Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (first published May 18, 2010) is a memoir by Ayaan Hirs...
Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (first published May 18, 2010) is a memoir by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a sequel to her New York Times bestseller Infidel. Released in the United States by Free Press, it deals in greater depth than the earlier book with certain aspects of the author's childhood in Somalia, Kenya and Saudi Arabia, and in particular with her family, as well as with her exile from the Netherlands and her present home with the American Enterprise Institute in the United States. The book is highly critical of Islam and the multiculturalism which the author sees as enabling its extremism, and makes the controversial case that moderate Christian churches should seek actively to convert Muslim believers. The book has been praised by Christopher Hitchens, John Lloyd and Richard Dawkins.nnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomad:_From_Islam_to_AmericannAyaan Hirsi Ali (born: Ayaan Hirsi Magan Isse Guleid Ali Wai’ays Muhammad Ali Umar Osman Mahamud; 13 November 1969) is a Somali-born American (formerly Dutch) activist, writer and politician. She is known for her views critical of female genital mutilation and Islam, and supportive of women's rights and atheism. She collaborated on a short movie with Theo van Gogh, entitled Submission (2004). Critical of Islam, it provoked controversy, and death threats were made against each of the two. Van Gogh was assassinated later that year by a Dutch Muslim.nnHirsi Ali is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse. She and her family left Somalia in 1977 for Saudi Arabia, then Ethiopia, settling in Kenya. In 1992 Ali sought and obtained political asylum in the Netherlands; her misleading application was later the subject of a political controversy. Following graduate work, she published articles on her political views and spoke in support of Muslim women, becoming an atheist. In 2003 she was elected a member of the House of Representatives (the lower house of the Dutch parliament), representing the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). A political crisis related to the validity of her Dutch citizenship led to her resignation from parliament, and indirectly to the fall of the second Balkenende cabinet in 2006.nnIn 2005, Hirsi Ali was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She has also received several awards, including a free speech award from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the Swedish Liberal Party's Democracy Prize, and the Moral Courage Award for commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship. Hirsi Ali has published two autobiographies: in 2006 and 2010.nnHirsi Ali emigrated to the United States, where she was a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. She founded the women's rights organisation, the AHA Foundation. She became a naturalized US citizen in 2013 and that year was made a fellow at the Kennedy Government School at Harvard University, and a member of The Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center. She is married to British historian and public commentator Niall Ferguson.nnNicholas Kristof in The New York Times wrote that Hirsi Ali described Islam as creating dysfunctional families (including her own) and noted she thinks these constitute "a real threat to the very fabric of Western life." He suggests that some readers might think she is "presumptuous" to write another autobiography so soon after her last, published in 2006. He describes her as "by nature a provocateur" and notes that she still needs bodyguards. He has found that Hirsi Ali "denounces Islam with a ferocity that I find strident, potentially feeding religious bigotry..." He said the book left him feeling "uncomfortable and exasperated in places."nnHe believes she oversimplifies and exaggerates issues with Islam, as he notes the huge number of adherents and the great variety among Islamic societies. Based on his own experience, he acknowledges some of the problems in Islamic cultures, but feels that Hirsi Ali weakens her book by not recognizing the religion's strengths, its reason for growth: "the warm hospitality toward guests, including Christians and Jews; charity for the poor; the aesthetic beauty of Koranic Arabic; the sense of democratic unity" at worship. He praised her support for education, and for teaching Muslim immigrants about finance and credit, but felt that her comments about violence in Islamic culture were exaggerated. He concluded, "This memoir, while engaging and insightful in many places, exemplifies precisely the kind of rhetoric that is overheated and overstated." nnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali Less