Avi, The Boss is you.
I don’t want to beat one story to death, but this Avi Lewis “On The Map” segment offers a great opportunity to:
- Expose the true face of the left;
- Expose the true beauty and genius of Ayaan Hirsi Ali;
- Expose the absolutely scandalous waste of money that is the CBC.
So here we go – I’ll go line-by-line, following a basic analytical format of transcript (exactly what was said), implication (what Lewis was really saying), and truth (what should be made clear if CBC was fair). Just have time for the intro tonight.
After pretentious graphics and music, “On the Map” begins:
“Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of the best-selling memoir Infidel, has an extraordinary life story – a story so powerful, it often eclipses the role she’s playing in the current conversation about Islam and terrorism…”
Implication: People are blinded to her true hate-filled agenda by the details of her biography.
Truth: Her biography makes her message all the more compelling, and her insights all the more legitimate.
“As she herself said recently, ‘Right now, the media are still lapping it up – a black woman who criticizes Islam.'”
Implication: GOTCHA! She’s not really what she says she is, she’s just manipulating the press to sell books and make money.
Truth: Unless you assume she’s a cynical, amoral money-grubber (and there’s never been a single indication that Ayaan is anything of the sort), it’s safe to assume she was simply making a truthful observation about the press that is following her.
“In a moment, my interview with her, but first, let’s put Ayaan Hirsi Ali…ON THE MAP. Born to an elite political family in Somalia…”
Implication: Ayaan was part of the ruling class, Comrades! Don’t let her convince you that she’s a voice of the people.
Truth: I have read her autobiography, Infidel, and can tell you that this is a clear malicious distortion. Ayaan’s father was part of the leadership of a rebellious Somali tribe that fought a civil war against the central government – not a politician, and certainly not part of the ruling elite. Her mother was dirt-poor and one of several wives. She grew up with very little contact with her father.
“…she was brought up Muslim, subjected to genital mutilation, and promised in an arranged marriage to a Canadian…”
Wow, an accurate sentence!
“…on her way, she departed from the script, and made a new life in the Netherlands, she learned the language, worked in a factory, a classic immigrant’s story. Until she went into politics, and ended up with the right-wing Dutch Liberal Party, which was exploiting a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment at the time.”
Implication: Ayaan was a lowly black factory worker who was used as a prop by racists politicians.
Truth: Within a couple years of reaching Holland, Ayaan gained entry into the prestigious Leiden University, earned a degree in Political Science, and then entered politics with the left-wing Labour Party. Only after September 11, 2001, when her comrades on the left abandoned her for speaking honestly about her experiences in the Islamic world, did she leave Labour for the Liberal Party – not a right-wing party, but a centrist bloc.
“Hirsi Ali became famous, and famously hated, for her condemnation of Islam.”
Implication: The country of Holland was against her.
Truth: The Muslim extremists, and their enablers and allies on the left, were against her. She remained a very popular figure in mainstream Dutch society.
“She wrote the film Submission with Theo Van Gogh, which featured sexualized images of a Muslim woman with verses of the Koran written on her body, telling a tale of abuse. When the filmmaker was murdered in 2004, the note pinned to his body was addressed to Hirsi Ali.”
Implication: We must show ambivalence about the murder of Van Gogh and the threat against Ali. After all, they wrote a really blasphemous movie!
Truth: The murderer of Van Gogh was a fanatical home-grown son of a Moroccan immigrant, whose actions were clearly despicable and wholly wrong under any decent person’s standards.
“Two years later, she was at the center of another storm, when a minister in her own party threatened her citizenship because she’d lied on her refugee application. She moved to the United States and published her memoir, a huge best-seller.”
Implication: After getting chased out of the Netherlands when exposed as a liar, she moved to the States to sell her soul for the almighty greenback.
Truth: Ayaan’s betrayal by fellow Liberal Party minister Rita Verdonk, a cowardly response to a Dutch TV hatchet-job, was a turning point, but not the only reason she left for America. Her life was constantly under direct threat from Muslim radicals in the tiny country where another critic of Islam, prominent gay activist Pim Fortuyn, had recently been assasinated for his views, and she had to live in secret under constant police protection in Amsterdam. This fact was conveniently left out by Mr. Lewis.
“Which brings us to her latest incarnation, a job at the arch-conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington.”
Implication: right-wing extremists are once again using this dumb black doll as a prop to justify their racist agenda.
