Ali said that Islam is more than a religion, but also a political system, one that is incompatible with US democracy and pluralism.
The security seemed a bit excessive for your typical university speaker. But the roughly 3,500 people who came out to the Student Union lecture Tuesday night had to go through what was akin to airport security: coats removed, handbags searched, everyone stepping through a metal detector. As a further precaution, backpacks and water bottles were forbidden.
The occasion was a talk by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a woman who has received death threats for her controversial writings and views on Islam.
Born in Somalia in 1969, Hirsi Ali sought political asylum in the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage. She later served on the Dutch Parliament.
After renouncing her faith, she became an outspoken critic of Islam, writing two books, Infidel and The Caged Virgin. She wrote the short film Submission, which she made with director Theo van Gogh. The film criticizes the treatment of women in Islam. For his part in the film, van Gogh was shot eight times and nearly beheaded. His murderer stuck a note to van Gogh's chest, threatening Hirsi Ali.
Because of the extra security precautions, Hirsi Ali took the stage an hour late Tuesday night at the Student Union. She was promptly greeted by a couple of people in the audience who shouted, "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great" in Arabic.
Hirsi Ali responded that she could not say "God is Great." But she apologized for the security measures and late start. "Some people think that I should be silenced," she told the crowd. "I thank you for giving me a platform."
In her hour and a half talk, Hirsi Ali stood firm on her controversial views. She said she had once been a devout Muslim, but had since come to question not just how Islam has been interpreted and practiced, but the core of the Prophet Mohammad's teachings.
"No culture, no religion, no idea has ever been as brutal to women as Islam," she told the crowd. "It was a special kind of hatred the Nazis had against the Jews. Islam sanctions a special kind of hatred against women."
She said that Islam is more than a religion, but also a political system, one that is incompatible with U.S. democracy and pluralism. "They are as different as day and night."
She said there is a distinction between Muslim believers and the ideology of Islam, the latter of which she finds fault with. But she said that in the West, Islam has attained a special sort of protection, with intellectuals afraid to question or criticize the religion's beliefs.
As an example she asked the audience how many people had heard of the case of Yaser Said: a Texas man suspected of killing his two teenage daughters for dating Western men in 2008. By not criticizing the crimes of men of color against women, Hirsi Ali said feminism had become "a force that protects only white women."
There were plenty of emotional responses and questions from the crowd afterwards. Some accused Hirsi Ali of ignoring the violence the West perpetrates on Islamic countries and the brutal histories of other religions.
Hirsi Ali responded that because it hasn't been scrutinized or criticized, Islam hasn't evolved the way other religions have. "I'm not here to defend American foreign policy," she said. "I'm here to say when America has a bad idea... those ideas are examined."
Then she added: "If America is killing people, are you saying you have the right to kill people?"
She said that Islam would benefit from scrutiny and criticism and looking at other cultures and belief systems. "The Muslim mind can be opened by looking outside of Islam and then retaining what people find valuable about Islam, like hospitality," she said. "I don't think gazing at the Koran for hours and hours can help that."
And she, added, "The emancipation of the Muslim woman is the key to reforming Islam."
