Friday, November 25, 2005

Photos of Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Copenhagen, Denmark



Ayaan Hirsi Ali visited Copenhagen, Denmark, this week, to meet with members of the Danish Free Press Society. Here she is seen with Danish Islam-critics Lars Hedegaard (left) and Helle Merete Brix, authors of several books and countless articles about Islam in Europe, and participants in the Internet Magazine Sappho as well as other websites such as Sharia.dk.

The photos have been provided, with kind permission, from Steen from the excellent blog Danske øjne på svenske forhold.

5 Comments:

At November 25, 2005 5:47 PM, Blogger Snouck said...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is called a "liberal" in this article. She started working for the labour party though. She went to work for the Liberals because the Socialists did not allow her to critisise Islam and the Muslim Community in The Netherlands.

Ayaan is using the power of the state to attack religious education in The Netherlands. Article 23 of the Dutch constitution enshrines the freedom of founding religious school and their funding on an equal footing with state schools.

Christians in The Netherlands fought a long time to establish the freedom to raise children according to tradition. Ayaan is now attacking this freedom. I do not think this is liberal at all. It is true that Islamic schools are a obstacle to intergration of Muslims. Ayaan is also campaigning to give the state agencies more power over children and take parental authority away, all justified by the abuses that take place in the Muslim milieu. These policies are not Liberal at all.

When the good intentions of Liberals are not reached using freedom, personal initiative and responsability often the powers of the state are enlarged to archieve these goals by force. This is where Liberalism becomes Socialism, Communism, Multiculturalism and now the latest offshoot of state worship: Ayaanism.

I have no doubt about the good intentions of Ayaan and she should go ahead with her film. But she is not a liberal.

 
At November 25, 2005 9:15 PM, Blogger Don Miguel said...

snouck:

Since "Liberal" has a different meaning or definition in and within Europe than with the U.S., I will say that "campaigning to give the state agencies more power over children and take parental authority away" would be considered a "liberal" (i.e. leftist) concept in the U.S but not a "Liberal" one in the classic sense.

"When the good intentions of Liberals are not reached using freedom, personal initiative and responsibility often the powers of the state are enlarged to achieve these goals by force."

You got that right (although I would not always consider their intentions as "good").

 
At November 26, 2005 2:52 AM, Blogger Thomas Bolding Hansen said...

"Since "Liberal" has a different meaning or definition in and within Europe than with the U.S."

Indeed but in the states there is only two working and standing parties which embrace the whole political spectre.

Hirsi Ali is not liberal, not even in European sense, she is centrist or social liberal.

Many European countries have two left wing parties, two centrist and two right wing parties - roughly speaking.

Or communists, socialist, social democrats, Social liberals, conservatives and Liberals and maybe some extreme right wing party.

S

 
At November 26, 2005 12:24 PM, Blogger Snouck said...

Don Miguel:
"I will say that "campaigning to give the state agencies more power over children and take parental authority away" would be considered a "liberal" (i.e. leftist) concept in the U.S but not a "Liberal" one in the classic sense."

Yes, in the USA Socialists hide under the cloack of Liberalism and American Conservatives and Right -wingers use the word "Liberal" to describe all kinds of Socialist policies and approaches. Regarding the term "Liberal" very much as a
epithet. Classic liberalism is something that is not a bad political choice at all for Conservatives.

Where Rightwingers or Conservatives use the power of the state to achieve or further their goals they make the same terrible and tragic mistakes as Socialists.

Classic Liberalism is also a political approach that can be combined well with a Conservative worldview. The difference between a Conservative worldview and a Liberal worldview I think are the optimism and individualism of Classical Liberalism, contrasted with the traditionalism and pessimism of the Conservative worldview, rooted in a dour view of unchangeble human nature.

 
At November 26, 2005 6:03 PM, Blogger Don Miguel said...

"Where Rightwingers or Conservatives use the power of the state to achieve or further their goals they make the same terrible and tragic mistakes as Socialists."

snouck:

Theoretically (in the U.S.), they would not be true conservatives since the goal of conservatives is to minimize the power of the state. But you are right in that they make the same mistakes as the Socialists and actually I think they help bring about Socialism. Unfortunately, both Democrats and Republicans seem to enjoy increasing government power for their own ends. The left side of the Democrats want the state to tell you how to spend your money (in fact they will do it for you) while the right side of the Republicans want to tell you how to live your life (even in the privacy of your own home).

 

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