I have just finished reading "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and I recommend it highly to everyone!

As previous visitors to this blog may have noticed, I espouse the concept of political atheism. In my view, political atheism is not necessarily the same thing as personal atheism. My beliefs are based on the need for consistency in every area of our lives. I believe that the germ of socialism is introduced into our political & economic thinking by our deeply held religious beliefs. Typically, the germ is embodied as the glorification of self-sacrifice and altruism, a central tenet of most major religions. Therefore, religion makes our political & religious thinking inconsistent.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's journey from being a near-militant Islamist sympathizer to skeptical socialist and then all the way to secular near-conservative is inspiring - not because she is some kind of superwoman, but because she is a normal human being who seeks a consistent ideology. However, in the prevailing cultural fog of moral grayness, she is special. She questions inconsistencies, whether they are based on religious or political dogma.

As a fellow-seeker of moral consistency, I was struck by the questions that arise in young Ayaan's mind. For example, she is faced with the stern double-standard of morality in Islam: a woman may not show her face because it may provoke uncontrollable sexual lust in men. Her question, revealing an innocently correct search for consistency "what if the sight of a man's uncovered face incites a similar lust in women?"

After fleeing an arranged, loveless marriage, Ayaan's early experiences with the Dutch nanny-state cause her to marvel at the largesse provided by welfare in a mixed economy. Even as she benefits from the generosity, she is not blind to the problems. She sees the inconsistencies of socialism in the way it affects people on both sides of the equation. At that stage in her life, Ayaan has a limited education, but has the intelligence to observe the 'cause and effect' linkage between socialism and dependency. A rare example in the community of African refugees, she focuses on getting a post-graduate education and breaks away from the pernicious grasp of the welfare cycle. Her intellectual growth continues as she discards Leftist ideology and multi-cultural thinking on the altar of moral consistency.

After 9/11, Ayaan reaches celebrity status due to her denunciation of the faith that provides a moral justification for mass murder. An innocently sincere question that she raises at a public conference is followed by her appearances on TV. She touches off a firestorm within her own Left-leaning political party for daring to question the hypocrisy of multi-culturalism. Following through logically, she publicly discards Islam despite the fact that she faces ostracism from her family. During Ayaan's tenure in Dutch politics, she faces the brunt of full-contact modern day politics in which her opponents have her Dutch citizenship revoked in order to bring down the prevailing government.

A collaboration between Ayaan and Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh leads to a documentary titled "Submission" about the fate of women under Islamic law. When Theo van Gogh is brutally murdered and Ayaan's life is threatened by Islamists, she is forced to go into hiding. Ayaan strips away any romantic illusions that readers may have towards life-in-hiding; for several joyless years, she is shuttled between nondescript 'secure locations' in Europe and the US. While she pays a steep price for her beliefs, Ayaan remains steadfast in her principles.

Most people seek morally consistent belief systems in their early years. Either out of ignorance, or from dogmatic thinking, many young people are given limited choices. Seeking consistency, they often choose some sort of organized Religion in their personal lives and Welfare State Socialism as the political & economic extension of their personal beliefs. Even those who manage to find a principled, objective world-view in their early years seem to sag into the pit of moral relativism in later years. On this blog I apply this criticism equally to Secular & Religious Leftists as well as Religious Conservatives. If you think about it, Religious Leftists may be wrong-headed, but they sure are morally consistent!

Most Religious Conservatives in America will appreciate reading about Ayaan's formative years and her subsequent struggles with Islam and Socialism. However, they will have difficulty in embracing Ayaan's atheism and some of her thoughts on social issues. American Leftists, whether religious or secular, will enjoy the book as a 'good read', but are likely to discard her political and economic world-view. Introspective readers of all persuasions may see ominous parallels in their own thinking that will be difficult to ignore.

Ayaan's book is inspiring, because the story of her life is about a normal person who just keeps asking questions. Unlike most people, she doesn't just 'shut up and conform' but continues to seek moral consistency in her life.

Bravo, Ayaan. Stay safe ..