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Infidel | 
 enlarge | Author: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Rating:  275 reviews
Sales Rank: 624
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0743289692
Dewey Decimal Number: 949.2073092
EAN: 9780743289696
ASIN: 0743289692
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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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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| Customer Reviews: Read 270 more reviews...
 An Infidel who educates us December 4, 2008
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's story is not a novel, even though we find the lives she describes to be unimaginable in the 21st century. We in the West need to read this shocking book to help us understand the intense devotion of millions of people to beliefs that are militantly hostile to our Western world view. This is the most courageous woman I have ever met.
Inspiring story of a courageous woman December 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A truly fascinating and inspiring autobiography of a true human rights activist and a truly courageous fighter who has survived the victimization of Islamists and their despicable leftwing backers, for speaking the truth and standing up against evil and abuse of women.
The author talks of her childhood and youth in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya,and of the narrow minded bigotry of the Muslim world today.
She recounts the horrors of genital mutilation in Somalia, the racial prejudice in Saudi Arabia against non-Arabs (especially Africans), the complete hatred and Nazi-like brainwashing she witnessed in Saudi Arabia against the Jews (which takes place in most of the Islamic world: "In Saudi Arabia everything bad was the fault of the Jews. When the air conditioner broke, or suddenly the tap stopped running, the Saudi woman next door used to say the Jews did it. The children next door were taught to pray for the health of their parents and the destruction of the Jews. Later when we went to school, our teachers lamented at length all the evil things Jews had done and planned to do against Muslims...Sister Aziza told us about the Jews. She described them in such a way that I imagined them as physically monstrous: they had horns on their heads and noses so monstrous they stuck out like great beaks. Devil and djinns literally flew out of their heads to mislead Muslims and spread evil. Everything that went wrong was the fault of the Jews...The Jews controlled the world, and that was why we had to be pure, to resist this evil influence. Islam was under attack and we should step forward and fight the Jews, for only if all Jews were destroyed would peace come to Muslims".
The author describes the slow opening up of her minds against Islamic bigotry and enslavement of the spirit. When she lived in Kenya, which was relatively free compared to Somalia, Saudi Arabia and the then Marxist Ethiopia, she recounts how discovering the school library and the books of Enid Blighton and Nancy Drew adventures of pluck and independence, tales of freedom and adventure, trust equality between boys and girls, opened up her mind to another world.
And yet her battle was long, as she explains opening up and deconstructing a mental cage is a long process.
Ayaan shockingly reveals the horrific fate of rape victims in Islam who are blamed for being raped and murdered or tortured.
Finally the author migrated to the Netherlands and became a member of parliament for the Dutch Liberal Party a defender of human rights, and opponent of Islamic fanaticism.
As a result she became a victim of death threats and had to live in hiding. Vilified by both Islamists and their leftist backers, who hypocritically claim to be pro-feminism and human rights but attack those who highlight abuses in Islam.
Indeed the liberal Dutch politician, Pim Fortuyn, highlighted the danger of Islamic fundamentalism and uncontrolled immigration to the Netherlands and was murdered by a Dutch pro-Islamic leftwing radical. The international left today are helping the Islamists to plunge the world into darkness and need to be stopped.
Ayaan's friend and colleague Theo Van Gogh was brutally murdered by a Muslim terrorist because of a documentary he was working on with Ayaan highlighting abuse of women in Islamic societies.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was eventually stripped of Dutch citizenship and went to live in the United States.
She stresses that the central message of her book is that "We in the west would be wrong to prolong the pain of that transition (to a culture that respects women and human rights) unnecessary, be elevating cultures full of bigotry and hatred to the status of a respectable and alternative way of life."
Let us support people like this and break the stranglehold of the Islamic/Leftist axis that threatens the very existence of the free world.
 Discover the definition of courage through the words, works, and thoughts of Ayaan Hirsi Ali November 27, 2008
Ayaan Hirsi Ali has, in less than forty years, managed to live the experiences found in ten life spans. This celebrated and controversial public figure has worn the hats of many a trade: that of author, politician, activist, translator, teacher, and secretary. Born in Somalia to a revolutionary-minded father and fierce-willed mother, Ali saw and lived through events most Westerners only dimly remember from ancient evening news stories.
