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July 06, 2008
Review of Amin Maalouf's "Origins..." & Hirsi Ali
An interesting note on Amin Maalouf's memoir, "Origins" but with a closing quote that goes beyond irritating to be truly stupid:
He is one of that small handful of writers, like David Grossman and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who are indispensable to us in our current crisis.Why a Somaliyah chameleon is indispensable is a bit beyond me. Above all insofar as her commentary at once on her own past, on her former religion and even on her own specific culture is shot through with a rather nasty mixture of opportunistic posturing, inconsistencies, and a deep tainting of personal complexes assumed and writ large upon the entire body of Islamic culture and belief.
I would certainly give Irshaad Manji a higher place than Ayaan - although Irshaad I think mistaken in her reading of things, it seems more or less honest and the world is big. Ayaan.... Good faith lacks, and her commentary strikes me as opportunistic bitterness, and while that may be personally defensible, it hardly makes her commentary indispensable for the Westerner. Quite the contrary, I constantly run into Americans in my work who've read her works, and in the context of work come out to my part of the world expecting.... well some strange mix of backwoods Somali custom and Saudi Wahhabism. They generally leave bemused at how stark the contrast is between image and reality.
Posted by The Lounsbury at July 6, 2008 11:48 AM
Filed Under:
MENA Region General
,
Society & Culture
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