Ayan Hersi

Ayan Hersi, the most wanted Somali female in the Diaspora. Ayan Hersi, has said some bad things about Islam, the Prophet (PBUH). She is guarded twenty four seven, she does not sleep in the same place, and the threats she receives are out of this world. Somalis have expressed their opinions about her, and they’re not happy.

As Somalis we tend to be reactionary most of the time, especially when someone from our own culture uses inadequate discourse against the religion. Ayan Hersi is an idealist, propagandists and a mouthpiece for cultural colonialists. She believes that other cultures within Europe should assimilate and adapt to western cultures.

Ayan Hersi has waged war against Islam by suggesting that Muslim families should not force the hijab on girls [at a young age], and those girls should have voice and exist – I think religion becomes a choice for us at some point – but she’s suggesting that Muslim families should not teach the religion to their children at a young age – than what should they learn? Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, but not Islam – or should they simply become godless liberal objectivists like her? Should they believe in human spirituality and that nothing exists out there and that ultimately resort to the here and now attitude - and the ‘we are here now’ attitude does not work for all of us. If she is advocating human agency within Islam, I think it’s a bit pathetic to assume that it didn’t exist in the first place. She portrays Islam as a hostile religion, when its not. I think we give her a sense of defeat and purpose when we deploy reactionary tactics against her ideology. Ayan has waged war against multiculturalism in her host country– did she forget that she is a minority to begin with and that her host nation will always see her as a minority. Again we have to ask ourselves, whether she is intriguing, or is she a mouthpiece for the anti-Islamic movement. I think she will kill herself, when we stop talking about her, she enjoys the fact she started a hate cult against her.

I think we should deploy less reactionary, or violent tactics to battle people like Ayan Hersi, we can’t use physical or verbal threats against her, we can only change her through rational means – lets not forget she is very dangerous – unlike many Somalis, she follows the process – she can change policy and impact lives. I have no problem with her being an Atheist, but I do have a problem when you decide to dismantle the Islamic way of life through policy. It is crucial that we engage people like Ayan in more civilized dialogue, and perhaps convince her that she is wrong to be thinking that way.