Infidel [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Infidel is an overwhelming book to grasp. Why? Well, because so much has happened so far in Ms. Ali's life. In addition, she takes you into mental spaces where you've never been before and this takes more than a little stretching.

Here's the bottom line: In the course of her first three and a half decades of life, Ms. Ali moved from being born into a medieval-type lifestyle in Africa and Arabia based on Islam to becoming a prominent social critic of Islam in Europe and the United States who is well listened to wherever she goes. At the same time, she required enormous personal security to keep her alive as those she criticized sought to silence her.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali grew up in a traditional high-clan Somali family whose father was a leader in the Somali civil war against the Marxist dictatorship of Siad Barre. While her father was progressive in some ways, her grandmother wanted to follow all traditional practices. Her mother was estranged from her father, and often seemed to be fighting a losing battle for her sanity. As a result, Ms. Ali seemed to get the worst of each person's influence.

Her grandmother forcibly arranged for her female circumcision. Her mother used to alternate between beating Ms. Ali and forcing her to do all of the household work. Her father was usually absent except when she became an adult and he forced her into an arranged marriage she opposed. A Muslim teacher once almost killed her through a beating.

Early in her years, Ms. Ali began to value equality for women and decent treatment from the men in the household. Those instincts were viewed as totally anathema to her family and clan members.

On her way to join the new husband picked out by her father, Ms. Ali escaped to Holland where she becomes a successful applicant for refugee status. She soon was earning a living as a translator to help pay for her education, and later worked for a political think tank. There, her outspoken views about the dangers of permitting Muslim practices to be freely followed in Europe caused quite a stir. She became a Dutch citizen and was able to switch parties and run for Parliament, earning a seat in her first election. With this prominence, her criticisms had more effect.

Ms. Ali burst on the international scene in 2004 when she collaborated with Theo van Gogh to create a short documentary, Submission, Part 1, that had rocked the Muslim community with its physical and psychological boldness. A partially undraped woman is portrayed speaking directly to Allah rather than submitting to her faith in totally covering clothes. Two months later, van Gogh was assassinated. In the aftermath, the quest to keep her safe made her life a nightmare. In the aftermath, her citizenship was challenged and she has since moved to the United States to continue her role as a social critic of Islam.

It is rare to find autobiography as absorbing as this. Not only because of the author's unusual path from the desert of Somalia to the USA via the Netherlands, but also on account of the engaging writing style. Clear and descriptive, the narrative of her eventful life had a profound impact on this reader. Born and raised in Somalia, she spent part of her youth in neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, describing through the eyes of a child what it was like to live there.

She makes the history of Somalia come alive under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, explaining the clan system and comparing the relaxed Muslim practice in that country with the strictness of Saudi Arabia and the hypocrisy and racism that go along with it. The short experience of Ethiopia and later the long stay in Kenya, both predominantly Christian countries, were different again and she really captivates one's attention with the places and the people. One of the most salient memories she recalls is the obsessive anti-Semitism in Saudi Arabia. Where her family lived in the city of Riyadh, Jews were blamed for everything.

A sub-theme of the book is the increased radicalization of Muslims, partly because of the failures and the suffering brought about by Barre and the chaos of the civil war that unseated him. She noted this radicalization taking place amongst Somalis and others in Kenya where she spent most of her adolescence. This radical strain was brought to Africa by Arabs and Iranians, both Sunni and Shia, also reflecting the failure of secular ideologies and bad government in the dictatorships of the Muslim world.

There are sympathetic but honest portrayals of her family and friends: her mother who showed healthy signs of independence early in life but eventually lost hope and became embittered, her loving and tolerant but mostly absent father, her brother who stayed in Kenya and her sister who, when she couldn't cope in Holland, died tragically after returning to Kenya.

Instead of stirring up feelings against Islam, this book makes one contemplate the location of each individual's birth, how little free choice there really is in a closed society, the powerful hold of your community's history and culture, the difficulty of resisting brainwashing and how grateful people in free societies ought to be for the blessings that a lot of us take for granted.

The book is also about a second journey - the one from a stifling experience of oppressive religion to enlightenment and an embrace of Western values like individual freedom, freedom of speech and the rule of law. The fact that the individual mattered and had a right to life, to choice and freedom, was a joyful discovery.

This theme interweaves with the history she so deftly chronicles: the collapse of Somalia, the slow decline in Kenya, Dutch politics in the face of dysfunctional multiculturalism that however well intended, harms individuals in the immigrant communities and society as a whole. More information of what is going down in The Netherlands and Europe as a whole is available in While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawer and Menace In Europe by Claire Berlinski.

It is humbling to read of the author's wonderment at Holland where even the police were friendly and helpful, and everything worked. She clearly loves The Netherlands; her words radiate with gratitude and appreciation of Dutch culture and society. I especially enjoyed the account of her studies at the University of Leiden where she discovered the great Western philosophers.

Infidel is the story of a life that has experienced mutilation, war, deprivation, tragedy, adventure, drastic adaptation and inspiring achievements, by an unusually courageous, empathic and resourceful individual. There are 11 black & white plates of family and other people who played a part in her life. As far as leaving Islam is concerned, I recommend the following informative books by two equally courageous women: Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel and Now They Call Me Infidel by Nonie Darwish.