The iPod and the Queen, the Kindle and the King

It was not an April Fools' joke. When President Barack Obama met with the Queen of the Commonwealth at Buckingham Palace, he gave her an iPod. Last week, I was half expecting the president to show up in the Middle East laden with Kindles.

He could have started with a special reading selection when he met Saudi King Abdullah. The day after, when the president spoke to the Muslim world at Al-Azhar University, I pictured him handing out another Kindle to Muhammed Sayyid Tantawy, the university's grand sheikh. Obama might have had a third Kindle for the ambassador of Iran to Egypt (for this man represents the ayatollah, who is the highest authority for Shia Muslims), who attended the presidential address.

Unlike the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth, the umma, or Muslim community, has no symbolic leader, let alone a formal one. The king of Saudi Arabia; the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar University (the largest, and in the eyes of many Muslim scholars, most prestigious Islamic center of learning); and the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran all make equal claims to represent the heart and soul of the umma.

They have their differences. The king is the protector of the holy shrine of Islam and a political leader. The grand sheikh has no formal political power, but it is not an exaggeration to say his institution is one of the most influential in the Muslim world. And Iran not only claims spiritual power but pursues political and military dominance. The issue of who speaks for Islam is perhaps the worst nightmare for the U.S.; this is not fully appreciated by the crafters of American foreign policy. This makes a discussion of the relationship between Islam and the West much more problematic than the president's speechwriters realize.

Like former U.S. presidents, Obama denounced Islamic extremism without once associating Islam with extremism. He firmly stated that America is not at war with Islam and will never be; and he invited the Muslim world to join hands with the U.S. to fight extremism tooth and nail.

However, Islamic extremism can be read in two ways. The first is in its foreign policy implications for the United States -- that is, in its expansionist or jihadi meaning. Al-Qaida-like attacks on American soil against Americans or American interests will be met with force, the president promised. That's an easy position to take because for the United States; it's a position of self-defense. It is not America that is at war with Islam. It is Islam that is at war with America.

The second sense of the word "extremism," used many times by the president, is as a euphemism for the application of Islamic law, or sharia, in Muslim countries. This, the president evidently hopes to counter by wooing the Muslim street.

The courtship articulated in his speech was peppered with false praise (". . . it was innovation in Muslim communities that developed . . . our mastery of pens and printing"), feigned common principles and made ridiculous promises to fight negative stereotyping of Islam wherever he encounters it.

This is all part of political rhetoric, but it really doesn't lead to concrete change. This, in my view, is the wrong strategy. Instead of pretending that Muslims invented printing, the president should be confronting them with the key products of the Western printing press. And it's here that Kindles really could be of use.

I imagined him offering the king, the sheikh and the ayatollah each a Kindle with Abraham Lincoln's passionate case that he made against slavery and for equality. Obama reminded the Muslim world that "black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding."

Nowhere in the world is bigotry so rampant as in Muslim countries. No difference is greater between American and Islamic principles than the founding ideals of both. It is on the basis of the founding ideals of Islam that al-Qaida and other Muslim puritans insist on the implementation of sharia law, jihad and the eternal subjection of women. It is on the basis of the founding ideals of America that blacks and women fought for -- and gained -- equal rights and gays and new immigrants continue to do so. I wish the president were so candid as to say that. But, perhaps, that is something for a later stage in the courtship.

I would also include Thomas Jefferson's improvements on the New Testament. The king, the sheikh and the ayatollah might not cut and paste the Quran, but together they have the authority to rule that parts of the Holy Book no longer apply in the modern world. For instance, the edicts of sharia law that reject innovation and scientific inquiry and order all Muslims to spread Islam.

Of course, no reading selection would be complete without a copy of the United States Constitution, highlighting (because you can do that in a Kindle) the Eighth Amendment banning cruel and unusual punishment.

And for good measure, I would also add JFK's inaugural address: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. . . . To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required. . . . To those nations who would make themselves our adversary ... (w)e dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed. . . . Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." Not to mention woman.

Obama promised to launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim majority countries to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create more jobs. Does he realize that the transfer of ideas also creates opportunities for the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Saudi Arabia to punish the practice of un-Islamic ideas?

