Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations Reviews

• 
  Nicki Hill

  very pertinent to me: "Social workers in the West will tell you that immigrants need to maintain group cohesion for their mental health, because otherwise they will be confused and their self-esteem destroyed. This is untrue. The idea that immigrants need to maintain group cohesion promotes the perception of them as victim groups requiring special accommodation, an industry of special facilities and assistance. If people should conform to their ancestral culture, it therefore follows that they should also be helped to maintain it, with their own schools, their own government subsidized community groups, and even their own system of legal arbitration. This is the kind of romantic primitivism that the Australian anthropologist Roger Sandall calls "designer tribalism." " So yeah...this book revealed a whole new set of values for me. A must read for anyone who wants to be informed about policy regarding religious groups, war, immigration and feminist theory.
• 
  Negin

  Yet another author that I wish I knew personally! This book is an excellent sequel to her first book, “Infidel”. Everyone should read both of them, and, mind you, this is coming from me. Honestly, I’m rarely pushy with books, or at least I try not to be. The older I get, the less I seem to tell people what to do. Her two books are an exception.
  
  Towards the end of the book, she does a brilliant job calling feminists to action to take up the cause of Muslim women and girls. After all, how can today’s feminists call themselves that if they don’t stand up to discrimination in the name of religion and culture? That chapter was one of my favourites.
  
  Some quotes that I loved and wish to share:
  
  “The veil deliberately marks women as private and restricted property, nonpersons. The veil sets women apart from men and apart from the world; it restrains them, confines them, grooms them for docility. A mind can be cramped just as a body may be, and a Muslim veil blinkers both your vision and your destiny. It is the mark of a kind of apartheid, not the domination of a race but of a sex.”
  
  And one of my all-time favorites:
  "The trap of resentment. It is probably the worst mental prison in the world. It is the inability to let go of anger and the perceived or real injustices we suffer. Some people let one or two, or maybe ten unpleasant experiences poison the rest of their lives. They let their anger ferment and rot their personality. They end up seeing themselves as victims of their parents, teachers, their peers and preachers."
  
  I have a few other favorite quotes, but I'll spare you all. Again, recommended reading for all! I hope that she will continue writing and contributing.
• 
  Meneesha Govender

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia into a strict Muslim family.
  
  When her father sent her overseas to marry a man she did not know, Ali chose to ignore her family's wishes and carve out a new life for herself in the Netherlands.
  
  After studying political science and getting a degree, she joined the Labour Party.
  
  After 9/11, Ali denounced Islam and this paved the way for her to become a member of the Dutch Parliament.
  
  She captured the world's attention with her first book Infidel - a coming-of-age memoir.
  
  This was followed by a collaboration with Theo van Gogh to make the movie Submission - it drew praise and outrage over its portrayal of the abused women and mostly outrage for its simplistic understanding of Islam.
  
  From refugee, to politician, to writer, to being voted one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2005, it can be said Ali has achieved a great deal in her life.
  
  Her latest offering to the world in Nomad is to warn the West of the extent of the threat from Islam.
  
  I couldn't help but laugh incredulously when I read this on the back cover of the book.
  
  But I soldiered on, deciding to give Ali the benefit of the doubt. I confess, I could not stomach much more of this book. The last few paragraphs of the first chapter, which set the tone for the rest of the book, did not sit well with me at all.
  
  "All these people had left their countries of origin only to band together here, unwilling or unable to let go... We all were far from where we had been born, but only I had left behind that culture. They had brought their web of values with them, halfway across the world. I felt as though I was the only true nomad."
  
  If a person can see absolutely no redeeming qualities in a culture or a religion, then I have to question that person's critical thought processes.
  
  Ali claims to be fighting for the rights of women, but her understanding of Islamic practice with regard to women comes across as Eurocentric and paternalistic.
  
  Her belief in herself as the ultimate nomad is laughable and frustrating.
  
  While I agreed with a number of the injustices Ali highlights in terms of Muslim women, I have to say the solutions she offers are unrealistic and embarrassing.
  
  It is said that the world's worst zealots are the converts and I am afraid this is true for Ali. In her search for belonging, she is so enamoured with a Western culture and mindset that she has forsaken all of the good values and traditions she has been brought up with.
  
  For her, her status as a nomad ends when she finds her place in the US.
  
  Irony?
  
  I'll leave it to you to decide. - Meneesha Govender
• 
  Trish

  Undoubtedly an exceptional mind here. There is no surprise that she has attacted so much attention. One only wishes that her personal life could have been richly rewarding, but then, one can't have everything. Perhaps if she had a family that loved her, we would not be the recipients of her mental largesse. A couple of things stand out: 1) this is yet
  another woman from a Muslim background telling us Islam an irreparable and damaged religion focused on doing harm to women and non-Muslims and we should do everything we can to make them change their minds--especially when Islamists emigrate to Europe or the USA; 2) an American encountered by Ali when boarding an airplane said that "Americans cherish their diversity" when challenged to put greater restrictions on the behaviors of Muslims in the USA; 3) she herself admits that many Muslims are "instinctively appalled by the violence committed in the name of their faith." She asserts that most Muslims do not know the content of the Quran or the Hadith or any Islamic scripture. My thoughts exactly. I have often thought that many Muslims are rather like many Christians who have barely read the Bible. They are just ordinary people trying to get on with their life. They have a superstructure--a religious belief--but it is not profound or deep. It gives them a parameter for daily life and behaviors. I believe most mothers, Muslim or not, would be appalled if their sons decided to blow themsleves up for any reason at all.
  
  I am grateful to Ayaan Hirsi Ali for writing the book and giving us insight into her life, her family, and her thoughts. The section on her family was difficult to read, in fact. It was so depressingly brutal, one cannot imagine how this woman emerged whole. But she certainly has my attention, and I wholehartedly support her cause--to stop violence against women in any country, culture, or religion that seeks to harm them.
• 
  Milan/zzz

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s books are not the type of books for which you can say “I like it” or “I don’t like it”. Those sorts of evaluations are just too trivial and utterly inadequate. ”Nomad” is not exception. Her
  Infidel” blown me away and this one is a sort of sequel.
  