Truth: Arch-conservative? What does that even mean? As Dennis Prager said today – I wonder if he’s ever used the word “Arch-Liberal” before. The only reason someone would use the prefix “arch-” would be to make it sound like some sort of evil death-star front for David Duke. AEI is simply a think-tank that houses some of the highest-caliber right-of-center intellectuals in the country (every single one more accomplished and intelligent than the nepotism case of a host, whose show is viewed by a rating that approaches zero). “Arch” is a ridiculous smear.
So…now that the smarmy host has attempted to delegitimize his guest in an introduction she was not present to comment on, it’s time for the interview:
Avi: “Give me your argument against – that is, your critique of Islam.”
Most guests would start with “of course, I’m not against Islam”, but not Ayaan – she gets right to the heart of it, and thank you, CBC, for letting it survive the editing room.
Ayaan: Islam means submission to the will of Allah. A doctrine that requires the individual to become a slave is, in my view, is bad. Islam limits the imagination to what you can find in the Koran, and to follow in the example of the prophet Mohammed. I think that’s bad, and that’s what keeps people in the Islamic world backward. Islam mistreats women – at least, subordinates women to men; is obsessed with obedience; calls for the murder of gays and adulterers; and is therefore very violent and inhuman. All of this is in the Koran; all of this is in the Hadith; and anywhere that Islamic Shari’a, Islamic rule is implemented, you see that these things are carried out.
Wow. Avi Lewis’ world is being blown apart. A beautiful, articulate, secular, cosmopolitan, confident, intellectual black woman has just told the truth about Islam. It’s time to fight back…
Avi: Surely, there are many versions of Islam, just like there are many versions of Christianity, of Judaism, of all major religions. You’re presenting it as just one thing, and obviously it’s not!
Implication: OK, Islam has some rough patches…but so do the other religions. Islam is the same as the other religions, no better or worse. And anyway, it’s all relative, because Islam means different things to different people, so we can’t make any judgements.
Truth: Lousy attempt to inject moral equivalency and pacifist non-judgementalism into the discussion. Avi skips right past the everyday horrors of the Islamic world as outlined by Ayaan, and simply tries to shift the blame for corruption onto “religion”. Typical of someone with left-wing dementia, he tries to defend the anti-Western religion by comparing it to a fictional lowest-common-demoninator that simply does not exist in Judaism or Christianity. In essence, what he is saying is: I’ll defend Islam because it’s no worse than the other religions I hate. Does that make ANY sense???
Ayaan: Islam, as a faith, as a doctrine, is defined by the Koran and the example of the Prophet Mohammed, and unreformed, unchallenged, it is a monolith.
Avi: I could point to things in other holy books that are equally offensive.
Here’s where Avi starts to completely flame out. It’s like he’s not even listening to his guest. Here, he simply repeats the losing argument he made a moment ago.
Ayaan: The other holy books, the old testament, the bible, have become almost obsolete, and there are no Christians who want to have the bible replace any constitution in Western society.
Avi: OK, whoa! You live in the United States of America. This is a country where Evangelical Christianity has ascended to the highest ranks of power, where conservative social values drawn and justified by the bible are imposed on people every day.
Implication: OK, he’s not even hiding his anti-American moonbattery anymore. No need to analyze implications here, this is the real thing. (But I should point out that he can’t even pronounce the word “Evangelical” correctly, and I’m certain he doesn’t understand what Evangelical Christianity is about at all).
Truth: This is complete insanity. If you can’t see that America has gone through 40 years of progressive” social values being imposed on the people every day, you are simply dim.
Ayaan: I think you are exagerrating…
Avi (interrupting): They shoot abortion doctors in the United States of America! (interrupting her attempt at replying) Homophobia is rampant!
Ayaan (undaunted): When abortion doctors in the United States were shot, the federal government reacted to it by going after the perpetrators, putting them on trial, and jailing them. When, in Iran, two men went after a woman and a man holding hands and shot them, they were aquitted by the supreme court. That is the core difference – never confuse Islamic Shari’a and the Muslims who really mean it, with those extremist Christians who live in the United States. Extremist Christians in the United States, or any other Western society, face the rule of law and are dealt with accordingly.
(And guess what, Avi – the last time an abortion doctor was shot in the United States was…1998! If that makes Christian extremists equal to Muslim radicals, then Avi Lewis is a smarter man than I…)
What a perfect answer by Ayaan – completely ignored by Avi, who moves on.
Avi: Let’s talk about the intervention to bring democracy – quote-unquote – increasingly, in what many people see, in an Islamophobic context.
Implication: America hates Muslims and is simply having fun killing brown babies in Iraq.