That poor girl in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, who, after seven men raped her, was sentenced to flogging, had succumbed to the novel idea of flirting by cell phone. In the Kingdom, every Friday, cruel and unusual punishment is perpetrated, far worse than anything John Adams saw in his time. The hands of those suspected of stealing -- mostly poor, immigrant workers -- are amputated.

The more one is dark-skinned in Saudi Arabia, the bleaker his circumstances, not to mention hers. For in the Kingdom, black is still considered to be inferior. Men and women convicted of adultery, apostasy, treason and other "offenses" are beheaded. Thousands of women are rotting in Saudi jails, waiting to be flogged, or are flogged daily for acts such as mingling with men, improper attire, fornication and virtual relationships on the Internet and cell phones.

Promotion of literacy for girls, which the president wants to help pursue, is a noble cause. But, unless sharia laws are repealed, more girls will find themselves in flogging pens rather than rising up the career ladder.

Barack Obama, a historic president in a historic moment, promised to host a summit of entrepreneurship in Muslim-majority countries "to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Muslim countries around the world."

I wish he would host a reading summit where we truly "say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts that too often are said only behind closed doors." For too many of us born into Islam, saying those things openly can land us in jail or in the graveyard.

Comments

[mommamia526]

Interesting to read this blogger's views. I do not agree with her on the use of the iPod and the Kindle, however. I think that it would be better to provide iPods, iPhones and cellphones to women in muslim countries, sothat they can do a litttle trade to improve their situation, can have a small school under a tree and learn, and get information about the world outside. We see that the first thing that happens with oppressive and authoritarian regimes is cutting off the internet, and other communication. We saw it recently in N.Korea. We see it today in Iran. I would like to recommend, again, "Creating a World Without Poverty" by Muhammad Yunus, and his book Banker to the Poor. Fighting hunger by sending shipments of food which are intercepted and then sold on the black market does not help. The poor need the tools and the means to grow it themselves. So I ask Ayaan Hirsi Ali, how doe we set up waterpumps and wells in Africa, sothat people have water to drink and for their animals and small crops? How could we get poor women and girls a cellphone, or an iPhone, sothat they can learn while staying close to home? Read the book I recommend Ayaan and avail yourself of the suggestions by Muhammad Yunus then help organize and set it up.

[grammargirl]

There are Muslim women who live in these United States who still decide to wear the suffocatingly inhibiting clothing. Iron bars do not a prison make, for there are those imprisoned in their own minds...

Even at the risk of d e a t h, women who want to be liberated need to band together and start pushing for change within their own societies. American history indicates that epochal change comes at a great price, and it's only when you set about initiating it yourself that it has significance and reverberates, like our constitution, through the nation's conscience. Conversely, imposing democracy on another nation, like we have tried in Iraq, is a wasteful exercise. For freedom to have lasting significance, you must fight for it yourselves.

Obama should not be expected to change Muslim society, but he can provoke thought and stimulate others to consider the strug.gle to change their own.

[AgnosticFundamentalist]

Ayaan... thanks for your insightful article.

I find it sad that several of the counter-comments were (1) Uninformed attacks on your affiliation with the AEI (when it's well known that the AEI doesn't share your views on social issues, but they continue to support and defend your right to speak out on women's rights), (2) the blind defense of Shari'a/Islam as something that should remain immutable and unchangeable, (3) a defense of the practicalities of Obama's speech (as if it was anything more than pandering to those who put freedom of religion over human rights), and (4) examples of Asian Islamic countries with women as heads of state (one of whom was assassinated brutally for championing secular values in Pakistan).

What's wrong with the idea that the many leaders within the Islamic religious, political, and monarchic power structures around the world should take some time to educate themselves about the rise of secular values over religious ones in Western society? Why is it so offensive to Muslims and American liberals that basic human rights should prevail over religious doctrine?

[PeaceIsMyName]

1) She's part of a right-wing think tank. A think tank supported by Dick Cheney of all people. People are just stating facts. She doesn't speak for all women, she speaks for herself and to spread her extremist atheist mentality. This mask that she hides behind of "wonder woman defender of all women" is laughable.

2)Islam should change? Sorry, but not everyone is going to be forced to conform to your way of life. There is a little something called "Freedom of religion" that protects people's rights to practice any religion freely without the harassment of others.

3) President Obama spoke of human rights in the Muslim world as he did in his own country. Just because he didn't fit some atheist extremist standard, doesn't make his speech any less.

