By no means am I calling you a bully. I agree with your assessment of moral courage. I focused on your final remark, “and she suffers for it, but not just from the bullies”.

My point is that I lament the lack of civility that often exists when someone has the strength to demonstrate moral courage…only to find that they are attacked for simply speaking out.

Daniel

LOL. Now, wouldn’t that be handy? It’d give a whole new meaning to the phrase “paybacks are a bitch.”

I can understand her neighbors’ feelings while still criticizing their action–and more particularly, that of the EU court. If the government isn’t providing protection for the whole apartment complex, deal with that issue. The problem is that if we let the neighbors off the “moral courage” hook, we have to let everybody off the hook–and then where do the Hirsi Ali’s of the world go? (And, by the way, where do the future people like her come from?) More important, I’d argue, is that the net effect to empower the people who are threatening Hirsi Ali and others to begin with … which in turns decreases overall security, over time, in the big picture.

Thanks for post. Can you put a mechanic’s lien on an ethical construct? Just wondering.

Daniel DiRito: I did go over and read your whole post. But I’m still not clear on this: Are you calling me a bully?

I’ve never liked or respected bullies. By that I don’t simply mean someone who can use physical force to obtain what they want. Bullying can take many forms. However, at the core of all bullying is a disregard for a fair and just system that is honored and observed by each individual because it is understood to be the evolved social order and social structure necessary to advance civilization. Until we agree upon a system of merit that has its origins in rational and reasoned thought and analysis, we will remain more similar to the animal occupants of this world. Until each individual honors a legitimate social contract, we will be nothing more than feigned shells of the civil creatures we pretend to be. When we dishonor humanity by dehumanizing each other, we betray our own humanity and we are all lessened. In the end, destiny is ours to choose.

read more here:

http://www.thoughttheater.com

AMSTERDAM � Liberal Party MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been ordered to vacate the high-security home she is renting in The Hague within four months.

An appeal court sided with her neighbours who complained her presence put their own safety at risk and caused disruption to their lives. Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner broke the news of the court decision at an EU meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday.

Somali-born Hirsi Ali is known as a critic of aspects of Islam and she went into hiding in November 2004 when filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered. They had finished work shortly before his murder on Submission, a short film about the ill-treatment of women under
Islam.