Truth: Avi Lewis is an idiot. If America hates Muslims, then what were Bosnia and Kosovo all about?
Ayaan: There is no Islamophobia. It’s a myth.
Avi: (incredulously) There’s no Islamophobia?
Ayaan: (With a big smile on her face) No.
Avi: Anywhere in the world?
Ayaan: No. I mean…
Avi: (interrupting again) Is there antisemitism?
Ayaan: It’s different…
Avi (interrupting yet again): Is there racism?
Ayaan: Sometimes. We are all racists. Racism is a universal trait, so is antisemitism, by the way. But I want us not to confuse a set of beliefs such as Islam, with ethnicity such as with Jews just because they are Jews, or with blacks just because they are blacks, or with gays just because it’s something you can’t do anything about. Wheras Islam is simply a set of beliefs. It’s not “Islamophobic” to say that Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy. It’s not “Islamophobic” to point to those people who use the Koran and the Hadith to conduct war and to say this is being done in the name of your religion. To do something about it, that’s not “Islamophobic”. That’s fair.
Wow. Blew him away, and he doesn’t even respond.
Avi: North American Muslims really feel under siege these days. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but people don’t want to travel because flying is such a hassle. North American Muslims are afraid to give to charities because they’re afraid they’ll end up on a list somewhere. And they’d watched others in their community end up in detention for a year without ever seeing charges against them – I mean, you’re not unaware of these debates. You don’t think there’s a context of what the “War on Terror” rhetoric does to a social discourse?
Implication: Every gripe of the Muslim community is legitimate. Every measure used to protect society from Muslim radicals is wrong. You, Ayaan, are a traitor to your community for not advocating on MY side!
Truth: It has become self-evident – Avi Lewis is a fully brainwashed Chomskyite. “You don’t think there’s a context of what the War on Terror rhetoric does to a social discourse?” Noam himself couldn’t have crafted a more perfect meaningless, pretentious non-sequitur of a question!
Ayaan: I think it’s highly exaggerated that Muslims in the US are under seige. If that were the case – we know groups in history who were under seige, and what they usually do is, they would leave. I don’t see any American Muslim leaving and going back to any Muslim country.
Avi: (With shit-eating grin on face) Well, your faith in American democracy is, uh – delightful!
Implication: My poor, stupid, manipulated little black doll, you are soooooo naive…
Truth: Strip away the despicable condescention, and you have an absolutely true statement – Ayaan certainly does have faith in American democracy, and she’s not afraid to show it.
Ayaan: (with big smile on her face) It’s the best democracy. It’s the best place to be!
Avi: Tell that to the people who believe there have been a couple of stolen elections, that the democracy is completely broken, that…
Implication: The 9/11 truthers and Daily Kos haters are right, and you are crazy.
Truth: Avi, like most on the left, simply can’t get over the fact that Al Gore lost the 2000 election – just like the left of the previous generation never got over the fact that John F. Kennedy was killed by a leftist, not a right-winger.
Ayaan: I do tell them, and I tell them you shouldn’t have stood by and watched for the democracy to be stolen. My point is not so much when the Democrats are in office everyone is happy, or when the Republicans are in office everything is bad – it’s that both Republicans and Democrats – and the majority of Americans feel, fortunately, that they can run for office, they can get power…
Avi: (with a “gotcha” grin on his face) As long as you’re staggeringly rich, totally connected, and in the pockets of your donors, you can do anything you want in America.
Ayaan: In America, you can come with nothing, no penny, nothing, and you can become very wealthy. Tell me which Muslim country…
Avi (interrupting again): Is there a school where they teach you these American cliches? Is it part of your application process? I’m sorry – I’m so upset, I’m losing my cards here. I can’t believe you just said that!
Implication: Oh, stupid brown girl, I’ve lost patience with you. You are a brainwashed neo-con dupe. You have no right to be on the right!
Truth: Avi Lewis’ has a completely closed mind. He hasn’t absorbed a word she’s said in seven minutes now.
Ayaan: (disarming him with a smile before swooping in for the final devastating death blow) I’ve read de Tocqueville, and I’ve read about democracy, and I’ve lived in countries that had no democracy, that had no founding fathers, that could not resolve, so I don’t find myself in the same luxury as you. You grew up in freedom, and you can spit on freedom, because you don’t know what it is not to have freedom. I haven’t. I know that there are many things wrong with America, and I know there are many things wrong with Americans, but I still believe it’s the best nation in the world.
Avi: Thanks. Thanks for coming!
Final analysis: As I mentioned above, this interview is the perfect window into the left-wing mind. Avi Lewis exposes all the pathologies of the left, including the narcissism that causes them to fail to recognize when they’ve been schooled.
