DAN writes:

I was reading Mark Steyn’s latest article and this paragraph stood out (it refers to comments Ayaan Hirsi Ali made about Anders Breivik):

“He’s not a worshiping Christian but he’s become a political Christian,” said Ayaan, “and so he’s reviving political Christianity as a counter to political Islam. That’s regression, because one of the greatest achievements of the West was to separate politics from religion.” Blame multiculturalism, she added, which is also regressive: In her neck of the Horn of Africa, “identity politics” is known as tribalism.

Here we are exposed to the moral relativism of Hirsi Ali, in which “political Christianity” is some sort of Western counterpart to “political Islam.” This is in line with previous comments by her equating the Roman Catholic Church with Nazism. Of course, there is no such thing as “political Christianity,” as Christianity has never claimed to offer a specific political program, and Breivik had no connections with any traditional Christian organizations in Europe (he was certainly not an advocate for the restoration of Hapsburg monarchy or a Catholic hierarchical society). Using such terms is only an attempt on the part of Hirsi Ali is take a cheap shot at Christianity, the traditional faith of the peoples of Europe until the ugly advent of monstrous liberalism (the same reigning ideology that brought Islam to Western Europe).

Ayaan Hisri Ali loathes Europe’s spiritual heritage and as such cannot be counted on to support the survival of the native peoples of the West (after all, to Hirsi Ali, the West is mere political abstractions, not a unique people with a unique heritage and tradition), and worse, she undermines our traditions. She is not a friend of the West and should be acknowledged as such by those who wish to defend the West and its traditions.

As for Mark Steyn, he is always careful about not giving us his true thoughts, hiding behind jokes and sarcasm (and I say this as someone who generally likes Steyn and gets a good laugh from clever wit). He merely outlines why multiculturalism is a failure and how Muslim immigrants aggressively seek to dominate Western societies. He ends with this:

The “multicultural society” was an unnecessary experiment. And, in a post-prosperity Europe, demographic transformation is an unlikely recipe for social tranquility. If Ayaan Hirsi Ali is right, more than a few Europeans cut off from their inheritance and adrift in lands largely alien to them will seek comfort in older identities. In the Crusaders’ day, the edge of the maps bore the legend “Here be dragons.” They’re a lot closer now.

Of course, Mark Steyn doesn’t tell us whether Europeans seeking out “older identities” is necessarily a bad thing. If we were to take his writings at face value, then he gives us the clear impression that the modern identities don’t work and must be discarded if we Westerns are to survive the challenges we face, but sadly he never says clearly one way or the other. On the other hand, Europeans returning to their traditional identities and reviving the proud heritage of their ancestors is something healthy and positive, and the madness of Breivik and the slurs of Hirsi Ali should not distract us from that.

                                                                               — Comments —

Tucker writes:

Dan writes:

“Here we are exposed to the moral relativism of Hirsi Ali, in which ‘political Christianity’ is some sort of Western counterpart to ‘political Islam.’ This is in line with previous comments by her equating the Roman Catholic Church with Nazism. Of course, there is no such thing as ‘political Christianity’…”

I wonder he calls this “moral relativism” rather than just calling it “mistake” or perhaps “lie”?

DEC. 8

Kidist Paulos Asrat writes:

Hirsi Ali finally deflated into an odd Somali anti-religion (anti-Christian) anti-jihadists, who has resorted to writing her autobiography rather than her promised treatise on Islam. Through a recent Google search, I found that she recently got married to the oddball British historian Niall Ferguson, who divorced his wife amidst their torrid affair, which I wrote about here.

Dan is dead on, with his description of Ali’s scorn for Christianity, and its contribution to Western civilization. I wonder how she and Ferguson discuss world issues, and especially Islam? I get the feeling that they must pass around a lot of slurs (to use a word from your correspondent) when religion of any kind is brought up, refusing to equate Christianity with the Europe it has helped create, and the Islam that now wishes to destroy it.

And the hapless Mark Steyn will never learns, will he?

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