  She’s an exceptionally brave woman and in her books she’s not compromising with very sensitive issues which leaves two options to the reader: to agree or disagree. But then she elaborates her statements incredibly strongly so when you’re disagreeing it’s more in the form of some unpleasant feeling than strong disagreement.
  
  For instance I opt to consider myself as a very tolerant man who respect individuality in every single form and as such the word “assimilation” never raised positive emotion. But then if you’re moving from a tribal society that lives according the few centuries old rules into 21st century Holland you just can NOT live according to the tribal rules! You can NOT perform genital mutilation to your daughter, you can NOT teach your son to hit first if his schoolmate is disagreeing with him, you can NOT hate your new adopted society. So I realized when reading this book that assimilation is NOT necessarily wrong. In Hirsi-Ali’s words ” when I talk about assimilation I talk about assimilation into civilization”.
  
  When I was in Holland last April I talked with one very dear man in his 60s-70s. He has a lovely house, lovely family, grandkids, still working (because he loves not because he has to); I could say he’s quite wealthy. So I was interested what would be his concerns [to make small digression Jostein Gaardar answered on the same question “Global warming” and I was stunned because, wow what kind of life you were suppose to live if global warming is your main concern (I guess you just have to be Norwegian)] and indeed global warming would be very rational concern if you’re a Dutch but he said “Islamic radicalism”. You know this is not response you would usually hear in Holland because people who think that way are labeled as non-tolerant but reply has had perfect sense to me but I was surprised.
  
  We don’t even recognize in how many forms Islamism can be among us. There is one part when Hirsi-Ali describes her experiences from lecturing among US universities. Usually before she even finishes there is a line of Muslim students who are waiting to express their disagreements (before she even finishes her thoughts by the way):
  ”…but every now and then I realized that my arguments were achieving something. Perhaps I was not changing the minds of the self-appointed defenders of Islam, but I was opening the eyes of the majority of non-Muslim students in the audience. Often I glimpsed the horror on their faces as they realized that these veiled and bearded youngsters, with whom for years they had shared cups of coffee, books, and classes, did not share their most basic values.”
  
  This book is mostly about her life in USA and therefore there is one question (which stricken me and I think it overcome America): ”Can you be a Muslim and an American patriot?” and she replies immediately ”You can if you don’t care very much about being a Muslim”. You know, it must be horrifying being a Muslim if that’s indeed truth. So horrifying that I feel an empathy towards them. She wrote one great imaginary dialogue between a Muslim girl Amina and her friend Jane after the Mumbai attacks in Nov 2008 when almost 200 died:
  
  [to short things: Jane asks Amina what she thinks about attackers since they called out “Allah is great!” when they attacked thinking they were doing it for Islam. Amina rejects to answer saying that it’s only that people kills other people in the name of their religion whatever that religion is. In the end Jane asks:]
  
  J: Would you kill for God? Would you kill me, your friend?
  A: Why do you ask?
  J: Because you say Christianity makes people do this, Hinduism makes people do that, Muslims defend themselves in the name of Islam, whatever. Would you kill me? If a Muslim wanted to kill members of my family, would you stop him?
  A: I don’t like where this conversation is going. I want to stop talking about this.
  J: Would you kill me? Would you stop a Muslim from killing me or my family?
  A: Would you stop a Christian killing me in the name of Christianity?
  J: Well, yes, actually. In a nonsecond. And you know, I’m not a Christian. […] Life is my religion.
  A: I really don’t want to talk about this.
  J: You don’t want to talk it because you would not save my life or because …
  A (close to tears): I don’t know. I want to do what is right. Allah tells me what is right. I just want to be good Muslim. I don’t want to kill people, I don’t want people to be killed, I just want to be a good Muslim.
  J: Are you sure you want to be a good Muslim? Here! (She takes the Quran out of her bag and puts in on Amina’s lap) Have you read the Quran? Do you know what is says? Look on this page: It says “Kill the infidels.” Look, here it promises eternal punishment for all unbelievers, here it says “beat the disobedient wife”; here “Flog the adulterer”. Are you sure that you want to do what Allah wants you to do? Are you sure?
  A (now in tears, desperately crying): I really don’t want to talk about this.
  
  What a mental torture this is. And then Hirsi-Ali is suggesting something that really shocked me: she (an atheist) is asking for a help from nothing less but Vatican! She calls Vatican to start a “harvesting souls”-mission, to preach in Muslim countries, to turn as many Muslims as possible into Christianity! OK it’s obvious that little Amina lost her compass but does Hirsi-Ali is still having her own?
  
  This book is raising so many questions. I’ve written down so many of them while reading it; marking so many things to quote (I might quote entire book here) when writing my thoughts (which is the reason why I postponed it so long. I’ve read this book in July) but decided not to. If I start to write about feminism, sexuality in Islam, position of women; the shockingly wrong image educated Muslim women on the West have about women in traditional (poor) societies of east Africa, Central Asia and elsewhere … I’ll never stop.
  
  I really can’t comprehend how anyone don’t see the benefit of Enlightenment (something she wrote a lot about) and I can’t really imagine how Enlightenment Project can be done in 21st century but I’m glad I’m not in the part of the world that has to perform it. I just hope they’ll manage and in the meanwhile I’ll share fear of my Dutch friend.
  
  You can hear an interview with Hirsi-Ali about this book she gave to the NPR’s WHYY Radio:
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali, "Nomad" on a journey through the clash of civilizations
  
• 
  Marjorie

  Ok, no more pussy foot'in around about the conflict between tribal and urban, western, traditional. 'In the real world, equal respect for all cultures doesn't translate into a rich mosaic of colorful and proud peoples interacting peacefully while maintaining a delightful diversity of food and craftwork. It translates into closed pockets of oppression, ignorance, and abuse.'
  
  Women, girls bare the weight of Islamic violence of male domination; physically, legally, psychologically. Female genital circumcision (without pain relief) is not dead and neither is confinement and slavery.
  
