Sunday, October 19, 2014

Hirsi Ali, Ayaan (Infidel)

I found this book a struggle. Not because it wasn't written clearly (and at times quite succinctly) but because the subject matter is so gruesome that I wanted not to go to bed, or to work, or to wash the dishes, or out for the night with its facts and ideas in my head.

Ali quotes a statistic at the end - 6,000 young girls are genitally excised every DAY around the world. Even after reading this entire book, understanding her history and what led her to repudiate her faith in Islam, that statistic still shocked me. And, trust me, you'll read worse than that earlier in the book. (So, you'll likely be shocked a lot.)

Her right-wing position took longer for me to come around to. She, more than any of us white Westerners, has good reason to believe what she believes. But how her stance contradicts, or at least counteracts, the history of Western civilization - in particular how hard it is for a European liberal society to agree to any form of suppression after Nazi Germany's realm - well, I can't see both sides. Or perhaps, I can see both sides and have no idea which side to be on.

I am, however, well persuaded by her writing, and if nothing else her words have opened my eyes to some things I knew nothing about, and many arguments I hadn't thought to have with myself.

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