Book Review: 'Infidel' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali- a Somalian-Dutch Muslim Apostate

Hirsi Ali now lives in Washington. She was a Somalian refugee who fled an arranged marriage to a man in Canada, and in transit to Montreal left Germany for Amsterdam at the age of 22. After 10 years in Holland this remarkable woman had learnt Dutch, obtained both a vocational and University degree [in poli-sci from the prestigious school of Leiden], bought a house, infiltrated Dutch politics and media, and was elected to Parliament. Her rejection of Islam and her message that Islam is totalitarian, brutal and utlimately pagan should be required reading – especially by women or those who truly believe that Islam is 'peaceful'.

Ali is obviously a remarkable and intelligent woman. Few like her exist. The fortitude to literally go from hopelessness to a policy siren in a foreign land in 10 short years says alot about the potential fluidity of Western society and the poignancy of her ideals.

Ali was a Somalian Muslim who arrived in secular Holland in 1992 with broken English, no knowledge of Holland or Europe; next to no historical knowledge about European development; but importantly a desire to be free. With great courage she threw off her Islamic shackles and dared to defy the conventional Euro-multi-cult wisdom about 'peaceful' Islam. For those who still refuse to see reality, an insider account such as this, about the travesties, the superstitions, the bigotry, and the nonsense embedded and suffused in Islam, is an enlightening read.

What was Ali's basic message? On page 272 she states, 'But I could no longer avoid seeing the totalitarianism, the pure moral framework that is Islam. It regulates every detail of life and subjugates free will. True Islam, as a rigid belief system and a moral framework, leads to cruelty....We Muslims could shed our attachment to those dogmas that clearly lead to ignorance and oppression.' For Ali, Islam was fascistic governance – a melding of the church and state to suppress individuality, choice and freedom. How correct she is. Surveying the carnage and disaster that is Islam today, there is no other conclusion but the one she correctly made as a refugee in Holland.

She argued with her fellow Muslims in Holland, even with her Somali brethren about why Islam was anti-modern and why the West was rich and better. Yet in spite of its material wealth Ali recognised immediately that Holland [and most of Europe] had an immigration-assimiliation problem. Somalian refugees in Holland, along with Bosnians and Moroccans, blamed their host country for their woes. Most of Ali's Muslim acquintances arrogantly and ignorantly criticised Dutch life, even as the Dutch fed them; gave them money and built comfortable homes for them to live in. The hypocrisy and stupidity of such whinings offended Ali, 'I felt embarassed..by the way so many Somali's accepted welfare money and then turned on the society that gave it to them...I didn't like the endless gossipping or the constant complaints that they were victims of external factors.' [p.225]

One of Ali's jobs which she took on to help pay for her education was in translation – namely helping Somalians in Holland who needed help. She dealt with the hard cases – rape, battery and assault, and abortion. Her translation work involved helping Somalian women who had been traumatized usually by their Muslim men. As she emotionally writes, 'Thousands of Muslim women and children in Holland were being systematically abused...Little children were excised [genital removal and for women the sewing up of the vagina] on kitchen tables—I knew this from Somali's for whom i translated. Girls who chose their own boyfriends or lovers were beaten half to death or even killed; many more were regularly slapped around.'

She goes on to make the obvious point that Holland's multiculturalism, 'its respect for Muslims' wasn't working but the Dutch were ignoring the problem. It is a pretty large problem to ignore. About half of all crimes in most large Dutch cities are committed by Muslims. More than 70% of all rapes are at the hands of Muslim men. Unemployment rages in the Muslim ghetto because Muslims – Moroccans, Iranians, Iraqis, Somalians -- won't integrate, learn Dutch or learn to appreciate the opportunities that a Western state presents. Instead they are fuelled by hatred; humiliation and Islamic arrogance that 'Allah' [an old arabic name for a moon god], will save them.

Ali saw all this. She also saw that the Dutch were afraid. The Dutch mentality of extreme liberal-multi-culturalism was in essence a display of self-loathing and doubt. While the Muslims swaggered in Holland's ghettoes and refugee camps, the Dutch quietly avoided any outward support of their state and history. As Ali observed, 'If anything, my Dutch friends seemed uncomfortable with the symbols of Dutchness: the flag and the monarchy....They saw nationalism as almost the same thing as racism. Nobody seemed proud of being Dutch.'

