Authors: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Christopher Hitchens
ISBN-13: 9780743289696, ISBN-10: 0743289692
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Date Published: April 2008
Edition: Reprint
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, was raised Muslim, and spent her childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia. In 1992, Hirsi Ali came to the Netherlands as a refugee. She earned her college degree in political science and worked for the Dutch Labor party. She denounced Islam after the September 11 terrorist attacks and now serves as a Dutch parliamentarian, fighting for the rights of Muslim women in Europe, the enlightenment of Islam, and security in the West.
In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.
One of today's most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following an Islamist's murder of her colleague, Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the movie Submission.
Infidel is the eagerly awaited story of the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. With a gimlet eye and measured, often ironic, voice, Hirsi Ali recounts the evolution of her beliefs, her ironclad will, and her extraordinary resolve to fight injustice done in the name of religion. Raised in a strict Muslim family and extended clan, Hirsi Ali survived civil war, female mutilation, brutal beatings, adolescence as a devout believer during the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and life in four troubled, unstable countries largely ruled by despots. In her early twenties, she escaped from a forced marriage and sought asylum in the Netherlands, where she earned a college degree in political science, tried to help her tragically depressed sister adjust to the West, and fought for the rights of Muslim immigrant women and the reform of Islam as a member of Parliament. Even though she is under constant threat -- demonized by reactionary Islamists and politicians, disowned by her father, and expelled from her family and clan -- she refuses to be silenced.
Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant.
Infidel is a unique book, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a unique writer, and both deserve to go far.
Introduction
Chapter 1: Bloodlines
Chapter 2: Under the Talal Tree
Chapter 3: Playing Tag in Allah's Palace
Chapter 4: Weeping Orphans and Widowed Wives
Chapter 5: Secret Rendezvous, Sex, and the Scent of Sukumawik
Chapter 6: Doubt and Defiance
Chapter 7: Disillusion and Deceit
Chapter 8: Refugees
Chapter 9: Abeh
Chapter 10: Running Away
Chapter 11: A Trial by the Elders
Chapter 12: Haweya
Chapter 13: Leiden
Chapter 14: Leaving God
Chapter 15: Threats
Chapter 16: Politics
Chapter 17: The Murder of Theo
Epilogue: The Letter of the Law
Acknowledgments