  Everyone who wants a practical hope of understanding the completely poles apart values/standards of the west and Muslim middle east must read and think hard about this one. We enjoy 4+ centuries of the Age of Enlightment (reason, science, logic, individual reasoning thrumps group think) whereas Islamic rule (home, country, religion) is based upon unquestioning submission to top dogs.
  
  All those folks worried about political correctness are going to swoon.
  
  Triple guess review; yes I can tell you skimmed and looked for offense to end your inquiry, zero'ed in and shut down to everything else. Lazy thinking.
  
  This should be on Oprah's must read list.
  
  
  
• 
  booklady

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali looking back at me from her cover photo on
  Infidel has haunted me for many years now—especially every time my husband or I have tried to have a talk with one of our daughters about how things are for Muslim women. Intelligent, well-educated, polite and wonderful in every respect twenty-somethings, our girls are nevertheless products of their culture—as are we all—and so sure that Muslims are ‘peaceful people’ who ‘want the same things that we do’. Hmmmm... Do you know anyone who wants what you do? Well yes, some want to take what you have, but to live in perfect peace respecting and believing exactly what you do?
  
  Americans born and raised in America with parents and grandparents going back generations don’t begin to know, respect or believe the same things, how can any newcomers do so? They don’t. Although many newcomers, the author included, understand what our nation’s founders intended far better than many of her long-time citizens do, through no fault of their own or deliberately. I digress.
  
  Though we didn’t agree with our daughters, we also knew they were going through many changes during their early twenties, would meet all sorts of people and experience things which might teach them better than any lecture from ‘mom’ or ‘dad’; we chose not to discuss this nor did I get around to reading any of Ms. Hirshi Ali’s books.
  
  Then a few weeks ago, I heard Ms. Hirshi Ali speak on
  EWTN The World Over and was astounded! She was more even than I hoped or imagined her to be—poised, tranquil, soft-spoken and brilliant. She articulated herself with such enviable clarity and precision, I saw myself easily becoming a groupie. I had to read one of her books. But which one?
  
  Nomad claimed my intention as a middle of the pack book because it was partly auto-biographical yet also addressed the issues of Muslims in the Western world.
  
  Ayaan devotes the first few chapters to members of her family, her relationship with them, their struggles with her, Islam and/or in adapting to life in the West. Her honesty is poignant, revealing and often heart-breaking. Considering the security risks she lives with—has lived with ever since she first broke with her family—I cannot imagine how she has the courage to write as she does. She’s an inspiration to me.
  
  Beyond her own life, she explores the wider issues facing Muslims, especially those of Muslim women in the West. She has started her own organization,
  AHAFoundation to help these women. As a survivor of female genital mutilation Hirshi Ali knows FGM is real, brutal, discriminatory and is practiced against helpless girls and women without repercussion, along with sexual abuse and honor killing. She speaks all over the world in defense of this numerical majority, defacto-minority.
  
  There’s much more which can be said about this marvelous lady and her book, but if you are genuinely interested, you will not want to waste your time reading me or this review. Get your hands on something by her! I have already ordered two more of her books, one as a birthday gift for my oldest daughter and one for me; hopefully my daughter will loan the gift back to me when she is through. This one I’m passing on to a friend.
  
  Ayaan says she is an atheist, but she also believes in Reason, much as St. Pope John Paul II believed in Reason with a capital ‘R’. Also, she seems to be kindness, integrity, compassion and wisdom dwelling in a human soul, so I am inclined to think this may be a resting position along her spiritual journey. Join me in praying for her?
  
  The Christian God you say your people are looking for loves you immensely, Ayaan. May He bless you and your work! Thank you! bl+
• 
  Петър Стойков

  Защо емигрантите от мюсюлманските страни не могат да се интегрират в западното общество? Защо второ, трето и четвърто поколение мароканци във Франция, сомалийци в Холандия и анадолски турци в Германия не само не говорят местния език, но и мразят родната си държава и се поддават на влиянието на радикалния ислям…
  
  Три са основните колони, на които се крепи назадничавостта на културата в традиционно ислямските държави, подхранвана от самите постулати на религията им – секс, пари и насилие. Именно средновековното отношение към тези въпроси прави емигрантите неспособни за живот в цивилизовано общество и културата им – непригодна за съвременността.
  
  Секс. Сексът е табу за традиционната ислямска култура, която се страхува от женската сексуалност до степен да покрива жените от глава до пети и изрязва половите им органи, в стремежа си да я подтисне. По дефиниция, жената е източник на грях, трябва да бъде покрита, скрита, подчинена от своя собственик.
  
  Пари. Отношението към парите на хората, идващи от неработещи икономики е изключително интересно за изследване, но изключително негативно за самите тях. Отношението им към неща като работа, спестяване и разумно харчене не са тренирани от детството, както е в цивилизацията, поради което емигрантите в голямата си част приемат заемите и социалната система за нещо, от което да черпят без никакви последствия, изпадайки в бързо в обречена задлъжнялост и без надежда за измъкване от крайната бедност.
  
  Насилие. Цялата западна цивилизация се крепи на спазването на определени житейски и обществени принципи, скрепени не на друго, а на отказът от насилие, на решаването на споровете чрез говорене, закони, преговори, договори. Това е непонятно за хората, израсли в култури, където насилието е навсякъде още от детството и е поощрявано като най-доброто средство за успех в живота. Именно затова децата на емигрантите от мюсюлманските страни са изключително агресивни, а младежите им са отговорни за непропорционално голяма част от свързаните с насилие престъпления, особено тези срещу жени.
  
  Ако успеем да променим възгледите на емигрантите по тези основни въпроси, да ги научим на цивилизовано отношение към секса, парите и насилието, те ще могат да се интегрират успешно и да станат нормална част от обществото. Ако обаче не осъзнаем нуждата от тази промяна, ако се крием зад „толерантност към тяхната култура“ и не правим нищо, интеграцията няма как да се случи и ще имаме точно това, което толерираме – средновековно, варварско отношение към жените, безотговорност към парите и съответно самоподхранваща се бедност, и общности, доминирани от насилие – точно както е в държавите, от които тези емигранти идват.
  
