Free Republic

Ideas can be dangerous. I have learnt that the hard way. But I know that when it comes to freedom and human rights these precious ideas, so valued in the West, are worth fighting for. As a young Muslim woman, born in Somalia, I abandoned my family to avoid an arranged marriage to a distant cousin and fled to Holland. I was just 23 and I had no idea back then that my refusal to submit to a traditional Muslim woman’s life would come to dominate my whole career. So for me, the debate that is raging about the veil,...

‘‘I do not despise Islam,’’ writes Somali-Dutch activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali at the outset of her fiercely independent first book, ‘‘The Caged Virgin,’’ a bestseller in Europe that consolidated her reputation as the Continent’s sternest critic of Islam. ‘‘I am thoroughly conscious of the noble values that the religion promotes, such as charity, hospitality and compassion for the weak and poor.’’ Furthermore, Hirsi Ali acknowledges, ‘‘I know countless wonderful Muslim men who treat their mothers, sisters and spouses decently.’’ Sounds reasonable and moderate. Why, then, must Hirsi Ali live under 24/7 guard from Dutch security after years of regular death...