Recent Read - Infidel

        Infidel  by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

 Infidel is the autobiographical account of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s life from Somalian refugee to member of Dutch Parliament.  You may remember her – though perhaps not her name – as being associated with the tragic murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh: it was after van Gogh and Hirsi Ali collaborated on a film depicting her view of Islam that a Moroccan immigrant killed van Gogh.

I was completely enthralled with Ayaan’s story.  She describes in vivid detail growing up first in Somalia, then in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Kenya.  Major factors shaping her childhood were both the strict tenets of Islam, as practiced in that region, and the ties of clan or tribe.  In both cases, girls and women were clearly second-class citizens, carefully controlled by men.

 In adulthood, as a refuge in Holland, Ayaan continued her questioning of Islam as she had experienced it.  Her conclusion is that living according to rules that discourage critical thinking, minimize the importance of education, insist that government be a theocracy, and discount one half of the population altogether is bad for society as a whole.   I found it compelling that she did not condemn Islam as a whole; rather, the way it is being put into practice in many parts of the world.  She drew an interesting comparison, stating that Christianity had also had its dark period but then had an enlightenment, and that Islam needed an enlightenment as well.