  В предишната си книга Infidel, Аян Хирси Али описа собствения си живот на бедно сомалийско момиче, което бяга в Холандия от уреден брак, за да стане в последствие член на Парламента, феминист и борец за човешки права и реформация на ислямската култура. Разказът й е покъртителен, но главно описателен – за това какво тя е видяла да се случва в традиционно мюсюлманските страни. В настоящата книга тя обяснява защо това се случва и и как според нея можем да го спрем да се случва поне сред емигрантите от тези страни, живеещи в Западна Европа и САЩ.
• 
  hayls 🐴

  When I began this book I knew there'd be some opinions I would not share (knowing Ayaan's been published in a prominent right-wing newspaper in Australia). But I always think it's good to challenge yourself with differing opinions as they can only enhance your own views, so I persevered 'til the end.
  The one thing I really liked was her chapter on Western feminism and their ignorance and inaction on Muslim women's issues for fear of being Islamophobic. However, a similar and better critique of Western feminism is made in Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here by Karima Bennoune, so I suggest you just read that.
  Our agreements end there, as she goes on to attribute the oppression of women to Islam itself, rather than to patriarchy (needless to say, her argument completely fails to explain the oppression of women in non-Muslim countries). She also states that European anti-Semitism ended with Hitler which is just blatantly wrong. Her apparent idolisation of Western society is also quite irritating, but it is to be expected if one went from experiencing life in Saudi Arabia to living in the Netherlands, arguably one of the most liberal democracies in the world.
  Her more favourable opinion of Christianity is more puzzling still (being a declared atheist), as she seems to have forgotten than, even with reform, the Church has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into modernity, and (with the exception of a few isolated parishes) is still not a bastion of social equality.
  
  Edit:
  Also, an obvious critique which I should've added earlier is to do with the title. Her use of the phrase "Clash of Civilisations" clearly indicates her agreement with Samuel P. Huntington's theory that cultural and religious identities (particularly in relation to Islam and "The West") are the primary cause of conflict in the post-Cold War world. For me, this idea is so easy to refute (look up Edward Said and Noam Chomsky)... I'll only say this: Islam is an Abrahamic religion and therefore closely connected to Judaism and Christianity. The idea that Islam has suddenly become the opponent to "Western civilisation" ignores the fact that these three religions have co-existed for centuries, have influenced each other's cultures, and have endured periods where one or other of the three religions was the dominant political force. There is no "clash of civilisations" between Islam, Judaism & Christianity because they are born of the same God, and consequently have a shared civilisation and cultural background.
• 
  Cheryl

  I was thirty-eight years old and I was only beginning to truly understand why people want to belong somewhere, and to understand how difficult it is to sever all ties with the culture and religion in which you are born. Outwardly I was a success. People wrote articles about me, they asked me what books I was reading and what I thought of Barack Obama. My speeches received standing ovation. But my personal life was a mess. I had escaped from my family and gone to Europe because I hadn't wanted to be trapped in a marriage to a virtual stranger I didn't like. Now, In America, I felt rootless, lost. To be a nomad, always wandering, had always sounded romantic. In practice, to be homeless and living out of a suitcase was a little foretaste of hell.

  
  I read and loved Ali's
  Infidel, a coming-of-age story about a young girl from Somalia, who was brave enough to follow the arrows of her heart, deserting all others, including family, to live the life she felt she was destined to live. If one were to think about leaders of modern feminism, this woman tops the list, for she stands for talk and action and her life is exemplary of the ideals she preaches. Ayaan Hirsi Ali left a Muslim clan where her father was a renowned leader, to flee the man she was to marry, seeking refuge in Europe. Not long after, she started to speak out against the religion she had been reared to revere. Soon, when her activist-filmmaker partner was killed on the streets (of The Netherlands if I can recall but don't quote me), Ali had to be escorted by bodyguards everywhere because of threats on her life from Islamists. At the penning of this book, she was still surrounded by bodyguards:
  

  People often ask me what it's like to live with bodyguards. The short answer is that it's better than being dead. It's also better than wearing a headscarf or a veil, which to me represents the mental and physical restrictions that so many Muslim women have to suffer. Still, the irony of my situation has not escaped me: I am supposed to be a great icon of women's freedom, but because of death threats against me I have to live in a way that is, in a sense, unfree.

  
  If you haven't read
  Infidel (which is my favorite of the two), I caution you to start there not just because it is a memoir that speaks of the experiences of a young girl growing up in a rural clan of various Muslim communities (Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Kenya) and raised by a fundamentalist mother, but it also helps you understand the complexities of this second memoir, which frankly, reads like an Op-ed piece in some places. As an American Enterprise Institute Scholar, Ali seems to be partaking in debate about aspects of the Quran and Shari'a. I admit I don't know much about the Quran beyond the suras and the Hadith explored in my collegiate Comparative Religion classes, to formulate an opinion. And there are a lot of them in this memoir, opinions I mean. Some of which you could imagine would be very controversial.
  
  However, when a person has actually lived through the perils of a society where free speech or personal freedom is not allowed, you can only appreciate the portrait of her life that she has mapped out through words. This memoir seems to be her celebration of free speech:
  

  I was not born in the West and I did not grow up in the West. But the delight of being able once I came to the West to let my imagination run free, the pleasure of choosing whom I want to associate with, the joy of reading what I want, and the thrill of being in control of my life is something I feel intensely as I manage to extricate myself from all the shackles and obstacles

  
  Ali doesn't glorify the West either. In this memoir she outlines what she views is wrong with the West. Like how free speech itself could be limited in the West for fear of "criticizing a particular religion." The thin fingers of self-censorship begin to tighten around individual minds, then groups of people, then around ideas themselves and their expression.But how far do you take free speech so that it does not become hate speech? This too is a debate that has taken place in the West, something that Ali doesn't mention as she talks about curtailing violence--this limitation of freedom of speech within a civilized society.
  
  It is horrifying, when you think about the individuals and writers who instead of simply dealing with people who disagree with their views, have to deal with people who want to kill them for their views. When you think about this, I mean really sit and ponder this, you understand how important it is that books written by these nonconformists (Ali included) are published and reviewed. For who are we, if we can't agree to simply have a disagreement over words?
  

