Female whistle-blowers constitute a psychological challenge for many women. They defy the unspoken rules of female behavior. Whistle-blowers are neither conformists nor passive. They do not aim to please or appease those whose criminal misdeeds they expose. Female whistle-blowers are not “indirectly aggressive.” Hirsi Ali is not slandering or shunning other women – the approved outlet for female aggression and competition. She is directly and publicly challenging corrupt male authority on behalf of women. Less courageous women, including feminists, may not identify with or feel compassion for her. In addition, women often find it hard to support a woman who enjoys more public attention than they themselves do.
Will Hirsi Ali find the support she deserves in America? I certainly hope so, but I am not overly optimistic. The Islamization of America is also well under way. The process is not the same as in Europe. Despite the myth of an all-powerful Zionist lobby, Islamists and their Western supporters enjoy an increasing influence on American campuses and, to a large extent, in the mainstream media. Here, Islamist hate speech and Big Lies are often protected as free speech and as worthy of academic freedom. Whereas in Europe many stood in solidarity with the Danish cartoonists and reprinted their work widely, the cartoons did not appear in the American mainstream media.
Hirsi Ali has increasingly referred to Holland’s betrayal of its Jewish citizens during the Holocaust, but she enters America at a moment when American Israel Public Affairs Committee officials are on trial and the Pentagon has begun to strip security clearances from government employees who hold dual Israeli and American citizenship or whose relatives live in Israel.
Like Fallaci, Hirsi Ali has argued that if Europe does not stand up to Islamists, European civilization is doomed. She says: “Radical Islam is not just against me. It’s against [my Dutch neighbors] too. By having me evicted, the terrorists have won. It makes the situation more dangerous for everyone.”
She is right. God help America if we are not able to protect her and all other such truth-tellers.
