Rebel News pointed to a resurfaced 2007 interview, conducted by NDP Leader Avi Lewis on his program On The Map, in which Lewis interviewed Somali-born author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The piece frames the exchange as evidence that Lewis treated Hirsi Ali — whose biography includes female genital mutilation, an arranged marriage, fleeing Somalia, and living under security protection after the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh — more combatively than his public image as a defender of marginalized voices would suggest.
According to the account, Lewis introduced Hirsi Ali as a “controversial author” tied to an “arch-conservative” institution, and challenged her argument that Islamic doctrines regarding women, obedience, and violence required reform by accusing her of portraying Islam as a monolith. The article reproduces several of Hirsi Ali’s responses, including:
“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 acquitted by the Supreme Court. That is the core difference.”
“Islam is simply a set of beliefs and it’s not Islamophobic to say Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy.”
“You grew up in freedom and you can spit on freedom because you don’t know what it is not to have freedom.”
The piece is critical commentary, closing by directing readers to Lewis’s campaign site and characterizing the new NDP leader in hostile terms.
Note: Rebel News is a partisan outlet and this article is opinion/commentary. Archived as part of the public record of coverage of the NDP leader. The 2007 source interview referenced is available on YouTube.