From CNSN:

Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., this week, the Somali-born Hirsi Ali said the 21st century began with a battle of ideas “about the values of the West versus those of Islam.”

“Journalists … face the unpleasant reality of taking sides or getting lost in the incoherence of the so-called middle ground,” she said. “The role of journalists serving the West, who understand what this particular battle is about, will be to inform their audiences accordingly.”

Hirsi Ali said journalists must acknowledge the discrepancies between tenets of Islam and foundational beliefs of the West before they can accurately report on Islamic-related events.

Although Hirsi Ali praised journalists’ work since the Sept. 11th attacks, she said reluctance to defend Western values against Islamic threats surprises her.

“Why are Westerners so insecure about everything that is so wonderful about the West: political freedom, free press, freedom of expression, equal rights for women and men and gays and heterosexuals, critical thinking, and the great strength of scrutinizing ideas – and especially faith?” Hirsi Ali asked.

She said Western journalists appeared hesitant to defend free speech – “the very right from which they earn their bread.”

She’s making some assumptions here as to the loyalty of western journalists to western traditions. I’d put forward that after several years in a in a liberal echo chamber, which is unfortunately what almost all Journalism programs have become, most supposed journalists are more likely to be loyal to whatever is trendily referred to as “progressive” than to any abstract ideal like freedom of speech. Thus journalists are more than willing to support the restricting of free speech or women’s rights if it is framed in a “progressive” narrative like the fairness doctrine or fighting Islamophobia. Ali holds out hope that western journalist can be swayed however:

In her speech, Hirsi Ali said the West is battling for its cornerstone ideas of political freedom, freedom of expression and equality for women. Islam, on the other hand, is hostile to everything Western, she said.

Muslims, Jews and Christians should have equal access to Western freedoms, but some basic teachings of Islam inevitably hold Muslims back from fully assimilating into Western society – particularly teachings about women, she said.

“This obsession with subjugating women is one of the things that makes Islam so low,” Hirsi Ali said. “And the agents of Islam … know that any improvement in the lives of women will lead to the demise of Islam and a disappearance of their power. This is why, among other things, they are so desperate to cage in women. This is why they also hate the West.”

She challenged journalists directly. “If we do not understand the differences between Islam and the West – why one is so great and the other so low – and we don’t fight back and win this battle of ideas in order to preserve our civilization, in my view there is no point to your profession or mine,” she said.

A Muslim journalist in the audience said Hirsi Ali was too aggressive and disrespectful toward Islam.

That last sentence says it all, doesn’t it.

h/t Hot Air