We travel along with her as she recalls the day of her circumcision--which occurred against her father's consent--and the subsequent weeks of pain as her body adjusted. We sit with her in Islamic-studies class, and watch as she initially attempts to imitate the teachings of the chaste Sister Aziza, before then succumbing to doubt. We read with gritted teeth--aware of future events yet powerless to prevent them--as she recounts the sense of pervasive fear on the streets on Mogadishu in the days before full-blown clan slaughter began. We shoulder past thousands of Somalis in an enormous refugee camp, hoping along with Ali that we catch a glimpse of a lost relative among the human morass. We adjust with her as her parents move from Somalia to Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia to Kenya, learning languages and new customs. We share her heartbreak as her family is washed away by a series of tragedies. We lose faith: in our religion, in belief of God, in the possibility of a love marriage, and in independence. Finally, we bear witness as she takes her life into her own hands for the first time, escaping into the Netherlands--out of the grasp of suffocating family, clan, and unwanted spouse, and into the pages of history.
At face value, "Infidel" is a memoir of a captivating woman who defeated the bonds of female denigration and dehumanization to become one of the world's most outspoken advocates of equal rights for women. Her key target is her belief in the misogyny inherent in the Quran, and the causative effects thus seen: forced marriages, wife beatings which seem more recreational than correctional, the afore-mentioned female circumcision, and "honor killings." An honor killing is the practice by which family regains honor via the murder of a female relation, having first lost it because the woman--be it sister, mother, or daughter--had premarital, extramarital, homosexual, or another such "dishonorable" sexual encounter. This can occur regardless of circumstance, including in the setting of rape or incest. Ms. Ali argues that while most of the above injustices against women are not necessarily exclusive behaviors of Muslim men, they are consistent with Quranic teachings that women are little more the chattel. Therefore, she argues, it follows that radical Islamic tenants are, among other things, anti-woman at base.
As we follow her into Europe, we see her beliefs change as she witnesses how a society primarily made up of non-Muslims is not the chaos she expected. Buses run on time, houses are immaculately clean, gardens are symmetric bits of paradise, and police officers are there to help, not to bribe. She is given asylum, a stipend, a job, housing--all much more than she had been taught she would receive at the hands of the "godless." She attends university, attains a degree in political science, becomes an outspoken critic of Islam, and is elected to the Dutch parliament. As one follows the book, however, one finds that not all immigrants seek naturalization and success as Ali did. The author makes the disturbing observation that many immigrants bring their old prejudices and traditions with them; thus, ever-expanding pockets of individuals who despise the very tenets of democracy--freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality--are allowed to thrive within the auspices of the very nation that welcomes them. Ali notes that the grand irony is that the Netherlands' ideas of democracy are contributing to their own demise: misogynistic traditions regarding female clothing, discipline, and punishment are allowed to continue under the myopic principles of religious and cultural freedom. Fear of appearing racist has paralyzed Dutch society to such a degree that it in incapable of doing anything about the inherent hypocrisy: Dutch democracy is protecting the barbaric traditions of those who would like nothing else than to witness the death of the Netherlands' permissive government.
Following these realizations, Ms. Ali decides to become an even more fierce advocate of equal rights and immigrant integration, so she join forces with the inflammatory Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh. Together they film "Submission," a short movie with the abuses suffered by several fictitious Muslim women as its focus. With that, the snowball which has been gathering mass for so many years finally starts its trek downhill, with deadly results. Gogh was brutally murdered in the streets of Amsterdam by Mohammed Bouyeri in 2004. Ali was quickly placed in protective custody following this tragedy. Enduring constant bodyguard protection, frequent moves designed to mask her true position, and the loss of her position in parliament by opportunistic and cowardly former friends, Ali has yet managed to continue her message: to be compatible with the modern age, Islam must change, or be changed.
This glimpse into one woman's life is very good reading, indeed; however, some ideas are explored excessively, occasionally the bit of redundant rumination shines through, and one gets the impression that too much detail was lavished upon rather unimportant aspects of her childhood and early life in the Netherlands. Regardless, "Infidel" is fascinating reading as the memoir, literary magnum opus, and diary of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. To the average Western citizen, the hardships endured by this woman are simply unimaginable. That she has thrived, even triumphed, is unbelievable.
Should be Made into a Movie!! November 17, 2008
Wow, you can't put this book down!
It reads like an action/suspense/thriller!
Wow, I hope someone will turn this into a film soon.
She is the Anne Frank of our generation.
She walks us through her youth during the modern
day holocaust that is the Muslim mistreatment of
millions of women including little girls -- thousands
who are mutilated daily. Unbelievable!
 Thank God we live in America November 2, 2008
This book was interesting, and gave insigts into many areas; being a Muslim woman, being a wife of arrangewment, being a foreigner seeking asylum in another country, what a socialist country is like to live in. I felt the book was too wordy, in other words, too much detail to lots of long days, but was a great discussion book for my bookclub. Too bad she gave up any belief in God also. Worth reading.
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