Hirsi Ali's opposition to Islam

Interesting post in Brussels Journal on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali MP for the liberal party in The Netherlands.

Is Islam dangerous because it is a religion? Do Muslim values differ from European values because the latter are rooted in Christianity or because they are secular?

Hirsi Ali is on a Jihad against religion. She reminds me very strongly of Turkish people belonging to the secular elite of Turkey. For these people the attraction of secularism lies purely in its opposition to Islam. If tommorrow China would be a world power they would support Taoism or Confucianism AS THEY UNDERSTAND IT. Hirsi Ali and her ilk do not really understand liberalism, nor how liberalism is grounded in Christianity and the Bible. The words of Jesus: "give the emperor what belongs to the emperor" and the vision of St. Petrus at Jaffa are foreign to them. So they use a rootless liberalism to clobber Islam with. Abolishing article 23 of the Dutch constitution would entail a severe curtailing of the freedom of choice and self organisation in the realm of education of Dutch citizens to the benefit of the power of the state. Sounds like Socialism, doesn't it?

Yes, article 23 is an obstacle to intergration of non-western immigrants, primarily Muslims. But the Dutch White populace, who have never been asked whether they wanted Multiculturalism and immigration in the first place would lose rights that have been fought over for a long time. Basically it is a solution for problems caused by the state taking rights away from the citizens by taking away more rights of the citizens. Those who oppose Multiculturalism should think again before supporting Hirsi Ali.

I repeat: the separation between Church and state is a Christian value. It is rooted in the words of Jesus on the paying of taxes: "to the emperor, what belongs to the emperor", to Saint Peter's vision of the 0ffering of unclean food at Jaffa and to the issue of the power of the state of Romans Chapter 13. These texts are rooted in the Old Testament (the Jewish TeNaCH) but nowhere in the Old Testament are they articulated as clearly as by Jesus and his followers.

Hirsi Ali wants to impose her own brand of secularism on the immigrant population, but if she succeeds the state will also be able to impose its ideology on the White population. Which it is doing anyway, but it will be another liberty taken away from the citizens in the name of good intentions. The thing with good things is that they immediately turn sour once they are combined with coercive power. The state is as corruptible a power as organised religion.