It seems that the “young Muslim refugee woman with head covered who bags her adopted country and gets lionised for it by the leftie establishment” business model is not restricted just to Australia.
Bruce Bower reports from Norway for P J Media about Sumaya Jirde Ali:
Born in 1997, she came to Norway from Somalia at age six. Two years ago, she stepped onto the national stage with an opinion piece in Aftenposten. She had just been in London, and was impressed by the “diversity” on display there. By contrast, she charged, Norway is way behind. “During the last few decades Norway has become more multicultural,” she wrote. “Why is it that in 2016, there aren’t more non-ethnic Norwegians in advertisements, movies, magazines, and in government agencies?” She maintained that “for integration to work, it must go both ways. It’s not enough for immigrants to adapt.”
And it was upwards from there on:
Sumaya wrote more pieces. Last year came an item headlined “Muslim on your premises? Never.” Complaining that her devotion to Islam is too often associated in Norway “with something negative,” she wanted readers to know that “I am not your socially constructed phenomenon. I am myself.” She insisted that her wearing of a hijab has nothing to do with obedience, that she is “not obliged to follow or like all the rules/norms of my own religion,” and that the Koran teaches all this. Which led one to wonder: does she really believe this, or is she consciously trying to present infidel Norway with a picture of Islam that makes this totalitarian religion look like Episcopalianism?
Whatever the case may be, Sumaya has been handsomely rewarded for her slight, shallow, and (frankly) semi-literate writings. Last year the local newspaper in her home city, Bodø, named her “Bodø Resident of the Year,” calling her “an incredibly important voice for very many young women.” In January of this year she won the Zola Prize, presented annually to “people who openly and fearlessly have uncovered or opposed threats to human value, democracy, and the rule of law in Norway.” Jury foreman Karl Eldar Evang compared her to James Baldwin, while noting that another commentator had likened her to the 1950s actor James Dean. Since there is no conceivable comparison between Sumaya and James Dean, presumably this was simply one idiot’s way of saying that Sumaya is cool.
The awards kept coming. A month after Sumaya picked up the Zola Prize, the Oslo weekly Natt & Dag named her “Voice of the Year.” In an interview, she told Natt & Dag that if she were the prime minister of Norway her first action would be to cut out government support to Human Rights Service — a small Oslo think tank that has carried out important research on such subjects as forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and honor killings in the Muslim community. Upon being awarded the Natt & Dag prize at a public ceremony, Sumaya shouted “Fuck Listhaug!” The reference was to Sylvi Listhaug, the popular ex-integration minister who, among other politically incorrect statements, had expressed concern that the Swedish phenomenon of “no-go zones” would spread to Norway. This was not the first time Sumaya had publicly used the four-letter English-language word: she had previously tweeted “Fuck diplomatic debate: Fuck the police.”
There’s more. Earlier this month, Cultural Minister Trine Skei Grande awarded Sumaya yet another accolade: the Words on the Borderland Prize. The jury described Sumaya as a “fearless voice in a climate that is constantly more xenophobic and hostile to free expression.” How curious to give such an honor to someone who believes in silencing her ideological opponents and who has referred to their “alleged freedom of speech”! Finally, this fall, Aschehoug, arguably Norway’s most prestigious publisher, will issue Sumaya’s second book of poems. A sample of her verse: “My screams causes the mountains of tradition / to tremble / My self-esteem startles the thunder / Nothing is more dangerous than / a woman who is one / with herself.”
Both Sumaya and Yassmin seem to find London much more congenial than either Norway or Australia, which probably tells you more about London than it does about Norway or Australia, and little of it positive. The latter certainly seems happier residing there now, but judging by the adulation that continues to surround her in Norway, the former will likely continue to complain about everything instead of moving.
After all, it’s better to be a big fish trashing around in (and trashing) a little pond than nobody in a big city where it takes more than saying “fuck the police” to win free speech awards. In London, her self-esteem probably would not startle the thunder, seeing the city is full of egos the size of the Trump blimp squeezed so tightly together not even a sparrow can fly through the gaps.
Bower concludes:
Even though she’s a lousy writer and doesn’t have a real idea in her head, you can’t exactly call her stupid. She knows what she’s doing. Her whole act is brilliantly calculated. She seems to have known from the start that if you’re a Muslim girl in Norway nowadays, you can become a superstar by doing — well, precisely what she’s been doing. The more you slam the establishment for its purportedly terrible treatment of you, the more they’ll slobber all over you, give you awards, and celebrate you as a role model for young people. These are the culturally suicidal times we live in, and this is the kind of mendacious mediocrity whom our betters would have us look up to as a hero.
In the past, pillars of the establishment would pay to be whipped in the privacy of dark rooms.
Now their perverted flagellation is on full public display.
Arthur Chrenkoff blogs at The Daily Chrenk, where this piece also appears.
Illustration: ABC iView.
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Show comments