Flaggman's Canada 
Great stuff, I will lead with this link, I am putting together the mother of all Avi Lewis/Ayaan Hirsi Ali link posts, this needs to be recorded for history.
Great work. It’s unfortunate that neanderthals like Lewis are still able to use their connections to entrench themselves into taxpayer funded ‘jobs’ that they use to simply attack people they don’t like, Canadians shouldn’t have to pay for that.
A new one to add to your blogroll:
http://ohioagainstterror.blogspot.com/
This group exposes the Islamists in Central Ohio. Their work complements Debbie Schlussel’s exposing the Islamists in Dearborn. One of them, Patrick Poole, writes for Frontpage Magazine.
Expose the true face of the left;
Expose the true beauty and genius of Ayaan Hirsi Ali;
Expose the absolutely scandalous waste of money that is the CBC.
Those are all good reasons, beat away;)
Maybe a little picky, but a spot-on analysis.
Asymmetric analysis
You always have to love non-Muslims who think they know more about Islam than Muslims or ex-Muslims do! The audacity!
And again he confuses non-practicing “Christians” who act in clear violation of the teachings of the Scriptures by shooting people (however evil the deeds of their victims), with obedience to the other religion. Simply maddening. And ignorant!
I can think of all kinds of people whose place in the health care line up would be miles ahead if my hard-earned money wasn’t spent on this kind of uneducated, condescending trash. The CBC has no mandate to spew such nonsense, unless it wants us to believe that the national IQ is that low, or the national sensibility that lacking. Seriously, what kind of extra medically necessary health care could we invest in as a country without this nonsense hitting the airwaves?!?
Fabulous M8!
Great analysis.If I lived in the CBC viewing area I think I’d have to move or at least smash the television.
What a putz! This is a perfect example of how the left in this country have reduced themselves to a bunch of platitude-spewing automatons. Homophobia is rampant in the United States? The last two elections in America were stolen? If this is the best an Upper Canada College graduate can come up with then fellow alums should hang their heads in shame and demand a full refund. With no rehearsal and no cue cards, Ms. Ali proved that she was his intellectual superior at every turn.
Appearing in the next episode of “OWNED”
Avi Lewis!
Jonathon Kay of the Post wrote about Avi’s folly today, 1st I have seen it mentioned in the MSM in Canada.
I wonder how he would have interviewed a white (or black )women being persucuted by fundementalist Christians.
stephen.reeves,
Huh?
I definitely get the sense you don’t know much about Christianity by your comment, if I’m understanding its sentiment correctly.
this is a disgrace – he should know much better – maybe a few weeks in Gazastan or some such place might provide an attitude adjustment – if he lived.
Flaggman,
I loved your analysis of Avi Lewis’s interview. But one thing you wrote was absolutely NOT true. You said, “…this interview is the perfect window into the left-wing mind.” You should have added, “if a left-wing mind existed.” What we see in Avi Lewis is an intellectually lazy young man who is unfamiliar with ideas beyond the cliches he spews so fluently. He believes that being argumentative and patronizing to his guest proves how well informed and au courant he is. It only proves that he should never try to match wits with this guest because he is half-armed.
I understand that Lewis used to do pop culture programs. His rise to the role of “journalist” reminds me of someone here in the States. Keith Olberman, who does a one-hour newscast-opinion show on the cable channel MSNBC from 8 to 9 M-F, was once on ESPN giving sports results. Olberman’s opinions are as bad as Lewis’s. During the Clinton impeachment in 1999, Olberman made the perceptive observation that Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr wore glasses that made him look like the SS leader Heinrich Himmler.
It might be fun for Lewis and Olberman to interview each other. I would pay to see that. It would be better than Abbott and Costello.
Duly blogged, with a few unique perspectives, including the question of whether Avi is in violation of Canadian hate speech laws.
http://alankhenderson.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html#4864042905625531727
Pingback: Dennis Prager on the Dishonesty of “Islamophobia” « Flaggman’s Canada
I blogged myself about this interview and I took the liberty of linking back to your analysis. You did an excellent job, there’s nothing more one could add.
“the left in this country have reduced themselves to a bunch of platitude-spewing automatons.”
