Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations [Hardcover]

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 2010

"This woman is a major hero of our time." —Richard Dawkins

Ayaan Hirsi Ali captured the world’s attention with Infidel, her compelling coming-of-age memoir, which spent thirty-one weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, in Nomad, Hirsi Ali tells of coming to America to build a new life, an ocean away from the death threats made to her by European Islamists, the strife she witnessed, and the inner conflict she suffered. It is the story of her physical journey to freedom and, more crucially, her emotional journey to freedom—her transition from a tribal mind-set that restricts women’s every thought and action to a life as a free and equal citizen in an open society. Through stories of the challenges she has faced, she shows the difficulty of reconciling the contradictions of Islam with Western values.

In these pages Hirsi Ali recounts the many turns her life took after she broke with her family, and how she struggled to throw off restrictive superstitions and misconceptions that initially hobbled her ability to assimilate into Western society. She writes movingly of her reconciliation, on his deathbed, with her devout father, who had disowned her when she renounced Islam after 9/11, as well as with her mother and cousins in Somalia and in Europe.

Nomad is a portrait of a family torn apart by the clash of civilizations. But it is also a touching, uplifting, and often funny account of one woman’s discovery of today’s America. While Hirsi Ali loves much of what she encounters, she fears we are repeating the European mistake of underestimating radical Islam. She calls on key institutions of the West—including universities, the feminist movement, and the Christian churches—to enact specific, innovative remedies that would help other Muslim immigrants to overcome the challenges she has experienced and to resist the fatal allure of fundamentalism and terrorism.

This is Hirsi Ali’s intellectual coming-of-age, a memoir that conveys her philosophy as well as her experiences, and that also conveys an urgent message and mission—to inform the West of the extent of the threat from Islam, both from outside and from within our open societies. A celebration of free speech and democracy, Nomad is an important contribution to the history of ideas, but above all a rousing call to action.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After a harrowing childhood lived according to a particularly strict interpretation of Muslim law, Somali-born Ali (Infidel) escaped to Europe rather than move to Canada to marry a man she'd never met. Arriving in Holland, she soon became an international cause célèbre for her willingness to publicly denounce the uglier sides of Islamic culture, particularly as in certain regions it oppresses women and girls. Many personal stories are repeated from her earlier accounts, but here Ali adds the story of her immigration to the U.S., and as always, her writing can be moving, as she bares heartrending moments such as her father's death. But with this third memoir, she has become tiresomely repetitive, and her wholesale condemnation of an entire religion and the multiple cultures it has engendered is so sweeping and comprehensive, and her faith in Western values (particularly her romantic view of Christianity) is so wide-eyed, that the book ultimately reads like a callow exercise in expressing the author's own sense of aggrievement. (May)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

While a few critics embraced Hirsi Ali for her intellectual integrity and bravery, most found her indictment of Islam too hard to swallow. Several reviewers argued that it is nearly impossible to generalize about a religion with more than one billion adherents. Others wrote that Hirsi Ali seems both oblivious to situations where Islam has brought peace and meaning into people's lives and naive about American culture, nomadic as she has been. But even the strongest critics of the book found something to admire in Hirsi Ali's personal story of survival and self-transformation. That said, if you haven't read her first memoir, start there--it's by far the better book.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (May 18, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439157316
• ISBN-13: 978-1439157312
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, was raised Muslim, and spent her childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia. In 1992, Hirsi Ali came to the Netherlands as a refugee. She earned her college degree in political science and worked for the Dutch Labor party. She denounced Islam after the September 11 terrorist attacks and now serves as a Dutch parliamentarian, fighting for the rights of Muslim women in Europe, the enlightenment of Islam, and security in the West.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

206 of 217 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening and Empowering, May 15, 2010

By 

Julia A. Andrews (Peoria, Illinois) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (Hardcover)

Ayaan Hirsi Ali related her physical journey from the Islamic tribal culture, beliefs and traditions in her book "Infidel". In her newest book she makes a personal and emotional exodus from Islam and describes her culture shock experiences during assimilation into Western Society.

The memoir is divided into four distinct sections, "A Problem Family", "Nomad Again", "Sex, Money, Violence" and "Remedies".

In "A Problem Family" she is reunited with her father on his deathbed in London. Ayaan publicly renounced Islam after of the 9-11 bombings causing her entire extended family to disown her, a rift that lasted until June 2008. She reconnects with her mother(one of her father's 4 wives), brother and cousins after her father's death. If you have read "Infidel" you know about the violent, dysfunctional world that made up her childhood. She finds little has changed, describing it as 'Gender Apartheid'.

Ayaan recounts her years making the rounds in the lecture circuit in "Nomad Again". She speaks against female genital mutilation, honor killings, and the control of female will through the veil. She notes American naviete disbelieving that these atrocities happen in Muslim communities within the USA. Ayaan counsels against complacency of the rise of Islam in America, believing younger and more impressionable people will be radicalized through slick jihadist tactics. She reminds us the Ft Hood killer was not indoctrinated into radical Muslim beliefs in an Islamic country but in the United States where he was a member of the our military.