  Salman Rushdie has lived under a sentence of death by fatwa for twenty years. Taslima Nasreen, who was brave enough to say that Islam doesn't permit democracy and violates human rights, now lives in hiding, without even an apartment to call her own. Irshad Manji in Canada and Wafa Sultan in the United States, women who have dared to criticize Islam in public, now require protection, as I do…
• 
  Mikey B.

  This, again, is a most striking work by the maverick Somailian, ex-Muslim writer. She is begging the West not to give away its’ values of liberty and secularism, and to stop giving into and appeasing Islamism. She provides many useful warnings – as in honour killings (in the U.S. and Canada) not recognized as being linked to Islamic beliefs for the fear of being offensive to religious values.
  
  This book is even more personal than her previous books. She describes in some detail her family and the problematic relationship she had with her parents, grandmother, siblings and cousins. Ms. Ali strongly suggests that in some ways Somalian society may be historically regressing – not only in Africa but in its Western ghetto enclaves.
  
  Most of her positive nostalgia is about her transformation in Holland. I believe she is not quite ready as yet to pronounce on the United States, where she is currently settled.
  
  She slams some Western feminists who have appeased Islamists. The Woman’s Movement did so much to instil the equality of the sexes in civil society. Some feminists today (Germaine Greer) appear to have a double standard for non-Western women.
  
  Ms. Ali even suggests (problematically) that Christianity should take more of an offensive in trying to convert Muslims – particularly the new arriving immigrants. This is an interesting proposition.
  
  Once again we have a very forceful and unaccommodating stance from a woman who made a unique transition to self-reliance.
• 
  Kevin McAllister

  This book was a real eye opener for me. As a left wing liberal I was totally opposed to Bush's invasion of Iraq. And I'm still opposed to the reason U.S. troops were sent in. Lets face it the U.S. didn't invade Iraq to spread democracy, we went in for the oil.
  But what I learned from reading Nomad is that perhaps offensive actions against Islam do need to be taken. Liberals believe in acceptance of foreign cultures. That it's wrong to force our beliefs and ideas on cultures universally. But what if the beliefs of a culture or a religion are just plain wrong ? Hirsi Ali, telling her story of escaping the abuses she experienced first hand, makes it painfully clear that the systematic abuse of hundreds of millions of Islamic women is just plain wrong. And while she by no means suggests that the West wage an all out military war against Islam, she discusses a number of ways in which The West does have to wage a full scale offensive war of propaganda against Islam, not only to protect ourselves from the terrorists threats, but to put and end to the modern day enslavement of countless Islamic women. Why should we allow this to occur ?
  
  
• 
  Jillian O'connor

  Hirsi Ali's second polemic is a personal story of her disillusionment with Islam and her infatuation with the West. Her romantic interpretation of American ideals through show tune lyrics smacks of a newcomer's naivete. Her assertion that her family's dysfunction is entirely the result of Islam ignores the role that mental illness seems to have played in her family's history.
  
  Her passionate arguments for feminists to stand up and call out the mistreatment of women within the Muslim community are solid -- religion and culture are not acceptable excuses for misogyny. Her praise for Enlightenment values are a good reminder of both our rights and responsibilities as citizens.
  
  After this, however, her solution that Western Christians seek to convert Muslims to Christianity seems contradictory. If the Western secular democracies are the pinnacle of human society, why does she see a modern crusade as the way to go? What's more, the Roman Catholic church remains a bastion of sexual inequality.
  
• 
  Vivone Os

  Kumski book club 2019 -1
  Kad sam počela čitati ovu knjigu očekivala sam da će biti kao i prva autoričina knjiga, autobiografija. Ali knjiga je zapravo svojevrana studija, ah recimo to tako, muslimanstva, prožeta njenom osobnim pričama (tu se pojavljuje taj autobiografski dio) i različitim događajima iz povijesti (posebno različitim primjerima nasilja muslimana prema ženama i nemuslimanima, pa čak i drugim muslimanima svuda u svijetu) kojima potkrepljuje teorije koje izlaže... o nasilju u muslimanskoj religiji, o podjarmljenosti žena, o načinu na koji raspolažu s novcima, o "infiltraciji" u zapadne zemlje, o mržnji prema svima koji nisu muslimani...
  Neke dijelove knjige mi je bilo posebno teško čitati (recimo dio o sakaćenju intimnih dijelova djevojčica u Somaliji zbog čistoće, djevičanstva i časti obitelji). Neke stvari su me šokirale, a cijela knjiga me je ponovo i ponovo navodila na razmišljanje o jednom drugom svijetu koji je od našeg različit kao zemlja i nebo. Ayaanine zgode i nezgode sa zapadnom kulturom kad je tek došla u Nizozemsku su me i zabavile pomalo iako zapravo i nisu zabavne već zabrinjavajuće. Njeno neznanje o raspolaganju s novcem, o tome što je to novčanik, kredit, kamate... me je potaklo da razmišljam o tome kad sam ja naučila raspolagati s novcem. To je zaista nešto što mi uzimamo zdravo za gotovo. Sveukupno mislim da naš lagodan život sa svim društvenim i socijalnim slobodama uzimamo zdravo za gotovo i uvijek nakon takvih knjiga ponovo i ponovo se podsjećam da trebam biti zahvalna zbog toga što živim tu gdje živim.
• 
  Jake

  "We make our sons. This is the tragedy of the tribal Muslim man, and especially the firstborn son: the overblown expectations, the ruinous vanity, the unstable sense of self that relies on the oppression of one group of people--women--to maintain the other group's self image."
  
  I found the above quote to be one of the most powerful statements in Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book Nomad. It is all the more significant because it occurs in a chapter devoted to her brother who, Ms. Hirsi Ali argues, is as much a victim of fundamentalist Islam as she was. This book is more than just a memoir of one woman’s personal journey. Through frank reflection, Hirsi Ali makes a bold rebuke of Islam, but also of groups and institutions that she regards as passive enablers.
  
