The Gadfly (review of Hirsi Ali's new book "Nomad")

New York Times ^ | May 20, 2010 | Nicholas D. Kristof

[reaganaut1]

If there were a “Ms. Globalization” title, it might well go to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali woman who wrote the best-­selling memoir “Infidel.” She has managed to outrage more people — in some cases to the point that they want to assassinate her — in more languages in more countries on more continents than almost any writer in the world today.

Now Hirsi Ali is working on antagonizing even more people in yet another memoir. “Nomad” argues that Islam creates dysfunctional families — like her own — and adds that these distorted families constitute “a real threat to the very fabric of Western life.” Western countries, she says, should be less tolerant of immigrants who try to preserve their lifestyles in their new homelands. It might seem presumptuous to write another memoir so soon, but Hirsi Ali is a remarkable figure who has plenty of memories to record.

...

Since Hirsi Ali denounces Islam with a ferocity that I find strident, potentially feeding religious bigotry, I expected to dislike this book. It did leave me uncomfortable and exasperated in places. But I also enjoyed it. Hirsi Ali comes across as so sympathetic when she shares her grief at her family’s troubles that she is difficult to dislike. Her memoir suggests that she never quite outgrew her rebellious teenager phase, but also that she would be a terrific conversationalist at a dinner party.

She is at her best when she is telling her powerful story. And she is at her worst when she is using her experience to excoriate a variegated faith that has more than one billion adherents. Her analysis seems accurate in its descriptions of Somalis, Saudis, Yemenis and Afghans, but not in her discussion, say, of Indonesian Muslims

[hoosierham]

Kristof is an ass;of course the woman is exceedly stong in criticizing a death cult.

Too much of what came out of the Middle Eastern desert in the past few thousand years masquerading as faith in God is a thinly veiled justification for absolute control over everyone's life by tribal leaders with death as the penalty for dissent.

[thethirddegree]

I am looking forward to the day when Islam will be wiped off the face of the earth.

[Dinah Lord]

Kristof borders on ignorance bump

[traderrob6]

“Since Hirsi Ali denounces Islam with a ferocity that I find strident, potentially feeding religious bigotry.”

The blatant truth is a b!tch eh Nicky? You feed Dhimmitude on a daily basis.

[cajungirl]

amazing review,,he damns her but admits he agrees. And to compare Islam which routinely beheads, stones, issues fatwas to TEXAS is ridiculous.

He seems to have forgotton that Islam wants to wipe out the jews, a class of which he is a member.

At the moment they behead this sucker, I hope he remembers this review.

She is on target and I agree with her. I have often thought the roots of the perversity of Islam lie in the family,,the separation of boys from their mothers, the demonization of women, the strangeness of the male culture which is homosexual at its heart.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Islam’s denigration of women means no matter what this culture achieves, it can only be half as much as the West’s...

[jocon307]

“It might seem presumptuous to write another memoir so soon, but Hirsi Ali is a remarkable figure who has plenty of memories to record.”

Unlike Barak Obama, and empty suit with an empty head, and that didn’t stop him. And I doubt Mr. Kristof found it presumptuous.

[sayuncledave]

Kristof misses the mark by many miles. And he chooses to ignore all that islam has done to her, not to mention against her. There are reasons why she must have 24 hour security details, and none of them have to do with overly fluffy-minded times reporters, only with death threats that are more or less constant. I read Miss Ali’s first book. While I cannot embrace her feelings on religion in general, she’s been through a lot, and has much to say that should be listened to. Between her, Brigette Gabriel, Pam Geller and Robert Spencer, among others, I hope and pray that the message gets to the public at large in time.

[gussiefinknottle]

i’m sure if this was a gay woman castigating her southern baptist
roots, kristof would not find any of it strident.

[kabumpo]

VERY VERY VERY homosexual, the religion and the culture. SIckening.

[Enchante]

"...we should try to have a conversation about Islam and its genuine problems — while speaking out against over-the-top exaggerations about the East. This memoir, while engaging and insightful in many places, exemplifies precisely the kind of rhetoric that is overheated and overstated.

beheadings, stabbings, shootings, beatings of countless thousands, no millions, of human beings simply for their BELIEFS ..... hundreds of millions living under threat of immediate DEATH for religious deviation..... Christianity, Judaism, and other religions being largely EXTERMINATED in many Muslim-dominated countries.... apparently Kristof never heard of freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of belief...... never mind any outward displays of freedom....

how many hundreds of millions of young girls must be subjected to forcible clitorectomies without even anesthesia before Kristof might think the "conversation" about Islam is a bit weak????

I suppose that Kristof would have chided Voltaire's "ecrasez l'infame" (erase or destroy the infamy) as a bit too strident, too (I'm no Voltaire scholar, but I gather that his views of "l'infame" to be crushed were primarily about eliminating religious persecutions and state control of religious belief rather than an assault upon all religious belief and practice).