4) LOL. As if leaders aren't killed in many other parts of the world. The U.S. has had several Presidents assassinated. Your point is pointless.

[ModernTimes1]

Your attempt to deflect the subject from blatant oppression of women in Muslim countries IS pointless,

[newjerseybadger]

My only problem with giving Kindles... is that Kindle downloading is limited to the United States. Their network is not (yet?) available in the Middle East, or for that matter Europe or Asia.

[farru83]

yea the USA promotes freedom, liberty blah blah blah, Everything the US does, is 1st and foremost for its own self interest, I dont blame them since every nation does it that way.

but why don't you go and preach that to the family members of those who died from the countless drone attacks in Pakistan?? lets see what their reaction will be.

[newjerseybadger]

Why don't you go to Saudi Arabia and say that about the King in a public forum? I guarantee you'll notice the difference between the Saudi and the U.S. governments then.

[farru83]

I would gladly live in Saudia Arabia if i could find a well paying job over there!!

the main reason people from all over the world come to live in the US is for financial reasons. But dont get me wrong, I think the USA is a fine country and provides a lot of freedom and liberty to its people, but when it goes out and tries to inforce it on other gov't, the hate starts!!

people all over the world dont hate the US becuz of its freedom and liberty, all the mumbo jumbo which the Bush administratiov was saying, like Ron Paul said "they hate us becuz we're over there"....smart man.

[bighat]

Many in the US, no matter our political belief, believe we meddle too much in other's business. The US is not all powerful. As we have been told many do not even like the US, although immigration is always a problem never emigration, but we wanted Obama to raise the prestige of the US in the eyes of others. Going around to other countries and telling them to change their ways is not going to make the US high on the prestigious list for it would be considered arrogant.

[Inquisitr]

Not telling them the truth of how horrible they treat their people because it might make us look bad is not the problem. You should be ashamed that you want to not talk about human rights because you're afraid to offend.

We can work with them, but let's never forget that these are not all good people. The royal family of Saudi Arabia are not our friends, they're business partners who want more money and more power.

We're nto at war with islam, but we shoudl most certainly be trying to change it, and saying so.

[dutch163]

thank you for this article and providing this information and perspective
it was interesting and informative
I think Obama made some good first steps in his speech
this is a complicated, complex issue

[Gripen]

I cant see who any oen can take this woman serious. Her credibility is low for she is a member of American Enterprice Institue wich is a NEOCON thinktank, wich has Dick Chenneys wife high up in the organization.

This thinktank lobbied the Iraq war and do what ever they can to spread fear and hate and she is part of it.

We can critize alot within Islam or any religion for that mater, but give in to fear and hate propoganda is just wrong.

By the way female circumsision isnt in islam it is a tribal thing from africa.

[elan4444]

Written by one of the most significantly courageous women now living. Thank you, Ayaan. I was dismayed that the President felt he had to speak to not interfering with the way Islamic women dress. That is the FIRST thing we need to change. The long and courageous fight that American and British women made against strictures on clothing was finally won after the turn of the century. Let us remember that there was a time when this country was so backward that women had to wear long skirts and were expected to cover their arms! It took courage from women such as Emaline Pankhurst in the U.K. and Susan B. Anthony here in the U.S. to challenge women's right to cast off suffocatingly inhibiting clothing and step into the sunshine. I cringe anytime I see a woman covered completely with only eye-slits in her balloon of a sheet. This "garment" tells us she is a kept women, and quite "special" so that her "privacy" need not be invaded. Join the 21 st Century, Islamic women! Get rid of that horrid burka and hijab, you're in the middle ages. Cultural relativity, I don't think so.

[PeaceIsMyName]

Your logic is this: the more covered up are, the more oppressed you are.

What a load of rubbish. Just because a woman decides she wants to have some dignity and cover-up her body doesn't mean she's oppressed, whether she's a Muslim woman or a Christian woman or a Jewish woman or even an atheist woman.

You do not speak for all women nor all men, for that matter. Many women walk proudly dressed as they wish and they don't need to conform to your scantily-clad standard to join the 21st century, thank you very much.

