Infidel [Paperback]

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.

It's not often that one reads a work of non-fiction that is both intellectually brilliant and as gripping as a thriller. This is Hirsi Ali's autobiography, and it succinctly covers a spectacularly broad sweep of topics as it follows her life path from her birth in Somalia to her emigration to the US as a celebrity hunted by Islamic fundamentalists: the oral traditions and clan structure of Somalis; the relationship between Somali culture and Islam; female genital mutilation; the hierarchies of inter-African racism; the Muslim Brotherhood; the Somali civil war; the political culture of the Netherlands; the murder of Theo van Gogh; and much more. Hirsi Ali has been accused by various wishy-washy liberals of being an `enlightenment fundamentalist', but there is nothing judgemental or hectoring about her writing; she explains even horrific events matter-of-factly, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusion from facts that speak for themselves. She writes with great human sympathy about friends and relatives whose flaws might seem to make them unworthy of it, from the traditionalist grandmother who had her genitally mutilated and the mother who beat her mercilessly to the Dutch minister who tried to revoke her citizenship. The characters in her life story are all too human.

Hirsi Ali's self-declared mission is to fight the oppression of women in Islamic societies. She has often been accused of attributing to Islam abuses, such as genital mutilation, that are local cultural practices not sanctioned by the Koran. But this criticism is unfounded; as she makes clear early on, her point is that the authority of Islam, as it is interpreted in traditional societies, is used to sanction such abuses. And as she points out, the Koran really does appear to sanction other abuses against women, such as wife-beating (The Koran 4:34). Hirsi Ali is perhaps a bit sweeping in her condemnation of Islam; I'd question her suggestion that Osama bin Laden's interpretation of the Koran is necessarily the accurate one (holy texts are open to multiple interpretations, after all). Or her implication that Islam is inherently more problematic than Christianity or Judaism (there are some pretty politically incorrect passages in the Old Testament as well). But she makes a refreshing change from the dissembling of guilt-ridden liberals terrified of sounding `racist'. Democratic Muslims should welcome the debate, while fundamentalist Muslims deserve to be offended as much as possible.

Whether you agree with everything she says or not, it's difficult not to feel a sense of utter exaltation as this woman from a traditional background drags herself up, shakes off her own prejudices, takes on the brutes of primitivism and fundamentalism - and triumphs. It's an inspiring read with a truly nail-biting finish.

It is rare to find a non-fiction book that is as gripping as a good thriller. This one is in the cannot put it down genre. It is such an amazing story that if written as fiction it would have been beyond belief. Here is a woman who goes from communist Somalia to Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Germany, Holland and America. She becomes Dutch and nearly loses her citizenship. In the process she is in part the cause of the fall of the government of The Netherlands. Several times she nearly loses her life. She is accorded the highest security protection ever after her friend is murdered in the name of Islam. After 9:11 she renounces her faith and becomes the infidel of her title. She insists that the real Islam is not the religion of peace but the motivator of terrorists. She has devoted her life to exposing the Islamic mistreatment of women. Her description of her own genital mutilation and that of other Somali women is horrific reading. But as well as this horror and that of the disintegration of her country as Siad bare fled, there is delight here. Her innocent description of her marvel newly arrived in Europe is beautiful. She asks how can these counties of unbelievers run so well with polite and helpful police? If Islam is so right and superior, how come Islamic countries like her own are in such a mess?

She is compassionate and caring to her family which forces her into marriage against her will and then disowns her. She becomes a Dutch MP only to be forced out of her new home by Muslim hatred. She exposes the folly of multiculturalism, the liberal Western folly of thinking Islam and democracy are compatible. She is a brave woman. Pity about the atheism.