Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Mohammad (Hating) Ali
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

I was surprised the other day to see a book about Islam that I'd never heard of pop up in the Amazon Top 100. The book, Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is "the autobiography of the Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament who faced death threats after collaborating on a film about domestic violence against Muslim women with Theo van Gogh, who was later assassinated." Then I stumbled into this AP article that reports that the Religious Right in this country has embraced her because she fans the flames of their anti-Muslim bias.

As a child, Ayaan Hirsi Ali fled violence in Somalia with her family. As an adult she fled Kenya to escape an arranged marriage. She left her adopted Holland after she was caught up in political turmoil and had her life threatened.

Now Hirsi Ali - a brave critic of Islam to her supporters, a bigot to her critics - has found refuge in the intellectual bastion of leading U.S. conservatives.

Hirsi Ali joined the American Enterprise Institute last September, after a sometimes stormy 14 years in the Netherlands, where she was a member of parliament and became a central figure in two events that jolted the nation.

First, after she wrote a script for a film that depicted naked women with Quranic verses scrawled on their bodies, a Dutch-born Muslim gunned down the filmmaker, Theo van Gogh. A letter threatening Hirsi Ali was left on a knife plunged into van Gogh's chest.

Next, a fight within Hirsi Ali's political party over her Dutch citizenship brought down the government.

Do early to tell, but is she being used to again?

Update: The book is reviewed in Wednesday's NYT.

Labels: Islam, Politics in America

Posted by B Feiler at 7:05 AM
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