It was a fascinating book to read, capturing my attention as I read late into the night, inspired to keep going, finishing it in record time over the course of a week's bedtime reading. Much to take in, to ponder, to wonder at, and to admire, in this woman who so relentlessly and at great personal cost, followed her rational intelligence to bring her to a place in her mind that recognized truth and reality, to spurn medieval cruelties and inhumane misconceptions.

Is Ayaan Hirsi Ali a racist? She was born in Somalia, from which she escaped to avoid an arranged marriage, and she eventually became a member of Parliament in the Netherlands.

She helped produce a film with Theo Van Gogh which criticized Islam's treatment of women. Van Gogh was shot to death by a Muslim in retaliation, and a note was pinned to his chest with a knife — a note that threatened Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

(From the website Citizen Warrior)



Her journey from childhood in Somalia, on to Kenya with her mother and siblings, then Saudi Arabia, back to Kenya, eventually to Holland and from there to the world stage is a mesmerizing journey of enlightenment and empowerment. Her keen intelligence and unstoppable determination, abetted by her voyage of discovery catapulted her to world attention when she disowned Islam and its barbarities hidden behind a public veil of "peace" and "tolerance" that was in fact, anything but peaceful and tolerant in intent and practise.

Taught as a child that "Suspicion is good, especially if you are a girl. For girls can be taken, or they may yield. And if a girl's virginity is despoiled, she not only obliterates her own honor, she also damages the honor of her father, uncles, brothers, male cousins. There is nothing worse than to be the agent of such catastrophe." As she observed what was happening around her to Muslim women, particularly when contrasted with the lives of women outside Islam, she understood what her mission in life was to be: a champion of Muslim women's basic human rights.

Her journey to spiritual and rational enlightenment took her from her early years as recounted in her book "Infidel", from a point where her mother cursed: "May the Almighty Allah take you away from me! May you rot in a hole. May you die in the fire! What can I ever expect of you? You communist! You Jew!" to the point where she understood finally that the accursed Jews, the very depths of depraved humanity, were anything but and that equality, respect and interaction between peoples is what leads to generosity of spirit and understanding, and finally peace, both spiritual and practical.

Her parents, her extended family, her clan and her tribe disowned her, for her outright and very public rejection of Islamic values. And there was a fatwa issued for her death. She had been forced by her eventual insights to make a choice between family/clan/religion and her release from darkness into acknowledgement of truth and justice. It was her choice to make, and the journey she made in search of the truth was fraught with many instances of uncertainty and fear. But it was a journey she completed and took pride in.

In the acknowledgements of her book "Infidel", she made grateful mention of the assistance and companionship of many people in the wider Western world outside Islam. One of those she mentions is "Susanna, my agent, my friend, my sister - and even sometimes my Jewish mother!"

Her journey was a long, painful, troubled and frightening one. Her strength of character and inborn sense of right and wrong, absolute justice and compassion, led her to her own very personal liberation.