Heidegger

Mrs. Ali lied about her country of origin, lied about her reasons to request
asylum in the Netherlands, lied about having a tyrannical husband (he
actually paid her the money needed for her travel to the Netherlands), she
followed an Islamic school, but only because that was the school for elite
children in her residing town, and her family was far from being fanatical
about their faith, and I’m inclined to think that her story about being
genitally mutilated is an urban legend, because I would more probably
believe as a fact something told by baron Munchausen, rather than by her. At
least Munchausen did not have a political agenda.

In her short political career in the Netherlands (she made up to the status
of “elected by the people”, i.e. in the second chamber of the Parliament),
she succeeded to polarize the discussion in terms of enlightened-progressive
Westerners vs. awkward-retrograde Muslims (thinking in dualist “either black
or white” categories, which says something about her intellect), and she
totally ignored the unwritten but very demanding Dutch political customs,
which require from the politician to show always respect for opponents, and
keep the discussion as dispassionate and objective as possible.

She did a terrible disservice to her party, VVD (right centre libertarians),
party which she joined after years of working for a leftist party (PvdA),
she joined it after being offered an easy Parliament seat. She provoked a
political crisis in the Netherlands, having as consequence the demission of
the second Balkenende cabinet.

To draw the balance, if she did any service to the Netherlands, it was
because she could not do harm only (it would have been far too suspect) in
her career as political agitator. All she could think of was bashing the
Dutch Muslim men for real or alleged mishandling of women, and insulting
their religious sensibilities in every possible way (which is a criminal
offence in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch Book of Criminal Law,
art. 147 and 147a).

She got offered a position in an extreme-right (for European sensibilities)
neo-conservative institute, the American Enterprise Institute for Public
Policy Research. As the rumor goes, if that is true, she was later turned
down by that institution.

She was not only a troublemaker, but she showed in general little respect
for the requirements of having a civilized debate. I think she was unable to
comprehend the idea that people could disagree with her without having to be
in bad faith in order to maintain such stances.

Greetings,

Tudor

> —–Original Message—–
> From: heidegger-bounces at soca.ecu.edu.au [mailto:heidegger-
> bounces at soca.ecu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Anthony Crifasi
> Sent: donderdag 21 september 2006 9:04
> To: Discussions pertaining to the philosophy of Martin Heidegger
> Subject: Europe and Islam, by an atheist
>
> ‘A Dissident of Islam’
> By George Will
> http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/will09…

Posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 8:05 am
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