Today, Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, represented by Dr. R.K. Pachauri, will receive the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 in Oslo, Norway. The Peace Prize has been viewed by many as something of a joke after it was awarded to the Jihadist Yasser Arafat and to appeasers of Jihad like Jimmy Carter. However, it still generates a lot of media attention. If the Nobel Committee want to stay relevant they need to do some changes. The greatest challenge to world peace right now is not global warming, it's global Jihad. I therefore suggest that the next Peace Prize should be awarded to Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

I have had a few minor disagreements with Hirsi Ali in the past, mainly because she has on some occasions compared Islam to other religions like Christianity and Judaism, which I believe is wrong. However, her views on this have matured considerably, and because of her background she has made criticism of Islam acceptable to people who would otherwise find it difficult to digest the arguments she presents, even though they are perfectly correct. She is no doubt an extremely courageous person. In spite of death threats she has never hesitated in pointing out that many of the problems in the Islamic world are caused by Islam itself. She is an invaluable asset to the fight against global Jihad and as worthy of the Prize as any other living person.

In my view, the Norwegian Nobel Committee will soon have to make a choice: If they want the Nobel Peace Prize to be a Global Celebrity Award for Outstanding Achievements in Political Correctness, they can give the next one to Bono of rock group U2. Or, they can do something meaningful, something that will actually advance the cause of peace and human liberty around the world, and award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008 to Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Since members of national assemblies and parliaments can nominate candidates for the Prize, I hereby challenge MPs from the Progress Party in my country, or MPs from any infidel nation, to nominate Hirsi Ali. Other alternatives can be mentioned, too. Ibn Warraq, Ali Sina and Wafa Sultan are all worthy recipients of the Prize for their work and for championing the rights of one of the most abused and oppressed groups of people on the planet: Former Muslims who defy the traditional death penalty for leaving Islam.

Or, if the members of the Committee want somebody with a non-Muslim background, what about Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who has remained steadfast in opposing Islamization despite the murders of his countrymen Theo van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn and the exile of Hirsi Ali? Author Robert Spencer, director of the website Jihad Watch, who patiently monitors the spread of Jihad terrorism across the world, is another excellent choice, as is Bat Ye'or, whose unique work on the plight of non-Muslims under Islamic rule has contributed immensely to our understanding of both the past and the present.

Being Norwegian myself, I would also like to make a suggestion to Norwegian authorities: Norway is, or at least was the last time I checked, the planet's third largest exporter of oil, after Saudi Arabia and Russia. If Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of oil, spends money on promoting Jihad and sharia, is it not fair that Norway, the world's third largest exporter of oil, should spend a little on combating the same? The Norwegian Petroleum Fund amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars. Norwegian authorities could easily create a fund of a billion dollars or more earmarked for the defense of persons threatened for criticizing Islam. That's the least we can do in return for being blessed with wealth we did very little to earn.//

// We can make a difference. Norway was the fourth-largest shipping nation in the world at the outbreak of WW2 and was of major importance to the allied convoys in the Atlantic which kept the war efforts alive. A British publication stated that the Norwegian Merchant Fleet then was "worth as much to the allied cause as a million soldiers." We are currently faced with a world war of a different nature, and if we can make contributions that matter for the outcome of this great struggle for freedom then we should do so. It's time to make a stand. I would like my country to be remembered for something other than awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Yasser Arafat or for sponsoring the Palestinian government and their terrorist cronies.

(Brussels Journal, December 12. From the desk of Fjordman.)

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