20/12/2006 - Strong Opinions - Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the Los Angeles Times
Why they deny the Holocaust
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born Mogadishu, Somalia, 1969) is a former MP for the Dutch Liberal Party. Earlier this year she moved to the United States. She is strongly opposed to the growing influence of extremist forces within islam worldwide. In this article that was published in the L.A.Times on 19 December, she explains how it was only after she was granted asylum status in The Netherlands that she heard about the Holocaust for the first time. The topic is taboo in muslim societies.
'I saw pictures of masses of skeletons, even of kids. I heard horrifying accounts of some of the people who had survived the terror of Auschwitz and Sobibor. I told my half-sister all this and showed her the pictures in my history book. What she said was as awful as the information in my book.
With great conviction, my half-sister cried: "It's a lie! Jews have a way of blinding people. They were not killed, gassed or massacred. But I pray to Allah that one day all the Jews in the world be destroyed." '
'What's striking about Ahmadinejad's conference is the (silent) acquiescence of mainstream Muslims. I cannot help but wonder: Why is there no counter-conference in Riyadh, Cairo, Lahore, Khartoum or Jakarta condemning Ahmadinejad? Why are the 57 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference silent on this?
Could the answer be as simple as it is horrifying: For generations, the leaders of these so-called Muslim countries have been spoon-feeding their populations a constant diet of propaganda similar to the one that generations of Germans (and other Europeans) were fed — that Jews are vermin and should be dealt with as such? In Europe, the logical conclusion was the Holocaust. If Ahmadinejad has his way, he shall not want for compliant Muslims ready to act on his wish.
The world needs to be informed again and again about the Holocaust — not only in the interest of the Jews who survived and their offspring but in the interest of humanity.'
For the full article, please go to:
The English translation of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography The Infidel will be published in February 2007
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