Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Infidel
Book Review: A Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars
If one text has succeeded in challenging the complacency of the West, indeed of supposedly enlightened people the world over, to the rising threat of fundamentalist Islam, it is Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. From her perspective as a woman who has survived the treacherous grip of Islam over both her body and her mind, Ayaan counters the oft repeated proclamation that Islam is "a religion of peace." Narrating her own intimidating journey through oppression and hatred in Islamic Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and the rapidly growing Muslim enclaves of Kenya and Europe, Ali rehashes in masterful and often touching prose her harrowing trials and the series of cruel acts perpetrated against her in the name of the religion she herself so desperately clung to.
Young Ayaan survives her mother's descent into insanity, her abusive male relatives, female circumcision, and constant religious and tribal warfare by dreaming of the life she can only read about in Western novels. She is finally forced to choose between her dreams and the harsh reality of life as a subservient Muslim woman when her father promises her hand in marriage to an aging Somali expatriate who has come to seek a proper traditional wife in Kenya. Her choice is flight, but reaching her imagined paradise in liberal Western Europe she discovers that Islam has arrived ahead of her, bringing with it so much of the terror she had naively hoped to have left behind. After a soul wrenching self-examination, Ayaan cuts the final cords to the religion and culture of her birth, to become a one woman crusade against the oppression perpetrated by Islam, and innocently defended by the "accepting" European Left.
For anyone who is left unsatisfied by the all-encompassing doctrine of cultural relativism, Ali is a breath of fresh literary air. When we unquestioningly "accept" Muslim culture, are we also accepting the horrific abuse of Muslim wives and daughters? What of religious and ethnic minorities suffering throughout the Muslim dominated Arab world and East Africa? Ayaan convincingly argues that in our zeal to be inoffensive, we have allowed for a level of intolerance and violent hatred that would not be tolerated in any other religion. It is time, Ali is telling us, to force an enlightenment in the Muslim world, to bring it up to the same standards by which we judge the Christian West.
Quill says: Infidel is a must read!
Book Review: A Must Read
Summary: 4 Stars
For an autobiography, this book is amazingly readable. I could not put it down even though I knew how it ended. Ali writes clearly and beautifully and gives such stark descriptions of life as a woman in a third world Muslim family. The insight she gave into her transformation from a faithful Islamic believer to an agnostic was fascinating. Her explanations of her early instruction in Islam, all the prohibitions, her developing doubts, and her eventual rejection of Islam all help to make the current political climate clearer. I am not certain I can agree with her conclusion that Islam is, most simply put, evil, but I can understand that with her experiences and life constantly under threat why she must feel that way.Book Review: A Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars
The book gives excellent detail into the living conditions and cultures of the Moslem counries 1n some mid east countries. It shows what terrible attitudes and behaviors women in those countries live under. They are little more than property to be used and abused and the book gives details that really illustrate what happens there. Everyone should read this bookBook Review: A Must Read For Infidel's Everywhere!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was very enlightening, and showed the struggled and bravery of one woman against the extreme conditions found in the Muslim world.Book Review: A Must-Read for Women
Summary: 5 Stars
Submission and degradation of women in the Muslim faith is certainly not a new or unrevealed topic, but this personal account by Hirsi Ali brings insight and understanding that one can not achieve through news articles and other written factual documentation. I applaud Ms. Ali for her courage to come forth and expose the errors of her former religion (which is no easy task) with the hope that the atrocities against Muslim women will eventually come to an end. Women of all faiths and nationalities should read this book and more like it to remind us that we still have a long way to go to accomplish true equality with men.