Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Infidel
The NYT published a review of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s new book Infidel. (Seemingly) the translation of Mijn Vrijheid (which literally means My Freedom), which has been released a few months ago already (in the Netherlands).
The circuitous, violence-filled path that led Ms. Hirsi Ali from Somalia to the Netherlands is the subject of “Infidel,� her brave, inspiring and beautifully written memoir. Narrated in clear, vigorous prose, it traces the author’s geographical journey from Mogadishu to Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, and her desperate flight to the Netherlands to escape an arranged marriage.
At the same time, Ms. Hirsi Ali describes a journey “from the world of faith to the world of reason,� a long, often bitter struggle to come to terms with her religion and the clan-based traditional society that defined her world and that of millions of Muslims all over.
I have read it myself, recently even quoted from it, and agree completely with William Grimes: Mijn VrijheidInfidel is a brave, inspiring and beautifully written memoir.
Buy it and read it yourself…
Edit: I should have added this: click on the image to go to Amazon to order your copy of Infidel today.
H/t Holly
12 Responses to “Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Infidel”
Isn’t she in some problems right now because the government doesn’t want to prolong her permit to stay in the Netherlands? It’s scandalous.
Umh. She lives in America. Prolong her permit? Minister Verdonk said that she had to take away her Dutch identity. The government fell over this.
Thx for the info, Michael. Yup, I fumbled. This shows that I’m not able to track all news developments around the globe. Damn, I guess I’m only human, after all…
lol, around the globe gray? More like around the corner…
Talking about Europe: how is Schroder doing? I heard that Merkel is expected to win…
Hehehehe, Mike!
I’m not sure that the “world of faith” and the “world of reason” are opposites, as she implies. Or that the division between them is really clear.
Reason features prominently in the field of apologetics, which seeks to make rational arguments for a particular religious idea. I can’t speak for other faiths but this has been part of Christianity for centuries.
Psychologists believe that a person’s political ideology is derived primarily from personality characteristics and not from reason, as people like to believe (the New York Times had an article on that topic on Monday, I think).
That sounds very interesting, Alan G, I’ll have to look for that article. My impression is that this is most likely true. We all like to think that our beliefs are rational but I definitely think we’re oriented toward a particular perspective and philosophy by nature.
I agree with you on reason and faith (or Logos, as Pope Benedict refers to this). I assume that at least as practiced in the country of her birth, Hirsi Ali did not feel that there was an application of reason in the practice of Islam. And of course, that is the challenge that Benedict issued to Islamic leaders last fall: do you or do you not believe that God must adhere to reason since He can’t contradict himself?
Alan G.: as I understand it that is not something psychologists agree on and it is quite criticized, that article as well from the NYT.
That is a fantastic review! I’d really like to read this book.
It’s available at Amazon.
It has its own Wikipedia page, loaded with further references at the end.
And Simon and Schuster has the first chapter posted online. Here’s an except:
I should have added: This concept is controversial among psychologists, and it’s suspected that the political bias of researchers influences their perceptions of political attitudes of others.
Still, at heart I think it’s right on. My own reasons for supporting Hillary have less to do with her views and more to do with her speaking style and her appearance, which has changed greatly from her ’92 campaign “frumpy librarian” look.
“..do you or do you not believe that God must adhere to reason since He can’t contradict himself? ”
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There are contradictory messages in the Bible.
I don’t think it’s a question of whether a religion is ingerently based on reason. It’s a question of whether the religion is presented in a reasonable way by its spokespeople.
[...] Rovito, a women’s rights advocate, notes in a Philadelphia Daily News op-ed piece that NOW also has missed the boat on the saga of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born author who has fled to the U.S. from Holland, whom Michael van der Galien has blogged about here. [...]