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| Author: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $8.85
You Save: $6.15 (41%)
New (49) Used (19) Collectible (2) from $7.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  266 reviews
Sales Rank: 432
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0743289692
Dewey Decimal Number: 949.2073092
EAN: 9780743289696
ASIN: 0743289692
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Infidel August 12, 2008
amazing story, amazing book, amazing woman. I am highly impressed with Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her book. The book was a page turner and Ali is a gifted writer. She is a strong voice for women everywhere.
A must-read for all, politicians included August 7, 2008
This is a gripping book with a fascinating autobiographical story, as well as a focused analysis of what Muslim communities in the West today are like. Ali has the experience, as a formerly observant Muslim and (brief) member of the Muslim Brotherhood, to provide insights and to make an excellent case for every point.
It's must reading for all politicians, as well as all Americans.
This could be the most memorable book I've read all year.
A Must Read August 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If one text has succeeded in challenging the complacency of the West, indeed of supposedly enlightened people the world over, to the rising threat of fundamentalist Islam, it is Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. From her perspective as a woman who has survived the treacherous grip of Islam over both her body and her mind, Ayaan counters the oft repeated proclamation that Islam is "a religion of peace." Narrating her own intimidating journey through oppression and hatred in Islamic Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and the rapidly growing Muslim enclaves of Kenya and Europe, Ali rehashes in masterful and often touching prose her harrowing trials and the series of cruel acts perpetrated against her in the name of the religion she herself so desperately clung to.
Young Ayaan survives her mother's descent into insanity, her abusive male relatives, female circumcision, and constant religious and tribal warfare by dreaming of the life she can only read about in Western novels. She is finally forced to choose between her dreams and the harsh reality of life as a subservient Muslim woman when her father promises her hand in marriage to an aging Somali expatriate who has come to seek a proper traditional wife in Kenya. Her choice is flight, but reaching her imagined paradise in liberal Western Europe she discovers that Islam has arrived ahead of her, bringing with it so much of the terror she had naively hoped to have left behind. After a soul wrenching self-examination, Ayaan cuts the final cords to the religion and culture of her birth, to become a one woman crusade against the oppression perpetrated by Islam, and innocently defended by the "accepting" European Left.
For anyone who is left unsatisfied by the all-encompassing doctrine of cultural relativism, Ali is a breath of fresh literary air. When we unquestioningly "accept" Muslim culture, are we also accepting the horrific abuse of Muslim wives and daughters? What of religious and ethnic minorities suffering throughout the Muslim dominated Arab world and East Africa? Ayaan convincingly argues that in our zeal to be inoffensive, we have allowed for a level of intolerance and violent hatred that would not be tolerated in any other religion. It is time, Ali is telling us, to force an enlightenment in the Muslim world, to bring it up to the same standards by which we judge the Christian West.
Quill says: Infidel is a must read!
An Inspiration to All Women August 5, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Ayaan Hirsi Ali has become one of my heroines. Her improbable but triumphant story can inspire women everywhere who are trapped by cultural restrictions, lack of educational and vocational opportunities, family poverty, or fear of taking the risk of following their hearts. The horrible treatment of women in certain parts of the "modern" world is not widely understood in the West. Ali's stories of abuse and her perilous struggle to find freedom should be heard and understood by young Americans. They will find it amazing that patently horrible treatment of young women like themselves can be considered "normal!" It is amazing that Ali has to risk her life daily just because she chose her own life path and published the truth about her journey. Her courage is inspiring.
Are We Paying Attention? August 5, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I first learned about the author on a news program. Her message, though forced into sound bites, was riveting. After ordering and reading "Infidel" I sent additional copies to my liberally educated daughters. I am only sorry that the book does not include the rest of her life, but we must wait for her to live it! Ali's book has many messages, but it never says "this is the message," because it is embedded in her story. The glimpses into her childhood years look so strange to our eyes, like a look into a medieval time. Her maltreatment, much of it at the hands of those who should have been nurturing and encouraging her, is truly tragic. Her escape from the self-serving control of her proud father and would-be husband is both suspenseful and triumphant. While Ali's initial acceptance by her European hosts is laudatory, their inability to perceive the threat to their own generous and accepting culture by uncontrolled immigration of people with totally different values is troubling. An autobiography contains inarguable truth - it is simply an account of what happened. Ali does not attempt to boast or preach. Her journey was made a step at a time without any clear idea of where it would lead. She only did what was necessary to survive with her integrity and identity intact. Coming from a culture where she was not considered a person of free will and value, she had the fortitude to risk everything to live a life of her choosing and not to compromise or give in to intolerable pressure to conform and be controlled. May we all have such strength of character!
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