  “Textbooks gloss over the fundamentally unjust rules of Islam and present it as a peaceful religion. Institutions of reason must…reinvest in developing the ability to think critically, no matter how impolite some people may find the results.”
  
  For me, the most informative sections of this book deal with immigration. Through personal and professional experience, Hirsi Ali has attained a high degree of insight into this problematic issue. She lays some blame at everyone's feet, but shows empathy for various parties. People on both sides of the Arizona/Mexico border could learn a lot from reading this book. I know I did.
  
  Some of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's subjective reasoning struck me as faulty. She is prone to generalization and exhibits a double standard. She gives recognition to moderate Christians and Jews but not moderate Muslims. To her credit she admits this contradiction. Yet she justifies it by claiming even moderate Muslims take the Koran to be inerrant (a generalization that may not be true in every case). Regardless, I thought this book was rooted in the best kind of vigorous debate. She praises this approach late in the book.
  
  "When I came to the West what I found truly amazing was the fact that believers, agnostics, and unbelievers could debate with and even ridicule one another without ever resorting to violence."
  
  At a time when tempers are running extremely high in the U.S.A., I hope this generalization remains generally true. Bottom line: I strongly recommend this book as a resource for increasing one’s understanding of the great friction between Islam and Western society.
  
• 
  Oliver Holm

  "All human beings are equal, but all cultures and religions are not.
  
  A culture that celebrates femininity and considers women to be the masters of their own lives is better than a culture that mutilates girls' genitals and confines them behind walls and veils or flogs or stones them for falling in love. A culture that protects women's rights by law is better than a culture in which a man can lawfully have four wives at once and women are denied alimony and half their inheritance. A culture that appoints women to its supreme court is better than a culture that declares that the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man."
• 
  Regina Andreassen

  Direct, sharp, clearly articulated, engaging, and convincing (unless you have conspicuous pro-Islamic bias and are not willing to acknowledge and analyse the complexity of the issue explored in the book); yet, at times, I found it repetitive, it would have been more effective and enjoyable if it was 50-70 pages shorter.
• 
  Verna Seal

  One of the most amazing books I've ever read. And I quote: "Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and to offend.
• 
  Christine

  Blast you Marty Moss-Coane! I was going to buy this book when it came out in paperback, mostly because I enjoyed
  Infidel. Then who does Marty Moss-Coane have on Radio Times? Yes,
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali. As usual for Moss-Coane, it was an excellent interview and made it impossible for me to wait for the book to come out in paperback. (As an aside, Radio Times is one of the reasons why NPR should be supported. Excellent, unbiased interviews. Hurtful to your wallet though).
  
  This book is not a sequel or follow-up to
  Infidel. In this book, Ali focuses more on the causes of violence in Islamic culture, though primary in the Islamic culture she was raised in. At times, one might be justified in thinking that Ali is a bit colored by her personal experiences and one wishes for more data. Yet, Ali is very persusive and her solution relies on education of women (see also
  Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. It is no surprise that
  Nicholas D. Kristof reviewed this for the New York Times Book Review).
  
  Ali makes a case that too much easy acceptance of other cultural systems without a close examnation can lead to something worse than sterotyping. I wish she had gone into more detail about the conflict between the American idea of freedom, especially religious freedom, versus the need to educate and bring change. In many ways, it is an important part of this topic, and Ali doesn't quite give it the airing it needs.
• 
  Gaby

  I wonder what it would have been like to read this book without having read Infidel first. I feel that without reading the author's experiences as she describes them in Infidel, and the bravery and strength that oozes out of the pages of that book, it would be hard to understand where she is coming from. That personal connection was missing from Nomad, with the exception of the first part of the book. She still makes very interesting arguments, but due to some bad editing or writing, ends up repeating herself quite a lot. Not only repeating things from Infidel (for example, I felt that explaining the whole Rita Verdonk thing again was unnecessary in Nomad) but also drilling the same point she made a few pages back over and over. Either way, whether you agree with the problems she describes and solutions she suggests seems besides the point. What I appreciate is that there is a debate, a critical view on a subject few people dare to touch, and a voice that will not be silenced and really made me reevaluate the way I feel about a very basic question: are all cultures and religions equally good? I do recommend this book, but I would stress that people read Infidel first.
• 
  Catherine

  Pretty much like with her first book, Infidel, I picked up this one and wasn't able to put it down.
  
  I admire Ayaan Hirsi Ali's courage. She left behind the only world she knew to escape arranged marriage and she built a new life in a completely different society than the one she was taught to live in as a child and teenager. The fact that she has experience of living in both types of society (and she moved through several countries as a child) makes her story and her observations extremely valuable, especially in today's world. It wasn't an easy adventure, and her honest accounts of mistakes she made along the way make her story and her voice a unique bridge between two cultures.
  
• 
  Megan Rosol

  She is a courageous woman but this book, I'm sorry to say, is disappointing, disjointed and ranting.
• 
  Michelle

  This is a powerful book--in many ways I liked it even better than Infidel--I especially appreciated seeing how Hirsi Ali's life in America has been going, and how she has continued to grow. I can't say that I agree with everything the author said--at times I wondered if she would think I was a member of the "wrong" kind of Christianity as a Latter-Day Saint, since she seems only really to approve of liberal Methodists-and-ilk. But the basic message of this book is strong and, I think, desperately needed. It was painful to read of the author's attempts to reconnect with the family she left behind, and their attempts to bring her back into the Islamic fold, but it was profoundly moving--one can just feel the spiritual growth that the author has achieved through this painful process. Two chapters, one a letter to her deceased grandmother, and one to her unborn child, brought me to tears. Her desperate plea to us to educate our immigrants--and others in the Muslim world--in reason, in management of money, in normal sexuality--is powerfully persuasive. I personally cringed a bit--she thinks Muslims in the U.S. should be forbidden to homeschool, and should all receive very liberal sex education--I fail to see how this can be done in an environment of liberty, and certainly cannot see that we can limit this sort of thing to only Muslim families. However, Hirsi Ali has caught us out--it is painfully true that we are not dealing well with the challenge of the Muslim immigrants among us, and ultimately, it may endanger us some, but it costs the immigrants themselves even more. Her clarion call to American feminists to stop obsessing so much about how awful men are and to step up and condemn the brutal treatment of women right under our noses is something I think is long, long past due. Where ARE the feminists???? I applaud the author's call to all of us to ENGAGE with the Muslims around us--stand up for the women, reach out to teach responsibility, evangelize into our way of life and so give them a chance--a choice, where they have none because we are currently so afraid to offend. The author swims against the tide of relativity we live in today by bluntly stating that just because all people are equal, that does not mean all ways of life are--and she rightly points us to examine the worldviews around us and make honest assessments. I do feel concerned about her advocating that churches aggressively evangelize Muslims into Christianity, however, knowing that in many places of the world, that is as good as a prison sentence or death warrant, to both the evangelist AND the converts from Islam.
  Extremely valuable book from one of the most courageous women of our time.
• 
  ♥ Marlene♥

