Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Gall To Speak Her Mind

I highly recommend this wonderful piece by Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post. It's good to see that main stream media are beginning to take note of key people who have been celebrities in blog world for a good number of years now. A small taste from Anne's article:

For those who haven't encountered her name yet, suffice it to say that Hirsi Ali is a European of African descent with an almost American rags-to-riches life story. As a young woman, she escaped from her Somali family while en route to an arranged marriage in Canada, made her way to Holland, learned Dutch, attended college and eventually won a seat in the Dutch parliament. Along the way, she also made an intellectual journey -- beautifully described in her new book, "Infidel"-- from tribal Somalia, through fundamentalism, and into Western liberalism.

In America, the phenomenon of the flag-waving first-generation immigrant is familiar. In Europe, such a thing is unknown. Maybe once Europeans get used to the idea -- a Muslim immigrant who embraces Western culture with the excitement of the convert! -- they'll like Hirsi Ali better. And if they're lucky, others will follow in her footsteps.

In the meantime, LFG does a great job documenting an all out smear effort by Newsweek Magazine against Ayaan Hirsi Ali.