Product Description
In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.One of today's most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following an Islamist's murder of her colleague, Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the movie Submission. Infidel is the eagerly awaited story of the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. With a gimlet eye and measured, often ironic, voice, Hirsi Ali recounts the evolution of her beliefs, her ironclad will, and her extraordinary resolve to fight injustice done in the name of religion. Raised in a strict Muslim family and extended clan, Hirsi Ali survived civil war, female mutilation, brutal beatings, adolescence as a devout believer during the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and life in four troubled, unstable countries largely ruled by despots. In her early twenties, she escaped from a forced marriage and sought asylum in the Netherlands, where she earned a college degree in political science, tried to help her tragically depressed sister adjust to the West, and fought for the rights of Muslim immigrant women and the reform of Islam as a member of Parliament. Even though she is under constant threat -- demonized by reactionary Islamists and politicians, disowned by her father, and expelled from her family and clan -- she refuses to be silenced. Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant.
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 The courage to break free from religious oppression! ( burleson@dfn.com )
If ever there has been a rousing testimonial to the indomitability of the human spirit, the incomparable Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book is precisely that. This should be required reading for all those politically correct dopes who go about saying that Islam is a religion of peace, that the Quran doesn't really "mean" all those genocidal things it says, and that women really aren't treated so badly in the Islamic world. This valiant woman proves them dreadfully wrong, and does so with an equanimity of spirit that is a marvel to behold. The chapter "Leaving God" is itself worth many times the price of the book, for it showcases what is possible, for the human mind, even under the most trying of circumstances--to leave behind the stranglehold of religion and live a rational life, even when one has been raised in the stultifying oppression of a religious state and culture. The author correctly argues that, unlike what goes on in Islamic countries, in the West we have had the wisdom to leave religion out of public life and policy and government for the most part, and have moved on to the sorts of accomplished social organization only possible in a secular world, and she chronicles her own liberation not only from the seventh-century barbarism of Islam but from the "mind-forged manacles" of religion generally, as she realized soon after the religion-inspired horrors of 9-11 that she had long been an atheist at heart. Bravo to Ayaan Hirsi Ali for forging a monument (much at her own peril, for she lives under a perpetual death-sentence from radical Muslims) not only to the cause of the freedom and dignity and human worth of women everywhere, but to the potential freedom of the human mind from religious caprice and superstition. A must-read!
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 Perfect book for brainwashing
If you hate Muslims, don't understand Islam and want to justify your hatred and fear, this is the perfect book for you.
Based upon a fabricated story, Islamophobic Ali has made hating Islam into a best-selling genre.
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A thought provoking must-read ( dmeyer9561 )
What I loved most about this book is the author's courage, strength, and candor. What an incredible life she has had! I found her opinions on Islam and the Muslim culture very thought provoking, and pondered them long after I finished the book. She writes about things that many people don't want to believe or think about. This is a perspective-expanding book, and I have recommended it to many people I know.
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Clear Insight ( colombia2000 )
Infidel documents a remarkable life from a poor childhood in Somalia and Kenya to election to the Dutch Parliament to working for a Washington Think Tank. From a childhood of unthinking obedience to the cruel rules of Islam to finally fully freeing herself of this seventh century dogma.
She gives us of the west a real insight to the hidden truths of the Islamic plan for the world. I have read several excellent books about the Islamic religion written by westerners which help to remove our blinders but Ayaan Hirsi Ali does it in such a way that no western writer could ever accomplish.
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A very telling book about the truth of islamic society. ( hmouse101 )
In the words of someone who was raised Islamic herself. This is the true story of Ayaan Hirisi Ali who is from Somalia. As a female growing up in Islamic culture Ayaan suffered genital mutilation, oppression and physical abuse. She is very candid but not condemming about the wasy females are treated in her country. She escaped an arrainged marriage and fled to Sweden where she was surprised to find how helpful and compassionate the people were. She became a Swedish citizen and served in public office. Her biggest fight was to open the eyes of the Swedish government to the brutality of Islamic culture. A very well written and frank autobiography.
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