  First of all I am going to point you to my friend Milan's review.
  
  To my surprise he touched all the subjects in the book that I wanted to.
  
  
  Milan's great review
  
  To be honest this book was very hard for me to read. Why? Because she warned us so many years ago and it seems that the people have had it with all the immigration and the wrong ways of treating this subject. It is affecting many people's daily life but the politicians do not listen and keep on muddle cuddling them to the expense of the people that lived there first.
  
  
  I am very scared for the future of Europa and if nothing is done NOW I think it will be too late.
  
  My daughter visited Paris and when she came back she showed me a video she had taped from the train. I thought she was joking and that it was a video from Africa. I saw tents and all the things you expect to see from Africa, but this was Paris!!
  
  It is still so that if you say something negatively about Islam they say you are a racist. Stupid cause Islam is a religion, not a race!!!
  
  Anyway that is how it is in The Netherlands. People do not dare to speak out because if they do they are accused of being racist.
  
  Is it not weird that people can make fun of christian church or Jesus, but oh boy if you make a joke about islam or the prophet. If you do in public you will never be safe. The islam leaders will tell their people to kill you. And this is accepted by the rest of the world?
  
  Oh they should not have made such a mean joke, they should know muslims have short straw????Come on!
  
  
  Look at all the hate preachers who get money from the governments to rebuild churches and convert them into mosques and there they are allowed to preach their hatred towards the infidels.
  
  Read Milan's review and read the book. I think if you live in America you maybe do not understand but jsut visit London, Amsterdam or Paris and you will.
  
  This book is one I highly recommend but first read Infidel.
• 
  Adella

  Mixed feeling about the book. Very glad I read it. But prefer Infidel. Nomad attempts to explain how to deal with fundamentalist/jihadist Islam, and while I think Ayaan makes some good points based on her personal experience, I am bothered by her political ideas about how to combat breeding grounds for Islamic fundamentalists. For instance, one solution she describes is to get the Church involved. Really? Combat religion with religion?
  
  Yet she makes no reference to the rise of political power in the Middle East/Muslim world during the USA's fight against Communism. This is a big part of Middle Eastern history, and she doesn't touch it. She also makes no reference to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I think it's silly to try and present "solutions" while omitting huge chunks of political history and the forces that came into play to shape Islamic fundamentalism and the Middle East as it is today.
  
  I do admire her courage and strength in going against tradition and making her own path in light of her background and upbringing. She is an incredible woman, and I greatly admire her. But I think Infidel is better because it is her personal narrative of transformation. Nomad seeks to give advice to Westerners about how to deal with fundamentalist Islam (no doubt influenced by her work with AEI). But I don't find many of her arguments convincing enough when it comes to politics. I do think she can speak to how to help women who are abused, oppressed, etc by traditional Islamic traditions/teachings.
  
  I guess my main criticism is that I think she has oversimplified the problems and solutions.
• 
  Elizabeth

  
  
  I very much enjoyed reading her story. I thought it was heartfelt, honest, and very informative. This book is based soley on her experiences, thoughts, and opinions and the reader should remember that throughout.
• 
  Lady Jane

  In Nomad, Ayaan Hirsi Ali's sequel to Infidel, Ms. Ali takes a different tactic. She uses her story of being a nomad, and that of relatives who remained ensconced in Islamic culture, as a vehicle and springboard to share her political views on Islam and Islam's impact on culture--both of predominantly Islamic and Western democratic societies.
  
  Ms. Ali communicates bold insights, conclusions and remedies to the conflict between Islam and Western democratic societies, providing a clarion call to Americans to learn from Europe's experience in grappling with similar issues. She identifies Islam's treatment of women, lack of financial education, and the socialization of the Muslim mind as barriers to Muslim integration into Western democratic societies. And, in doing so, she calls out "elephants in the living room" without compromise. Among her assertions:
  
  -"Can you be a Muslim and an American patriot? You can if you don't care very much about being a Muslim." (p. 139)
  
  -"Diversity is a wonderful concept...But Americans still have a long way to go before they really understand the challenge posed to their country by radical Islam, a religion that rejects not only those core principles of the Enlightenment that so inspired the founding fathers, but also the very notion that the diverse many should become one united people." (p. 145)
  
  -To claim that the oppression of women has nothing to do with Islam and is "only" a traditional custom is dishonest, a decoy. The two elements are interwoven. The code of honor and shame may be tribal and pre-Islamic in its origins, but it is now an integral part of the Islamic religion and culture. Honor killing asserts what Islam also asserts: that women are subordinate to men and must remain their sexual property." (p. 163)
  
  -"When well meaning Westerners, eager to promote respect for minority religions and cultures, ignore practices like forced marriage and confinement in order to "stop society from stigmatizing Muslims," they deny countless Muslim girls their right to wrest their freedom from their parents' culture." p. 164
  
  -"It's the Westernized theologians who are trapped in confusion, because they want to maintain that the Prophet Muhammad was a perfect human being whose example should be followed, that the Quran is perfect scripture, and that all of its key injunctions--kill the infidels, ambush them, take their property, convert them by force; kill homosexuals and adulterers; condemn Jews; treat women as chattel--are mysterious errors of translation. (p. 197)
  