[HAN Y]

Elan444 why would you want to change the way Islamic women dress." Many of whom choose to wear the hijab, take note of the phenomenon in Egypt where the trend of wearing the hijab is on the increase, in large by choice!
If one chooses to wear a certain dress to practice their faith then why should anyone tell them otherwise, should we tell a sikh man to remove his turban because we find it outdated, or a Jewish man remove his yamaka? Do these groups of people make you cringe or is this level of disdain exclusive to muslims?

[Inquisitr]

Until, like Islam and all current religions, they try to make thier personal belifs more than just personal.

the attempt by the Islamic nations to make it illegal by UN law to critizise Islam is a perfect example. If it was just we want to dress different and believe this it would be one thing, but religions can never keep to themselves.

And then we get into the human right's abuses. Those are most certainly my business. Protecting the human rights of others is the only way in which I can assure I have them myself.

The religion of the day is Islam, if you want to get into Judaism we can do that since Islam just plagurized most of the old and new testaments anyway (and quite poorly as well)

[grammargirl]

There are Muslim women who live in these United States who still decide to wear the suffocatingly inhibiting clothing. Iron bars do not a prison make. Even at the risk of d e a t h, women who want to be liberated need to band together and start pushing for change within their own societies. Our own history indicates that change comes at a great price, and it's only when you set about initiating it yourself that it has significance and reverberates, like our constitution, through the nation's conscience.

Obama should not be expected to change Muslim society, but he can provoke thought and stimulate others to themselves make the change.

[PeaceIsMyName]

grammargirl - go walk around nude all day - to work, school, at home, to the shopping mall, everywhere. See how far that gets you.

Your ludricious logic of nudity=freedom and clothing=prison is beyond my comprehension. I just can't seem to dumb myself down for it.

[daniejoe]

i commend ms hirsi ali for her continued eloquence in her stalwart defense of women & their continued subjugation, especially in the muslim world. most western people ,cling to their delusion of being forward thinking--just "don't want to go there". their sensibilities are disturbed by this truth. women, in many areas, mutilated & killed; psychologically & emotionally limited; teach a caged bird to sing-- it is still a CAGED bird. most would rather talk about paris hilton and not the women circumcised, raped , beaten, murdered for the keeping of their bride price. well, let's not talk about that since we might have to take a stand. George W. botched the one he made us take for the sake of an individual and collective testosterone issue. its one thing for men to take a stand. somehow, women doing that just doesnt seem feminine-- you know-- unwomanly. we like our women scantily clad, dipsy, for gods sake quiet . men who speak out against ms hirsi ali should read her material celebrating that they are free enough to read it--even if they fail to relate to the humanity in all of it. she bravely speaks against intolerance wherever she sees it. she lives more courage since the very people some hereon defend are the ones who also want her silenced as in dead. we in the united states & the West boast how free thinking we are; without admitting the huge limit on free thinking when certain of us choose to

[zeedub]

Religion is a way to cope with the world around you, either passively or actively. For passive religionists, it is a means to rationalize losing your job or a loved one, or making some change in your life (such as after a life-threatening illness or accident). It is a personal way to deal with bad things that happen to you and appreciate when good things come your way. Active religionists are our current problem. They feel it is their duty to kill abortion doctors, call Obama the antichrist, pass Prop 8 in CA, confine women to subservient roles, claim territory that they have not inhabited for 2000 years, and convert or kill ‘infidels’. There is no single religion that taints mankind. All religions have sects that have or have at times in general manipulated texts. You can find passages in the Quran and the hadiths that support and oppose equality. People in power choose the passages they prefer and implement accordingly.

If you are going to be religious, LEARN ABOUT IT. Learn the history of the texts, the authors, why they wrote what they did, what were their circumstances? There are many other learned Muslim women who are fighting to reform Islam, and show that Islam has been hijacked. Instead of attacking Islam and pandering to a Western audience plagued with fear and ignorance, join the fight of fellow Muslim women to change their circumstances within. Islam is not corrupt, people are.

[ModernTimes1]

You cannot hijack a religion. But you can be brainwashed by it proponents and dogmas.
Religion is an irrational set of beliefs entirely divorced from reality.
One can learn about it. It's rather interesting.
But one should be keep at a distance from it.

"Don't gaze into the abyss lest the abyss gazes back at you."

[TXeagle]

CONTINUED.

Islam and Islamic law preach eduaction and enlightment: the Prophet said " Learning is incumbent on every Muslim-male and female." Muslim females outnumber males in schols and universities across the Muslim world. Turkey,Pakistan, Bangaladish had women as the presidents and prime ministers: this could not have been if Islam was against women eduaction.

