Powerful voice for Islamic reform
Politician, scholar, powerful and effective voice advocating Islamic reform and the rights of Muslim women; Ayaan Hirsi Ali skillfully opposes the far-too-common practices of forced and child marriage, genital mutilation, and violence against women. After growing up as a devout Muslim, she abandoned her faith and became an insightful critic of Islam and the fundamentalist Islamic laws that oppress women. Her movie Submission precipitated an intense reaction of criticism, death threats, and the murder of her co-filmmaker. Both exemplifying and calling for an Islamic Enlightenment, she exposes the deep and debilitating oppression ingrained in Muslim culture and religion as well as articulating and demonstrating a path toward positive reform.
Lineages
Black Islamic Politicians Women of Wisdom
From Islam to America
Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now
Infidel
“Islam is part religion, and part a political-military doctrine. The part that is a political doctrine contains a world view, a system of laws and a moral code that is totally incompatible with our constitution, our laws, and our way of life.”
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“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.”
from From Islam to America
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“Wishful thinking about the peaceful tolerance of Islam cannot interpret away this reality: hands are still cut off, women still stoned and enslaved, just as the Prophet Muhammad decided centuries ago.”
from Infidel
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“Multiculturalism should not mean that we tolerate another culture’s intolerance. If we do in fact support diversity, women’s rights, and gay rights, then we cannot in good conscience give Islam a free pass on the grounds of multicultural sensitivity.”
from Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now
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“What matters is abuse, and how it is anchored in a religion that denies women their rights as humans. What matters is that atrocities against women and children are carried out in Europe. What matters is that governments and societies must stop hiding behind a hollow pretense of tolerance so that they can recognize and deal with the problem.”
from Infidel
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“It takes a long time to dissolve the bars of a mental cage.”
from Infidel
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“Some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.”
from Infidel
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“Reality is not easy, but all this make-believe doesn't make it easier.”
from Infidel
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“I lived in countries that had no democracy... so I don't find myself in the same luxury as you do. You grew up in freedom, and you can spit on freedom because you don't know what it is not to have freedom.”
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“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.”
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“Many well-meaning people have told me in all earnestness that nothing in Islamic culture incites abuse of women, that this is just a terrible misunderstanding. Men all over the world beat their women, I am constantly informed. In reality, these Westerners are the ones who misunderstand Islam. The Quaran mandates these punishments. It gives a legitimate basis for abuse, so that the perpetrators feel no shame and are not hounded by their conscience or their community… I want secular, non-Muslim people to stop kidding themselves that ‘Islam is peace and tolerance.’”
from Infidel
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