  -"Islam is not just a belief, it is a way of life, a violent way of life. Islam is imbued with violence, and it encourages violence." p. 201
  
  -"Here is something I have learned the hard way, but which a lot of well-meaning people in the West have a hard time accepting: All human beings are equal, but all cultures and religions are not. A culture that celebrates femininity and considers women to be the masters of their own lives is better than a culture that mutilates girls' genitals and confines them behind walls and veils or flogs or stones them for falling in love. A culture that protects women's rights is better than a culture where a man can lawfully have four wives at once and women are denied alimony and half their inheritance. A culture that appoints women to the supreme court is better than a culture that declares the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man. It is part of Muslim culture to oppress women and part of all tribal culture to institutionalize patronage, nepotism, and corruption. The culture of the Western Enlightenment is better. (pp. 212-213)
  
  -"Unfortunately for the West, radical Islamists reject diversity, for Islam justifies the oppression of women as well as all kinds of violence, including child marriage and marital rape. The West should eliminate such practices from its own societies and condemn them wherever else they occur across the globe. We cannot do so, however, without acknowledging that there is something wrong with he religion that justifies them." (p. 215)
  
  -"...when Westerners refrain from criticizing or questioning certain practices, certain aspects of Islam, they abandon those Muslims who seek to question them also. They also abandon their own values. Once that have done that, their society is lost." (p. 217)
  
  -"Sadly, some Muslim women who are now lucky enough to benefit from a high-quality education...choose to defend the image of Islam over the rights of women. Such educated women...are still the lucky few...They boast of their privileges; their university education, their experiences with liberal fathers and brothers, their designer accouterments, and their freedom to travel without the watchful presence of a guardian. But they ignore those underprivileged masses with whom they purport to share a religion and culture." (pp. 226-227)
  
  -"Because these Western feminists manifest an almost neurotic fear of offending a minority group's culture, the situation of Muslim women creates a huge philosophical problem for them." (p. 229)
  
  Ms. Ali further calls upon public education, the feminist movement and Christians to reorient their thinking away from "respecting cultural diversity" in a manner that gives tacit permission to Muslim ghetto subcultures within Western democratic societies to reinforce Islamist thinking, the repression of and violence towards women, and steadfast resistance to societal integration. She challenges these institutions to act, both by reaching out to Muslims with compassionate care and by ceasing to ignore, or reclassify as purely secular crimes without a religious foundation, acts performed as a result of an Islamic dogma, such as honor killings and genital mutilation, that violate basic, core democratic values.
  
  In doing so, she forces Westerners to begin a conversation to clarify one fundamental, core value--the free exercise of religion in a democratic society. At what point in forbidding specific manifestations of religious practice does a secular state become schizophrenic in its values? In the U.S. those boundary lines have been and currently are a source of constant struggle. For example, although the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith claimed to receive a revelation making polygamy acceptable, the U.S. government outlawed polygamy. Further, Christian Scientists who withhold medical care from minors, relying solely on prayer for healing, have been arrested for child abuse. And, on any day a glance at the page of organizations, such as the Alliance Defense Fund, that exist to defend religious liberty in the U.S. will find case after case whereby people are restricted from the free exercise of religion not because it harms others, but because it has offended or may potentially offend others. If the minimal legal line is whether the exercise of specific religious practices harms others, then many expressions of Islam seem to glaringly qualify.
  
  What fascinates me about one of Ms. Alis suggested "remedies" is that while she is an atheist, she encourages Christians to socially help and then convert Muslims to Christianity. Her rationale is based on the feedback she has received from Muslims that they don't want to reject God altogether to become atheists and that Christianity is a fundamentally more peaceful and tolerant religion than Islam, despite its spotty history. She regards the failure of the European church to evangelize Muslim immigrants, even as Christian groups provided practical help to them, as a tragically missed opportunity. Her calls upon feminists and Enlightenment intelligentsia to jettison hyper-sensitivity to cultural tolerance, and act on the disregard of and violence performed to democratic ideals taking place in Western societies are challenging.
  
  I enjoyed Nomad and found it challenging. In it, Ms. Ali builds upon and ratchets up the arguments made in Infidel. However, I didn't find it as pivotal and confronting as Infidel. Nonetheless, I highly recommend Nomad. It is hard hitting, culturally relevant and engaging.
  
• 
  Robin

  
  This book tells us why the West should be wary of Islam. I found it interesting, but a bit scary (that the Muslims can do real harm to the world). The author grew up Muslim, then when she was being forced into marriage with a distant cousin, "escaped" to the Netherlands. She tells us many of the differences between Western culture and the Moslem culture.
  
  The author seems incredibly intelligent. After she escaped, she learned 2 new languages (Dutch and English). She went to college and studied, among other things, the Enlightenment. She seems to have a better grasp of how the Enlightenment has changed Western culture than most westerners do. Being a black woman from Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, she managed to become a member of the Dutch parliament. Currently she is employed by the American Enterprise Institute, in the United States.
  
  In addition to telling us why the West should be wary of Islam, another of her causes is the oppression of Muslim women. She convinced me that Muslim women are far worse off than women in the West have ever been. She makes a very good case telling us how the value of diversity, which American people are so proud of, is actually worsening the plight of Muslim women, as well as worsening the tendency of Muslim men to become more radical and determined to carry out jihad.
  
  I did not detect any disingenuousness in the author's writing. I feel she was honest and writing from the heart. This is a MUST READ for all Americans who want to understand Muslims and how they are affecting the West. It is important to understand Islam from someone who's been there, done that, learned other ways of viewing the world, and made a judgement about Islam.
• 
  Marieke

  i started this this morning. and quickly decided it was pointless for me to read. I read Infidel and that was enough for me. this is nothing but more propaganda custom-made for people who need an excuse to continue to vilify Islam or "feel sorry" for the "oppressed" Muslim woman, and in which she mixes up Islam with patriarchy and puts western civilization on a pedestal, despite her claims to value "critical thinking." Also, this book did seem nearly as well-written as Infidel. Granted I only got to chapter 2.