1 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:07,000 I was raised a practicing Muslim and remained one for almost half my life. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:12,780 I attended madrassas, that is, Islamic schools, and memorized large parts of the Qur'an. 3 00:00:12,780 --> 00:00:18,220 As a child, I lived in Mecca for a time and frequently visited the Grand Mosque. 4 00:00:18,220 --> 00:00:22,200 As a teenager, I sympathized with the Muslim Brotherhood. 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:27,680 At 22 while my family was living in Kenya, my father arranged my marriage to a member 6 00:00:27,690 --> 00:00:31,220 of our family clan, a man that I had never met. 7 00:00:31,220 --> 00:00:36,870 I ran away, made my way to Holland, studied there and eventually was elected a member 8 00:00:36,870 --> 00:00:38,580 of the Dutch parliament. 9 00:00:38,580 --> 00:00:41,480 Now I live in the United States. 10 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:46,380 In short, I have seen Islam from the inside and the outside. 11 00:00:46,380 --> 00:00:50,320 I believe that a reform of Islam is necessary and possible. 12 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:54,660 And only Muslims can make that reform a reality. 13 00:00:54,660 --> 00:00:59,720 But we in the West cannot remain on the sidelines as though the outcome of this struggle 14 00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:01,760 has nothing to do with us. 15 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:07,500 If the jihadists win and the hope for a reformed Islam dies, the rest of the world will pay 16 00:01:07,500 --> 00:01:09,660 a terrible price. 17 00:01:09,660 --> 00:01:15,100 The terror attacks in New York, London, Madrid, Paris and many other places 18 00:01:15,100 --> 00:01:18,240 are only a preview for what is to come. 19 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:23,780 For this reason, I believe that it’s foolish to insist, as Western leaders habitually do, 20 00:01:23,780 --> 00:01:27,880 that the violent acts committed in the name of Islam can somehow be divorced 21 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:29,960 from the religion itself. 22 00:01:29,960 --> 00:01:36,680 For more than a decade, my message has been simple: Islam is not a religion of peace. 23 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:42,220 When I assert this, I do not mean that Islamic belief makes all Muslims violent. 24 00:01:42,220 --> 00:01:48,380 This is manifestly not the case: There are many millions of peaceful Muslims in the world. 25 00:01:48,380 --> 00:01:53,460 What I do say is that the call to violence and the justification for it are explicitly 26 00:01:53,460 --> 00:01:56,170 stated in the sacred texts of Islam. 27 00:01:56,170 --> 00:02:02,900 Moreover, this theologically sanctioned violence is there to be activated by any number of offenses, 28 00:02:02,900 --> 00:02:08,460 including but not limited to adultery, blasphemy, homosexuality and apostasy 29 00:02:08,460 --> 00:02:10,800 --that is to leave Islam. 30 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:15,580 Those who tolerate this intolerance do so at their peril. 31 00:02:15,580 --> 00:02:21,320 As someone who has known what it is to live without freedom, I watch in amazement as those 32 00:02:21,330 --> 00:02:26,990 who call themselves liberals and progressives--people who claim to believe so fervently in individual 33 00:02:26,990 --> 00:02:32,560 liberty and minority rights--make common cause with the forces in the world that manifestly 34 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:38,020 pose the greatest threats to that very freedom and those very minorities. 35 00:02:38,020 --> 00:02:43,360 In 2014 I was invited to accept an honorary degree from Brandeis University for the work 36 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:46,980 I have done on behalf of women's rights in the Muslim world. 37 00:02:46,980 --> 00:02:53,000 That invitation was withdrawn after professors and students protested my criticism of Islam. 38 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:58,500 My subsequent "disinvitation," as it came to be called, was no favor to Muslims 39 00:02:58,500 --> 00:03:00,380 --just the opposite. 40 00:03:00,380 --> 00:03:05,980 By labeling critical examination of Islam as inherently "racist," we make the chances 41 00:03:05,980 --> 00:03:09,280 of reformation far less likely. 42 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:14,120 There are no limits on criticism of Christianity at American universities or anywhere else, 43 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:17,900 for that matter; why should there be of Islam? 44 00:03:17,900 --> 00:03:22,900 Instead of contorting Western intellectual traditions so as not to offend our Muslim 45 00:03:23,010 --> 00:03:29,010 fellow citizens, we need to defend both those traditions and the Muslim dissidents who take 46 00:03:29,010 --> 00:03:31,650 great risks to promote them. 47 00:03:31,650 --> 00:03:36,000 We should support these brave men and women in every way possible. 48 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:41,060 Imagine a platform for Muslim dissidents that communicated their message through YouTube, 49 00:03:41,060 --> 00:03:43,860 Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 50 00:03:43,860 --> 00:03:50,120 These are the Muslims we should be supporting--for our sake as much for the sake of Islam. 51 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:56,680 In the Cold War, the West celebrated dissidents such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakharov, 52 00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:02,320 and Václav Havel, who had the courage to challenge the Soviet system from within. 53 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:07,620 Today, there are many dissidents who challenge Islam, but the West either ignores them 54 00:04:07,620 --> 00:04:11,180 or dismisses them as "not representative." 55 00:04:11,180 --> 00:04:13,400 This is a grave mistake. 56 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:18,660 Reformers such as Tawfiq Hamid, Asra Nomani & Zuhdi Jasser and many others 57 00:04:18,660 --> 00:04:21,320 must be supported and protected. 58 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:26,820 They should be as well known as Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, and Havel were in the 1980s. 59 00:04:26,820 --> 00:04:31,940 If we do in fact support political, social and religious freedom, then we cannot in good 60 00:04:31,940 --> 00:04:37,260 conscience give Islam a free pass on the grounds of multicultural sensitivity. 61 00:04:37,260 --> 00:04:42,720 We need to say to Muslims living in the West: If you want to live in our societies, to share 62 00:04:42,730 --> 00:04:48,470 in their material benefits, then you need to accept that our freedoms are not optional. 63 00:04:48,470 --> 00:04:52,930 Islam is at a cross roads of reformation or self-destruction. 64 00:04:52,930 --> 00:04:54,750 But so is the West. 65 00:04:54,750 --> 00:04:59,650 I'm Ayaan Hirsi Ali of Harvard University for Prager University.