My Interview With Ayaan Hirsi Ali Is Up...

...at Reason. Despite the fact that I loved her book and that she and I are in broad agreement about the dangers of unchecked Muslim immigration in Europe, the exchange is, um, spirited at times.

Reason: Explain to me what you mean when you say we have to stop the burning of our flags and effigies in Muslim countries. Why should we care?

Hirsi Ali: We can make fun of George Bush. He’s our president. We elected him. And the queen of England, they can make fun of her within Britain and so on. But on an international level, this has gone too far. You know, the Russians, they don’t burn American flags. The Chinese don’t burn American flags. Have you noticed that? They don’t defile the symbols of other civilizations. The Japanese don’t do it. That never happens.

Reason: Isn’t that a double standard? You want us to be able to say about Islam whatever we want—and I certainly agree with that. But then you add that people in Muslim countries should under all circumstances respect our symbols, or else.

Hirsi Ali: No, no, no.

Reason: We should be able to piss on a copy of the Koran or lampoon Muhammad, but they shouldn’t be able to burn the queen in effigy. That’s not a double standard?

Hirsi Ali: No, that’s not what I’m saying. In Iran a nongovernmental organization has collected money, up to 150,000 British pounds, to kill Salman Rushdie. That’s a criminal act, but we are silent about that.

Reason: We are?

Hirsi Ali: Yes. What happened? Have you seen any political response to it?

Reason: The fatwa against Rushdie has been the subject of repeated official anger and protests since 1989.

You can read the rest right here.

I've had some pretty good feedback on the interview so far, mostly from the right and the center.

Among the reactions:

"...van Bakel in the libertarian Reason magazine seems to be one of the few that's not letting Hirsi Ali so easily off the political hook."

From a made-my-day e-mail: "A less persistent or knowledgeable interviewer probably would have caved, or might not even have recognized her hypocrisies. I'm a big fan of hers (and of atheism) generally, but you exposed the danger of her almost Randian absolutism. ... Congrats on a job very well done."

Aw, shucks.

And then there are some multiculturalism ideologues at Crooked Timber who've apparently convinced themselves that all immigrants, Muslims included, are alike — hard-working, kind, adding color and spice to our drab surroundings, and dying to integrate and become just like us if only closet racists like me would stop futzing the numbers.

Oh well.