Paul Berman has written a long, very interesting article (registration required) on Swiss Islamic “philosopher” Tariq Ramadan and the way some Western journalists, especially Ian Buruma, have downplayed the more retrograde aspects of his thought and failed to press him for specific answers on how he envisions Islam operating within European democracies. Berman also examines Buruma’s tiresome assertion that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an “enlightenment fundamentalist.”
Hirsi Ali is in Sydney now, spreading her fundamentalist belief that everybody should be free to make his or her own choices so long as they don’t directly harm anybody else. (Shocking, aren’t they, the things these fundamentalists try to shove down everybody’s throats?) In an article on her visit, one Nada Roude, of the New South Wales Islamic Council, is quoted offering a statement worthy of Mr. Ramadan in its vague authoritarianism: “Anyone who causes harm to our society because they have the right to express their opinion is not welcome.” The use of the words “anyone who causes harm to our society” is of course misleading and irresponsible. “Anyone who hurts our feelings” would be much more accurate. Peoples’ right to believe whatever they want should be respected, and protected by the state. No state or religion has the right to curtail others’ movement or speech to protect someone’s feelings.
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