Mary Jackson on Ali’s conservative critics

Regarding the critical stance that some conservatives take toward Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Mary Jackson at New English Review, in a blog entry entitled “Strange Reactions,” writes:

I simply don’t understand the ambivalence about this woman. But there’s a lot of it around.

Now, it’s one thing not to agree with a certain point of view. But to profess to have no idea why people have that view, when they have given their reasons for it many times, well, that’s something I simply don’t understand.

In fact, earlier in the entry Jackson compliments me for changing my views about Ali based on what I see as her more recent clearer denunciation of Islam. But that means that I have been critical of Ali in the past because of what I have seen as her failure clearly to denounce Islam and take West’s side against it. Which means that Jackson does understand the reason for some conservatives’ negative attitudes toward Ali. She just doesn’t want to acknowledge it, most likely because she doesn’t want to admit that the negativity toward Ali is, in fact, based on reason and not on mere anti-female prejudice. Remember that her attack on me as anti-woman a few months ago was triggered by my criticisms of Ali.

So, I guess I understand Jackson’s lack of understanding after all.

If Jackson would simply acknowledge the reasonableness of the concerns that people have expressed about Ali (she doesn’t have to agree with their concerns, just acknowledge that they exist and are reasonable), then she would “understand.” But that would require her to give up her Laura Bush-like presumption that strong criticism of a female public figure must be driven by anti-female prejudice or a disbelief in female equality.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 09, 2007 02:10 PM | Send