"Sex, Money and Violence" deals with obstacles to true integration of Muslim communities in the West. Western education (critical thinking) is in direct contrast to Islamic teachings, especially the education of females. This has led to a rise of dedicated Muslim (Quran) schooling. According to Ayaan extremist Islam teaches children violence against infidels (all non-Muslims), especially Jews and the American Satan. Ayaan dares to hope that more affluent Western women, especially American feminists, will form a united front against the current treatment of impovished, abused Muslim women. Why haven't we, I ask myself.

In the final section Ayaan hopes for formation of an "Enlightenment Project". She reminds us that, unlike Christianity, there has been no period of "Enlightenment or Reformation" in Islam. Consequently, the Islamic religion has never faced an internal opposition to its core beliefs by its followers. What is more, external opposition to extremist Islamic teachings have been severely constrained through fear of violent Islamic reaction. For example the Danish cartoonist and since this book went to press, "South Park" depicting the prophet Muhammed as a teddy bear.

Devouring this book in one marathon read I continue to find Ayaan's personal journey since the publication of "Infidel" fascinating and courageous. Her writing is always heartfelt and thought provoking. As an American woman, it is publication of literature like this that makes me realize just how incredibly lucky I have been.

Remarkable woman, remarkable read!

74 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, May 23, 2010

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waterworks (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (Hardcover)

I don't want to spoil the book for people who are just checking reviews. But I would like to say that I consider Ayaan to have made some very interesting and unique arguments, and argues viewpoints that may make her unpopular even with liberals and atheists, who normally stand behind her. I think this book, as much or more as her other books, makes her stand out as truly a brave, enlightened, and perceptive woman--not to mention incredibly well educated and eloquent. I recommend everyone read her books for a different opinion on the problems of integration of immigrants into Western society, and the dangers of being overly tolerant to the point of simply acquiescing.

90 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The continuing life of a human rights activist targeted for assassination., May 21, 2010

By 

Steve Summers (San Diego) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (Hardcover)

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's 2008 autobiography, "Infidel", a runaway bestseller, has justifiably become famous in the two years since it was published. "Nomad" is eloquent continuation of her startlingly eventful life story and an further elaboration of her ideas. Together they will probably be remembered--for their consequences as much as their passion & intelligence--as the 1845 "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave" is remembered today. (Douglass updated his own story with new books as he campaigned to end slavery.)

Comparing a religious defection to a physical escape from slavery is an inherently specious analogy--or is it? Wouldn't it be like comparing the body count of Nat Turner's Rebellion to that of suicide bombers and holy assassins? Slavery has a long, ugly history in human affairs, but has at last been eradicated in the modern world. Its few remaining pockets (and advocates) are virtually all in pre-modern Islamic countries. So maybe linking slavery and Islam isn't such a stretch.

One common way of distinguishing cults and religions is by the degree they seek to control believers. The word "Islam" itself means submission and as Ayaan's stories show, submission is the defining feature of Islamic life--escalating exponentially if you're female. Many Islamic women are de facto slaves. The second most common Muslim name is "Abdullah", the Slave of God. Mohammed (the ideal Muslim) executed and enslaved his enemies and their families en masse. Blasphemy or leaving the faith is a capital crime. By this "control standard" Islam, despite its billion plus adherents is more a cult than the Branch Davidians; the prophet outdoes Rev. Jim Jones.

(And so my conclusion: Frederick Douglass' escape from a slave plantation is legitimately comparable to Ayaan Hirsi Ali's courageous apostasy: at least Douglass didn't need a permanent entourage of bodyguards.)

Douglass' awakening began as a teenager when his (illegal) literacy revealed to him that an abolition movement was then gathering force in America. Ayaan's revelation began at 21 when she fled to Holland to escape an arranged marriage to a man who repelled her. The discovery of freedom was for her every bit as life changing (and may prove as important) as Douglass' own.

I'd rather not over-summarize "Nomad". It was too satisfying and stimulating to discover its contents for myself to burden you with a catalogue of her topics. Her incisive, straight-to-the-point opinions are never dull, hateful, hysterical or poorly informed. Be advised that there may be more negative reviews this time around: she has (for excellent reasons) criticized prominent feminists' silence about Islamic misogyny and the bad (but politically correct) idea that all cultures are equal. Any revolutionary idea worth hearing will quickly draw ridicule from orthodox minds. (The sneering, inaccurate synopsis from Publishers Weekly, above, is such a reaction.)

I found "Nomad's" warm, clear prose as wise, honest, and as relevant as "Infidel" was 2 years ago. Ayaan's penetrating essays on the perverse psychological effects of compulsory beliefs and mandatory ignorance on believers of her intimate acquaintance, on the festering problem of unassimilated Muslim ghettos across Europe, and her humanitarian recommendations to be easily worth the price of the book.