Well said, James. This is what Oriana Fallaci meant when she wrote of the attitudes of those bullies whom she appellated the “Caviar Left”, “You choose. You’re free not to think or to think as I do. And if you think differently to me, I shall not punish you with my auto-da-fe. I shall not touch your body, I shall not confiscate your assets, I shall not violate your political rights. You will even be permitted to vote. But you will never be able to be voted, elected. Nor followed, nor respected. Because using my laws on freedom of opinion I shall say that you are impure. A wretch, a lunatic, a liar, a dissolute, a sinner. And I shall condemn you to a civil death. I shall make you a criminal, a culprit, an outlaw and people will not listen to you any longer. More than that: not to be punished in their turn, those who think like you will abandon you.” Is this not what that cowardly bastard Avi Lewis tried to do with Hirsi Ali? To hell with the CBC and Avi Lewis! They can kiss my Irish-Canadian ass.
who is the best boxer ever in the world whole world
yeah who is thebest ever tell me please
This was brilliant. Quite frankly, the Hirsi/Lewis interview was my introduction to young Avi. He is quite the dullard huh? I had done a youtube seach on “Hirsi” and fell upon this interview quite by chance. I must say I was.. flabergasted.. by young Avi’s “smarmy” (good word) demeanor. I was a bit worried until I check around and found that I was by no mean alone in my feelings. I hope you don’t mind I’m saving your analysis. I’ve read it and reread it a couple of times. Each reading gives me tickle and puts a smile on my face. Thank you so much. – Cole
Pingback: Philgrim’s Blogress » Blog Archive » Canadian superiority
How I came across this blog entry (6 things):
1. Watched Richard Dawkins being interviewed on On the Map.
2. Identified the host as having a severe mental impediment.
3. Wondered whether the host’s condition was common knowledge.
4. I then typed “avi lewis is an idiot” into Google and hit ‘Search’.
5. Felt astonished that this blog entry was the only result.
6. Then of course I hit the link…
After all that, I was very pleased to find that the Ayaan Hirsi Ali interview had been analyzed because (apart from being the only other On the Map interview I’d seen) it showed Lewis to be spouting the same foolish shit that he was in the Dawkins interview.
Massive props to Flaggman. Truth rules.
Pingback: patruped:bun biped:rău | Potpourri
Came across this blog by chance. Just want to say you are doing stellar work here and I hope you continue with the clear insights. Canada needs more like you!
DESDE ARGENTINA,GRACIAS,QUE NO SE APAGUE ESE FUGO DE RESISTENCIA
Avi Lewis Biography: Another journalist who likes to hear himself talk and is allowed to do so because he spouts the self-conscious Canadian ideal of tolerating any stupid, unselfcritical set of ideas (in this case islam) with an ethnic tag on it. I used to be pro-CBC, but after 15 years of living abroad I wonder why taxpayers tolerate it anymore; all it ends up doing is chastising Canadians for common-sense dislikes.
Does Avi Lewis live in a Starbuck’s? Has he looked at any islamic country and asked himself if he wants his own country to be like that? Any rational person should fear islam as an imposed system of violence, discrimination and social retardation. Ayaan Hirsi Ali made him look like a whining, candy-floss moron. jr, malaysia
Jesus, get a life. What a waste of time. How many hours did this self-satisfying rant take? And the people who comment on your blog have absolutely no ability to spell. Your points are stupid and slightly crazy, like you are in some christian militia or something. Maybe you should get off the computer and go outside?
Pingback: Ayaan Hirsi Ali Versus a Canadian Leftist Educated Idiot « THE VINCENTON POST
“Jesus, get a life. What a waste of time. How many hours did this self-satisfying rant take?”
Perhaps not many more than it took for you to read it?
Good stuff, even if Lewis is just too easy.
I heard this interview being deconstructed in Texas one evening, on the Jerry Doyle Show, back when it aired. I was so embarrassed as a Canadian, that this little leftwing mouthpiece said such unbelieveably, mean, groundless, slagging comments to such a ferociously courageous woman.
When I returned and viewed the interview on YouTube, I roared: Her quiet confidence, her quiet fortitude, just slew that sneering, snivelling little sack of poo.
Lewis, you were, are and continue to be an embarrassment to this country.
uprivsbuuu fyqmjibvij qcusurbci kwlamxlzqia cpxfuvn
Watched this interview a number of years ago and it still continues to amaze me on how arrogant and smarmy Avi Lewis is, you don’t even need the deconstruction. As it remains on line after so many years, I hope he looks at it every now and then to remind himself of what a left-wing spewing mouthpiece his is, that actually didn’t really listen to what she was saying. I mean really, they shoot abortion doctors in the states, I mean like they just take them out and put them before a firing squad. A true example of the continued infection of PC speak that ruining honest discourse and free speech.
Thiis is a great post thanks