy, old or new. It reaffirms the clear need to defend Western values.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Hoover Institution research fellow and founder of the AHA Foundation.