Oct. 28, 2015 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
02:28
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Joining me via Skype this week is Ayaan Hirsi Ali. | ||
| I hope that most of you already know Ayaan, but in case you don't, her story is truly an incredible one that takes her from a childhood in Somalia to an elected member of parliament in Holland to a fearless free speech advocate hated by both the extreme right and the regressive left. | ||
| We'll dive deeper into her life's incredible journey shortly, but before we do that, I wanted to take a moment to talk about why people ...like Ayaan actually matter. | ||
| As our show has gained momentum here, I realize that what we're doing is really becoming an influential force for the things that I believe that matter, namely the battle of ideas, free speech, and liberal values. | ||
| At the end of the day, though, I want this to be about more than talk, because the repercussions of these ideas that we're talking about aren't just abstract notions, they're stark realities for so many people. | ||
| Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a survivor in every sense of the word. | ||
| She survived genital mutilation as a child, she survived a forced marriage to a cousin, she survived the cold-blooded murder of a friend in broad daylight in Amsterdam, and subsequent death threats. | ||
| Many people would have given up after any of these horrific events. | ||
| Many people would have just accepted that this is what life has given them and remained quiet. | ||
| Many people right this very second are doing just that. | ||
| By the way, I find no fault with these people who remain silent under such subjugation. | ||
| They see no way out, and sadly, even those in the secular world who want to help them fear the repercussions if they speak out. | ||
| Not Ayaan, though. | ||
| She has bravely and boldly fought for women's rights, brought the issue of female genital mutilation out in the open, and relentlessly made her life story a cause bigger than herself. | ||
| It's easy to sit back and privately talk about these things or tweet about them from the comfort of your own home, but she's actually out there putting her life on the line after they already tried to take it from her. | ||
| I want to be very clear here that when I talk about these issues, I'm talking about ideas and not people. | ||
| This seems to be a major sticking point in this conversation, and I really hope that we can eventually get past that, not just for the health of the debate, But for all the young people currently being indoctrinated with this ideology. | ||
| Imagine if a political party had a platform that included female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and death for apostates. | ||
| Absolutely insane and ridiculous, right? | ||
| Well guess what? | ||
| Religious ideas, cultural ideas, any ideas deserve the exact same scrutiny no matter how uncomfortable it makes us. |
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