Last night (2010.06.07), authoress/autobiographeuse, apostate, defender of freedom, fashion plate, and polyglot Ayaan Hirsi Ali visited Toronto on her book tour. She was observable in her natural state – surrounded by protection from Muslims who want her dead.
During Q&A, I asked: “I have read of violent anti-gay attacks, allegedly by recent Islamic immigrants, in countries like the Netherlands and Norway.” She was looking right at me. She looks right at everyone she talks to no matter who they are or what they think of her. Nerves of steel. “In Canada and the United States, in your opinion under what circumstances should a gay or lesbian person support Muslims or Islam?” I asked, using the pluperfect pronunciation of “Muslims.”
A gay or lesbian person should never support Islam, she said immediately, because it is anti-gay. But such a person should support gay or lesbian Muslims, to “ease them” into civil society. Islam is opposed to homosexuality, she continued. The Koranic admonition to throw a homosexual off the top of the tallest building was one thing in Mohammed’s time when that was only a few feet, “but now we have the Sears Tower. So that is obviously a dealbreaker,” Ali said to chuckles and applause from the crowd.
I gave her a little bow of the head – in the Orientalist style, to use the term in various senses. It is pleasing to be treated like royalty by someone who, in a just universe, actually would be.