Two of the world’s best-known dissident Muslims, Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, will be speaking at the Y on Tuesday, May 2 in a rare American appearance for Ali. A female Dutch politician of Somali descent, Ali was forced to go into hiding after death threats from Islamists and the assassination of her collaborator in the film Submission, Theo van Gogh. Irshad Manji is a Canadian scholar and American talk show regular with an extensive website, Muslim Refusenik. 

Web magazine Salon.com interviewed Ali about the Danish cartoons, the rise of militant Islamism and why she feels the editors of the Jylland-Posten and the Danish government shouldn’t apologize. It’s well worth checking out.

[Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Trouble with Islam: 05/02/06]