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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe Btfsplk who wrote (413346)	2/27/2011 7:15:46 AM
From: Tom Clarke	4 Recommendations Respond to of 794273

I hadn't been aware of his relationship with Hirsi Ali. Now there's a dynamic couple, can you imagine them on the lecture circuit or in public debates? They'd bowl over any competition. >>As soon as he starts talking about Hirsi Ali, Ferguson's demeanour changes. His voice becomes softer, infused with feeling. Suddenly, he is no longer the super-confident scholar; he seems almost humble. 'Ayaan comes from a completely different civilisation,' he says, explaining what he meant by saying she knows what western civilisation 'really means'. 'She grew up in the Muslim world, was born in Somalia, spent time in Saudi Arabia, was a fundamentalist as a teenager. Her journey from the world of her childhood and family to where she is today is an odyssey that's extremely hard for you or I to imagine. To see and hear how she understands western philosophy, how she understands the great thinkers of the Enlightenment, of the 19th-century liberal era, is a great privilege, because she sees it with a clarity and freshness of perspective that's really hard for us to match. So much of liberalism in its classical sense is taken for granted in the west today and even disrespected. We take freedom for granted, and because of this we don't understand how incredibly vulnerable it is. In talking of liberalism in its 'classic' sense, Ferguson is perhaps pointedly drawing a distinction between the liberalism espoused by Hirsi Ali (and himself) and that of certain left-leaning liberals – notably Timothy Garton Ash and Ian Buruma – who have been critical of her anti-Islamic stance. The French philosopher Pascal Bruckner depicted their attitude as the 'racism of the anti-racists'. Does Ferguson agree? 'I think Ayaan's critics – Ian Buruma in particular – were more guilty of sexism than racism,' he says. 'But certainly they underestimate her intellectual rigour at their peril. She's just smarter than they are, as well as having a great deal more courage. I mean, there aren't many people who really put their life on the line for human freedom. And I think when you come across someone like that you've got to be a little bit respectful. It just sticks in my throat a bit to have middle-aged men who've had cushy lives turning up their noses at someone who has gone through what she's gone through. There's a particular role you're supposed to play as an oppressed woman... you're supposed to smile and look pretty and not say too much.