[MD] The Dynamics of Value

[Ham Priday]

Hi Marsha --


> Greetings Ham and Mark,
>
> I've been wondering about whose life-story I and you might
> most admire.  I've settled on Vincent Van Gogh or Georgia
> O'Keefe because they seemed to have lived life for their own
> purposes.  Who do you most admire?

Your query made me think of heroes --generals, explorers, inventors, and the 
like -- all male of course.  But your mention of O'Keefe quickly brought to 
mind a young lady I greatly admire, though it's quite possible you have 
never heard of her.  I'm referring to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of the 
best-selling auto-biography "Infidel".  Here are some of the highlights of 
her career.

Born in Somalia (1969), Hirsi was raised Muslim and spent her childhood in 
Africa and Saudi Arabia.  Following Islamic custom, she was circumcised at 
the age of five under her grandmother's order, despite the protests of her 
father, an educated Somali rebel who was later arrested under the rule of 
Siad Barre. In 1992, Hirsi Ali moved to the Netherlands as a refugee - 
escaping a forced marriage to a distant cousin she had never met.  She 
learned Dutch (and five other languages!) working as an interpreter in 
abortion clinics and shelters for battered women while earning a masters 
degree in political science at the prestigious Leiden University.

Within ten years of her residency in the Netherlands, Hirsi became a member 
of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy where she served as an MP, 
working for the rights of Muslim women in Europe, the enlightenment of 
Islam, and security in the West.  Hirsi Ali denonced Islam following the 
7/11 terrorist attacks, providing the and voice-over for "Submission", the 
Theo van Gogh film which criticized the treatment of women in Islamic 
society.  You may have read that Van Gogh was murdered in an Amsterdam 
street in 2004 by an assassin who pinned a letter to his body threatening 
Ali's death.

Hirsi resigned her parliamentary position, due to a controversy over the 
legitimacy of her Dutch citizenship, and fled to the U.S. in September of 
2006 where she began working for the American Enterprise Institute, a 
conservative think tank.  (She is currently a resident fellow at AEI.) 
Hirsi was named among Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People of 2005," 
received Norway's Human Rights Service's Bellwether of the Year Award, the 
Danish Freedom Prize, the Swedish Democracy Prize, and the Moral Courage 
Award for commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship.

Since leaving the Dutch parliament, Hirsi Ali has made public statements in 
support of restrictive immigration policies, expressing her concern that 
Muslim immigrants, once in the majority, would introduce Sharia law to their 
adopted nations.  It is her view that current immigration policy will lead 
to ethnic and religious division, causing nation states to lose their 
sovereignty and fostering the exploitation of women and children.  She has 
proposed several alternative policies to avoid this catastrophe.

At the age of 41, this brilliant woman with a death sentence over her head 
understands the threat of religious tyranny as few of us in the free world 
do.  Through her unique experience of Western Civilization, she also has 
come to value individual freedom and the sanctity of human life with a 
passion that Americans have sadly lost.  If you get a chance, download Ali's 
recent speech (and responses to audience questions) at the University of 
Wisconsin   (The video link is http://europennews.dk/en/node/29832. )  I 
think you'll see why Hirsi Ali has earned my admiration.

Thanks for the opportunity, Marsha, and best regards,
Ham