Ayaan Hirsi Ali fled fanaticism in Africaand Holland. So what does she make of her new conservative friends in D.C.?
To her admirers, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a maverick, bravely defying the Netherlands political correctness to address Europes growing cultural rifts. To detractors, shes a charismatic bomb-thrower with as little regard for her adopted nations safety as for her own. Both sides would have to admit that the former Somali-Dutch politician is a master of self-reinvention. After a rough childhood (circumcision, daily beatings) in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia, she escaped to Holland from a forced marriage, eventually joined the Dutch Parliament as a Muslim criticizing her own culture, and made a provocative film with Theo van Gogh that got him killed and sent her into hiding. When a rival threatened to revoke her citizenship, the resulting furor toppled the governing coalition. But Ali just moved on, resigning and moving to Washington, D.C., where she now works for the American Enterprise Institute. Its all retold in her eloquent new memoir, Infidel. Stopping by Soho House recently, she spoke with New York about life and politics in her latest adopted land.
Youve been here for six months. How do you like the U.S.?
That is the question they all ask! I love it. The most comforting thing is the anonymity. Im not allowed to talk about securityto tell you who in this room is security and who is notbut the pressure cooker of Holland is over. I am now just one individual in the melting pot.
Youre at a conservative think tankperhaps an odd place for a harsh critic of religion in political life.
I consider myself nonpartisan, but Im a liberalnot in the American sense, because Americans seem to refer to communists as liberals. What we see in Europe, because of the welfare state, is government pretending to provide all sorts of services they shouldnt be providing.
But what do you make of Christian conservatives in your ranks?
No one in the American Enterprise imposes their beliefs. We clash, and I think thats what the West is all about.
But youre with them on the whole clash of civilizations thing?
When I was in Holland, the idea was, all cultures are equal and all are to be preserved. My idea was, no, all humans are equal but not all cultures are equal. In the culture of my parents, we never seemed to be able to succeed in such basic issues as getting food, interacting and living in peace with each other, or adapting to our environment, and the West, theyve succeeded in all those. Id been taught Western cultures only bad. Maybe thats good for your self-esteem, but it wasnt taking us anywhere.
Youve dismissed accusations that youre lashing out because of childhood traumas. So why write a memoir graphically detailing the abuse you and your siblings suffered?
It became important to say, Okay, you guys keep accusing me of using my past. Let me tell you my story, and my story shows that I do not blame the death of my sister on Islam. I do not blame female genital mutilation on Islam. My whole awakening was triggered by the eleventh of September, and it did not affect only me, it affected a lot of people.
Do you regret certain things you said about Muhammadlike that he was a pervert and a tyrant?
I dont regret that. Im still convinced that for Muslims to integrate fully into modern society, we cannot avoid discussing the prophet. We didnt only deal with communism militarily, but we said it is a bad idea. The works of Karl Marx were discussed.
Maybe academia would have been a betterand less dangerousvenue.
Politics is not a good thing for me. But I wanted to bring out the issue of Muslim treatment of women in Holland, and I could only accomplish that in Parliament. If I had been a professor, it would just have disappeared in a cabinet.
What are you working on next?
A book called Shortcuts to Enlightenment. Its [about] waking up the prophet Muhammad in the New York Public Library and having him have a conversation with Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek, and John Stuart Mill. Its a philosophical novel.
If you had citizenship in time for 08, whom would you vote for?
Any candidate who succeeds in uniting. Theres peacetime and theres wartime, and you dont need polarization on wartime issues. You need polarization on all other issues. Now there is an enemy from outside wanting to destroy all of us. A true leader is one who says, I am capable of getting unity on this, on a party level and on a transatlantic level.
A uniter not a divider? Doesnt sound like Bush.
Bush is not running. 
|
