INFIDEL: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I was reluctant to try this book because it was such a hot topic when it was first published but I learned that she lives with Niail Ferguson, the historian, and he mentioned what an amazing women she was so I decided to try it. It is truly an amazing story of a young girl, born to devout Islamic parents in poverty in Somalia, who rises despite the violence, the excision, the prohibitions of Islam, and the lack of opportunities, to become a leader of women's rights in the Muslim world, a member of the Dutch government and eventually, because of her willingness to speak out against the sexism, violence, and lack of reason and discourse in Islam, must eventually go into hiding and emigrate to the US to avoid assassination attempts by radical Islamicists.

Her view is singular, in that it relates a terribly backward though traditional family, devout believers in Islam and the will of Allah.  As she mentions over and over, Islam means to submit, to Allah, with no questions, doubts or uncertainties.  His words are sacrosanct and the  good Muslim follows them without question.  This seems to be her main argument, that there is no questioning, no wondering why, no search for evidence, no worry about the consequences.  And the consequences, for women, as she makes clear, are abysmal, from lack of education, to excision, to violent treatment, to servility to men, to marriage (at almost any age), a form of slavery really if you follow the dictates of Allah, as her family did and as many families do, especially those who are Wahhabi(Saudi Arabian), the most conservative. She experiences first hand all of the aforementioned, one of the reasons why she flees to Holland, to avoid an arranged marriage.  When there, she begins to educate herself, courtesy of an amazing welfare state which seems to care about political refugees, not only giving them a pathway to citizenship, as in her case, but also housing and a living allowance.  It makes the meanness of the republicans all the more detestable.  Gradually, she becomes a democrat, a free thinker, a believer in the scientific method of asking questions, doubting, and skepticism, which leads her to abandon Islam, because of its finality, which ends up tearing her apart from her clan and family, and putting her in harms way.  The final straw, the making of a film called SUBMISSION, with Theo Van Gogh, a controversial film maker from Holland, led to his assassination and slitting of her  throat by a radical Muslim, and her being put in protective care for well over a year.  She argues that its all about belief, that if you follow the tenets of Islam as written, you are dangerous as the following quotations from the Koran suggest(if she is accurate)

-"When you meet the unbelievers, strike them in the neck."
- "If you do not go out and fight, God will punish you severely and put others in your place."
- " Wherever you find the polytheists, kill them, seize them besiege them, ambush them."
- "You who believe, do not take the Jews and Christians as friends; they are allies on to each other
Anyone who  takes them as an ally becomes one of them."
- " The hour of judgement will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them."

All of these quotations support why she is against multiculturalism, against Muslim schools, against allowing Muslims to segregate themselves, ignoring the Dutch culture of reason and tolerance, and allowing them to import their dangerous ideas, according to her.  It makes me think about the Gulen Movement, a Turkish imam, who has set up Muslim schools all over the world, including the US, supposedly espousing tolerance and reason though these two ideas would seem to contradict the tenets of Islam as she sees it.  I know my Turkish friends are very uncomfortable with the Gulen Movement, with what it represents and they see it also becoming powerful in Turkey, they fear as a precursor to an Islamic State.

I have to admit that none of the world she describes was my experience after having lived for seven years in Turkey.  I am sure honor killings happened in the East, perhaps occasionally in Istanbul, that women were treated as chattel in the backward villages, but in Istanbul, among the educated and the secular, this was unheard of.  This may be changing, as the face of Istanbul is changing, with more and more veils and headscarves.  What wonders if the women really understand what this might lead to, a world of seclusion, lack of freedom, of restriction, and no individuality.  No wonder some of the women we met are already planning ways to help their daughters leave Turkey if this trend ever materializes.

I did find the book interesting and thought provoking and its fun to watch someone learn, grow, and gain understanding of their world, of its strengths and weaknesses.  I am ready to start on the sequel, NOMAD,  which was published within the past year or so.