I had forgotten this
piece I wrote on Ayaan Hirsi Ali in April 2010 on her interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, and her telling proclamation for "equal opportunity scrutiny" for all religions, including Christianity. I have
written that the antidote to Islam is not atheism, or disdain for religion in general. The antidote for Islam is Christianity. I won't trust any "former" Muslim who doesn't accept that. Even if the individual proclaims to be an atheist, as long as he argues that following a religion is better than having no religion, and in such hierarchies, that Christianity is better than Islam (or all the others - there are scores of theses that make this argument), it will be difficult for me to take any of them seriously. I have written
here about a former Muslim, Sam Solomon, who converted to Christianity. I attended a
presentation by Solomon (and Bat Ye'or) recently in Toronto, and his arguments have far more persuasion than whatever Hirsi Ali has been able to offer.
Here is the quote from Ali during a CNN interview which caught my attention in the
blog entry I mention above:
We have to take them [Muslims] on. And that means, I think, scrutinizing Islam, criticizing it in the same way that we criticizing Christianity, Judaism and other ideologies, and other religions.
Equal opportunity scrutiny, equal opportunity offense.
I write in the post:
Ali has come forward as an atheist, and has declared her dislike for Christianity (to put it mildly)...[I]t is clear that she politely disdains religion, and that offending Christianity might be just as commendable as offending Islam.
I cannot agree that Christianity and Islam can be scrutinized in the same "equal opportunity" manner that Ali advocates. Some things are better than others. Let us be honest and admit that Christianity is better than Islam.