This is an insightful comment. Dutch secular – liberalism, like so much European post-modern cant, has neutered any understanding of civilisation; Western greatness; or specifically for Holland, the fantastic Dutch contribution to the creation of the modern world. Into this void flows state managed pieties and post-modern liberal lies: all cultures are fine; all people are fine; and all actions are permissible. The Dutch multi-cultural model is a sham. Its basic premise is 'I am Dutch and you are not, so leave me alone'. It is hard to forge a feeling of pride when the state managed message is that tolerance trumps all – including accepting those that don't accept you. Ali saw this, she also saw that the marginalisation of Islam within the failed multi-cult model would over time, engender a profound social upheavel and unravelling of Dutch society.

This then became Ali's main message which first won her speaking engagements; TV appearances and then political office. Working for a political party's think-tank institute Ali was galvanised by 9-11. She understood that it was Islam that had perpetrated the murders on that day. She knew that Islam was the problem. She also understood that most of Dutch society was conditioned to view Islam as 'peaceful'. Such a situation boded ill for her adopted country. Using the media she got her platform – and lots of opprobrium, hatred and death threats from Muslims and liberal Dutch supporters of Islam.

Yet she persevered. As she went from independent speaking into political theatre her message grew only sharper and more precise. She was appalled at the general ignorance in Holland about true Islam, 'The Dutch had forgotten that it was possible for people to stand up and wage war, destroy property, imprison, kill, impose laws of virtue because of the call of God. That kind of religion hadn't been present in Holland for centuries....It was not a lunatic fringe that felt this way about America and the West.'

Ali herself when she first came to Holland was deeply imbued with anti-Americanism and anti-Western concepts. She was smart enough to rip off these veils of blindness. But she knew that most Muslims were deeply antipathetic to Western ways and mores. Even in Holland, in the tiny village of Ede, a Dutch TV crew by accident, caught Muslims dancing in its streets after 9-11. The Dutch excused this as an aberration. Ali knew otherwise.

Ali is singularly remarkable in that she escaped Islam and its twisted ideology doing what other Muslim women would never try to do - develop self respect and independence. As Ali books makes clear, most female Muslims are slaves. They are chained, abused, scorned, defiled, and treated worse than dogs. Yet Ali broke free. From a poor background she had the mental power to go through a dramatic metamorphosis – from a dutiful Muslim female slave, to a galvanizing and polarising, pro-Western, 'right wing' politician [even though her politics and ideas on political – economy were for the most part decidedly left-wing, the Liberal media labels anyone opposed to the multi-cult as a right-wing fascist, though fascism is decidely left-wing of course]. She challenged the Dutch-liberal elite's insipid orthodoxoy about the West being bad or guilty and other cultures sublime and pure. Holland was failing and she saw it.

For her frankness and courage she was forced out of Holland. She quickly became a political liability in and outside of Parliament [and perversely she became a political pawn in Dutch political gamesmanship]. Her party was losing some of its liberal supporters. The liberal media took umbrance with her stance that all was not well in Holland. She also grew tired of death threats and having bodyguards and secret houses to sleep in. Muslims in Holland wanted her dead. Internet chatter called for her beheading. If she went out in public and was seen, gangs of North Africans would soon show up, called up by someone with a cell phone who gave the signal that Ali was out. The Dutch police uncovered numerous plots and actions to kill her. More than once her bodyguards dragged her out of danger into safety.

Yet we are to believe Islam is 'peaceful'. Muslims will kill Ali or anyone who dares to challenge their totalitarian views.

When her political leadership and state law officers questioned her about her refugee claim and her rather routine twisting of the truth, she had to leave. All refugees lie. If the same standards applied to Ali were applied to the rest of Holland's refugee claimants, the country would be cleared of all refugees within 5 minutes. Ali was sacrificed as one would expect on the altar of Euro-liberalism, and the quixotic and dumb notion that Islam is not totalitarian. As Ali observed many times, the Dutch desire above all else social peace. They are basically, like most of Europe, a lazy society desirous to avoid conflict or deep discussion at all costs.

Ali's importance should not be underestimated. She thought, analyzed, and contemplated upon the great gulf of differences between Islamic states [she had lived in Somalia and Arabia as well as Christian Ethiopia and Nairobi] and the rich, well-organised 'pagan' West. In Holland she ruminated as to why the Dutch were prosperous and peaceful, and the Muslim world violent and bloody.

As she studied Dutch and European history she marvelled at the range of ideas from the religious to the secular; the emphasis on individual responsibility; and the Christian-Western belief that self-fulfillment in this world through education, work and family was more important than an after-life; angelic judgements; and the threat of hell for not obeying dogma. She was amazed by the flexibility and intelligence and non-dogmatic nature of Dutch society. Thus she rejected Islam and embraced civilisation.

Holland's loss is the New World's gain. We need more people like Hirsi Ali to speak up. She is truly a commanding spirit one who speaks truth to Liberal nonsense.