Between the Pages: Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia and grew up in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Saudi Arabia before fleeing to the Netherlands to escape an arranged marriage. Her memoir carefully shows the appeal of radical Islam and her careful decision to leave Islam. While in the US, most thoughtful people are careful to be very politically correct when discussing Islamic practices in the Middle East, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her story without careful regard for insulting her upbringing.

An excerpt from the Epilogue:
"My central, motivating concern is that women in Islam are oppressed. That oppression of women causes Muslim women and Muslim men, too, to lag behind the West. It creates a culture that generates more backwardness with every generation. It would be better for everyone--for Muslims, above all--if this situation could change.

When people say that the values of Islam are compassion, tolerance, and freedom, I look at reality, at real cultures and governments, and I see that it simply isn't so. People in the West swallow this sort of thing because they have learned not to examine the religions or cultures of minorities too critically, for fear of being called racist. It fascinates them that I am not afraid to do so."

Needless to say, this memoir leaves me wanting to read a more positive account of the varied Islamic cultures in Africa and the Middle East. Still, Ayaan Hirsi Ali's descriptive, honest, blatant account let me see another world that I would like to believe is only a reality for a minority of Muslim women. It obviously is not.

I also just stumbled upon this preview for a segment on Minnesota Public Radio: "Civil War Kids: Young Somalis in Minnesota." Minnesota is home to the largest population of Somali-Americans in the country. This photo-montage parallels much of Infidel's discussion of challenges to integration into a Western society.