I challenge hirsi to quote one verse from the Quran or the Sunnah that speaks against women eduation: in fact thefirs word in the Quran revealed to the Prophet was :"Read-recite."

hisrsi's sought cheap popularity and her self-appointed rep and speaker for Muslim women is fake and mislaeding. Muslim women should challneg her and expose her ignorance and lies.

Besides, her crusade is not aimed to help Muslim women but to demonise their faith and gain her popularity with the neco-cons who are were voted out by the the American majority.

[HAN Y]

agree 100%

[ModernTimes1]

re."word in the Quran revealed to the Prophet was :"Read-recite."

And that's EXACTLY what happens in ( too)many schools across Islamic world:
ROTE reading and recitation of religious texts. In Arabic~! The language most people don't even understand!
Unfortunately, this does nothing to help countries with such grossly insufficient education progress and catch up with the rest of the world.

Why not take an example from European counties, or Taiwan or Singapore?
And give up this "read and recite" stuff behind.

[HAN Y]

Ayaan, It is a shame that you can never find a middle ground in all your views about the muslim world. A Bush like stance of us against them; now that you are in the "us" camp makes the dialogue with anyone be it friend of foe, futile.
It's all good and well criticizing the Obama speech at Al- Azhar, of course it was political rhetoric. Some would call that diplomacy! However, your view on engaging with the muslim world is as extreme as those whom you yourself label as extremists, pigeon holing them, unless they "reform" according to one of your recent interviews. It is sad for you to pander to the prejudices of a minority of people and to whom you now appear to be a scholar on Islam and theology.

Why shouldn't Obama engage with the muslim world? Dropping bombs failed! You say that "Islam is at war with America", and that Islam "has no symbolic leader", which muslims exactly are at war with America?Perhaps Somalis, Indonesians, Lebanese or perhaps the 10 million or so American Muslims!

Surprisingly, your remarks on "dark skinned" folks in the muslim world as "inferior" seem to equate Islam with a white supremacist group. I gather this might not be the case for many dark muslim from your own continent. I imagine you carry this view from your own Somali background, where indeed the darker you are the more you are seen as a 'blacker sheep' in a black country.

[PeaceIsMyName]

Good comment.

I would definitely classify the woman as an extremist. How ironic but indeed that is what she is. She demonizes all Muslims and Islam. I know many atheists that are kind people and show respect towards Islam, so trust me, Hirsi Ali doesn't represent the atheist community.
Thank goodness, Obama doesn't share her extremist hate-filled attitude.

So Hirsi Ali can continue to preach to the choir until the cows come home.

[ModernTimes1]

Ms Ali is the hero to those who oppose religious prejudice and oppression.
Funny, many people here complain that true Islam has been hijacked by extremists. however, NONE of those people condemn the same extremists actively trying to take Ms. Ali life. Shame.

[elan4444]

Ayaan lived this life. She knows whereof she speaks. I applaud her courage.

[isabelitab]

I think President Obama was trying to focus on finding some common ground in his Cairo speech, to open a line of dialog with ordinary moderate citizens.

All forms of extremism and abuse are terrible and they know no cultural, religious or geographical boundaries. Look what happened today in Washington D.C. at a Holocaust Memorial.

I live in Mexico and here, extremism and abuse take some hidden forms. Many people do not see them and they would not like to admit it.

[Ipanemagirl]

Thank you Hirsi for your great article. I have read both your books and you are my heroine!
I totally agree that all fundamentalist fanatical religions are bad, and especially bad for women who are treated as mere commodities for child bearing and have no other value. They pay for it because their countries a cannot advance under sharia laws, they are remaining in the dark ages poor ignotrant and impoverished, and are jealous of the progress of the west which they must treat with hatred. With their lifestyle, and ridiculous laws, they will never achieve any progress let alone greatness in their society. Muslim men must be very insecure of their manhood if they must feel the need to hide their women from the public view. This is a sick man made law, not a divine law!

[elan4444]

Thank you for speaking out. as you can see from the comments here we have a way to go to free Islamic women.

[PeaceIsMyName]

"to free Islamic women"

How condescending. I know of many Islamic women and they are indeed free. Perhaps they should free you?