Yes, it's true, the sudden neocon solicitude for Ms Ali makes eyes roll around the world, and justifiably so. The right of a dissident flame-thrower to wage a war of words with Islam is near sacred, while the right of an Iraqi not to be murdered by Blackwater, or the right of an Arab to get a building permit in Palestine, is as nothing. Neocons fixate on cases like Ms. Ali to reinforce their big lie, the war of civilizations, primarily to maneuver the US into fighting Israel's wars.

Neocons suddenly pose as principled defenders of human rights, but they are nothing of the sort. During the 1970s and 1980s, when right-wingers in Latin America were waging a well-known campaign of murder and torture which Islamofascists will need many more years to match, those same neocons had not a peep to make about human rights. On the contrary, they worked hard to put the murderers on our payroll. Neocons are extremely selective in their human rights sensibilities. Victims who further their agenda are vigorously defended, while the vast majority are ignored or worse.

For perspective, it's also useful to remember that in Europe, cradle of virtue, thousands of heretics, witches, and sodomites were burned in the past. Ali's Christian sisters of the fifteenth century would have faced similar danger. The mellow, anything-goes Dutch, even as late as the 17th century, were masters of torture and forced confessions. Their "counter-insurgency" tactics as colonial occupiers of what is now Indonesia would make Rush Limbaugh proud. Modern European respect for human rights was hard-won over many centuries (and remains fragile even so -- as when born-again war hawk John McCain suggests MoveOn.Org should leave the country because they articulate views he opposes.)

Of course, the Islamic world benefits from the shining example of the Judeo-Christian West, and therefore ought to progress from medieval to modern in a matter of weeks, not centuries. Except that through the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, destruccupation of Iraq, propping up pro-western thugs from Mubarak to Musharraf, and openly planning to expand our holy war against Moslem countries, the West has squandered its moral credibility and further radicalized the Islamic world. You could pardon the Dutch for considering this a dumb-nuts scenario. Canceling the war of civilizations would do much more for Moslem women than Ms. Ali will ever do, but of course that is the one option not ever on the table. The proverbial table of options is groaning under the weight of bombs and missiles, but never a feather of justice for those whose rights are inconvenient.

Rights of people in the Netherlands should be defended by the Dutch government. But you could forgive the Dutch people for their annoyance at being sucked into a bogus and destructive war of civilizations, and being forced to fight it on their own streets.

Best post on this topic by far.

I too am highly skeptical of the neocons' sudden love affair with freedom of speech and all that nice stuff. If you cannot see the ideological agenda that Ali serves, you've got a blind spot the size of Texas.

You speak as if the Koran and Sharia law are imaginary books posed by the neocons. And that is why Ms. Hirsi Ali scares you, because it is proof they exist in all their horrible sanctity.

I love it--it's "the West" that has "radicalized the Islamic world." And Islamofascism "has yet to match" the horrors of the Contras or whoever.

No shortages of dumbasses in this country, that is for sure.

Hellzapoppin

"no shortage of dumbasses" i hope you count yourself amongst these

Why, am I wrong, papillon?

Christ, we have an article here on the travails of a Muslim dissident and people just can't wait to throw barbs at their own country, and trot out simpleton labels like "neocon" and "zionist" "religious right" and throw in a "Blackwater" as though they have something to do with anything. God forbid anyone say "Wow, takes guts for a Muslim woman to speak out like that" or "Maybe the people who want her dead aren't so wonderful and peaceful after all." No...that's to be presumed, never stated (for fear of appearing jingoistic), and after all she must be a "neocon tool" if she has these views!

No, they're such moral midgets that it's not about the stark contrast between free societies and a totalitarian one that reaches into and exploits them, it's about our own country, the root of the evil. It's not about the religious totalitarianism that threatens free society, it's "Bush lied/people died." They're all so damned impressed with their appreciation of "nuance," their unprincipled "tolerance," their pretense of an open mind and their bonehead knee-jerk ability to spot American culpability they can't even stick with the article.

It's disgraceful and I'm saying so. And to express this I'm called "neocon," "religious nut," etc. Now, I'm a proud liberal who has never voted for a Republican president, thinks the Iraq War was dumb, and I'm still embarrassed these people are on "my side." With friends like these...

One of my central arguments above was: the AEI crowd did not suddenly become the champions of Ms. Ali because of their sincere dedication to human rights. They did so because of a (barely) hidden agenda of promoting the war of civilizations, in order to maneuver the USA into fighting Israel's wars. To support this argument, it's not unreasonable to point out the AEI crowd's past inconsistency on human rights. In the dirty war in Argentina, Chile after Pinochet, El Salvador under the death squads, six figures of human beings were tortured and murdered for doing what Ms. Ali did or less, and the AEI crowd was surprisingly untroubled. In fact, they were often busy defending and funding the murderers. Mentioning that history should remove any notion that neocons are pious defenders of human rights. Sorry if you can't follow the logic. Lots of people can.

In mentioning that history, I am not throwing barbs at my own country. That is the oldest and most favorite tactic of neocons -- to accuse any critic of un-patriotism and anti-Americanism. I am more pro-American than you. I want to restore American independence, not squander the American legacy to benefit a foreign country.

In regard to Ms. Ali herself, I consider her a very negative force. She is like one of those Sudeten Germans on a Nazi propaganda film, reciting oppression by the Czechs. What she says is in some measure true, and she has a right to say it which we must defend in principle. But that does not mean we must admire her. Even when a cause (such as women's rights in the Islamic world) is justified, there are still wise and unwise ways to proceed; moral and immoral ways to proceed. To sit in the nest of the AEI and advocate the crushing of Islam by military force is both unwise and immoral. I have the right to say so. The proper way to respond to Ms. Ali is to criticize her in words as I am doing. Criticizing her does not make me part of the mob that wants her killed.

The best way to de-radicalize the Islamic world in general, including promotion of women's rights, is to cancel the war of civilizations and begin to use standards of justice to guide our dealings with the Islamic world. If you want Moslems to be moderate, show them the rule of law works for them. That would change their minds faster than waging holy war on them. Duh.

Finally, I should point out that I am not on your side. You are on their side. You are a typical Israeli apologist who feigns progressive beliefs, but is always there to support the war of civilizations when needed. You can comfortably vote for Democratic presidential candidates because they are all in AIPAC's pocket and it makes little difference. The Iraq war was much worse than dumb, as history will show. A lot of us dumbasses understand that, even if you don't or won't.