Nomad is a philosophical memoir, telling how Ayaan Hirsi Ali came to America in search of a new life, and the difficulties she faced in reconciling her two worlds. With vivid anecdotes and observations of people, cultures, and political debacles, this narrative weaves together Hirsi Ali's personal story -- including her reconciliation with her devout father who had disowned her when she denounced Islam -- with the stories of other women and men, high-profile and not, whom she encounters. With a deep understanding and intimate perspective of the situation of Muslim women and moderates in the world today and her singular, unwavering intellectual courage, Hirsi Ali offers her always notable, often controversial analysis of Islam vis a vis the superiority of Western democratic values.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia, was raised as a Muslim, and spent her childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia. In 1992 Hirsi Ali went to the Netherlands as a refugee, escaping a forced marriage to a distant cousin she had never met. She denounced Islam after 9/11 and now works as a Dutch parliamentarian, fighting for the rights of Muslim women in Europe, the enlightenment of Islam, and for security in the West.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Of alienation, compassion, mazes, mirages, oases, perps and remedies
June 7, 2010
Format:Paperback
Ayaan's sequel to Infidel blends reminiscence, philosophy and activism in equal measure to explain, warn and inspire. The journey she narrates here is more intellectual than the physical one of Infidel although it does cover events since the murder of Theo van Gogh which ultimately brought her to the United States. The description of a farewell visit to her dying father, analyses of her family as a microcosm for the entire Muslim world and her proposed solutions - the more startling ones in particular - reveal a generous mind and loving heart.
Devoted to the family, Part One deals with the death of her father and her relations with her mother, half-sister, brother and his son, and her cousins. She holds up the history and experiences of several of her relatives to illustrate the plight of Muslim families, particularly those in the West. Her observations correspond closely to those of Dr Wafa Sultan who grew up in Syria and those of Egyptian-born Nonie Darwish as related in Now They Call Me Infidel and Cruel and Usual Punishment.
It is clear that the letter to her grandmother really addresses Somalis and Muslims. In it she aims to persuade those of a similar background that the old ways no longer work, that new thinking is needed and that progress necessitates the giving up of some traditions and certainties. Alfred North Whitehead showed why symbolism needs to be constantly adapted and modified by new forms of expression. Old symbols must be remolded in accordance with changes in societal structure. Stagnation leads to regression that brings forth toxic fruits like the tyranny and terror of Jihad. But disruptive inversions like the evil trinity of postmodernism, multiculturalism & moral relativism have the same result. Both extremes lead to human sacrifice.
Born in Somalia, Ayaan experienced Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia as a child and Kenya as a teenager. She observes that her journey from Africa to the Netherlands and thence to the United States has been a mental trek from tribalism to truth. In an appealing way the reader rediscovers the marvels of America through Ayaan's eyes. Well, the marvels and the multiculturalists for whom she has little patience. She confronts them and the faux feminists with gusto, exposing their hypocrisy and explaining why the postmodernist dream of a magical "mosaic" of cultures is a dangerous mirage. Their perverse policies create pockets of abuse, oppression and misery. Standards of behaviour apply to all, the author insists.
Hirsi Ali identifies fear and self-loathing as the perps that repress some westerners' ability to distinguish the rights & dignity of the individual from a blind embrace of a culture which undermines that dignity and tramples on those rights. Multiculturalism condemns the children of immigrants to a maze devoid of meaning or purpose. Recognizing the hidden sadism behind seemingly sweet expressions of pious concern, she correctly diagnoses the extreme relativism of the pomo-multicult complex as a disguise mechanism for racism.
Ayaan isolates gender, money & violence as the main barriers to the integration of immigrants into Western society. Muslim attitudes to the status of women, the education of girls, credit, debt and financial planning serve to weaken people's ability to observe their obligations and avail themselves of opportunity. And blind belief in the inerrancy of the religion's scripture and its literal interpretation render the brainwashed mind vulnerable to the lure of violence.
The medicine against these mental traps includes an overdue revision of gender roles in order to emancipate women and release their talents. A further method of healing would be exposure to Enlightenment values in order to free the captive soul from extreme absolutism and its fruits of fatalism, rigidity and spiritual morbidity. To the surprize of many and the indignation of some, Ms Hirsi Ali even calls on the churches to help as she considers a faith of love and forgiveness superior to one of fear and shame. In this, she is absolutely correct.
Putting compassion first, she thus places herself firmly within the framework of what Gertrude Himmelfarb termed the Anglo-Saxon Enlightenment. It differed markedly from the Continental which was suffused by French intellectuals' contempt for religion. Since most of humanity needs to have faith in something or at least find purpose and meaning, this strain gave birth to the utopian movements or Secular Salvationist Ideologies that have tormented humanity ever since. The terror of the French Revolution foreshadowed the atrocities of the 20th century's collectivisms and today's Islamism.
No ideologue, Ayaan Hirsi Ali yearns to set shackled minds free & comfort tortured souls. Her enthusiasm for the Enlightenment has not blinded her to the fact that people seek solace in spirituality. And she clearly recognizes the sinister self-indulgence & indifference of those who reject all absolutes. Preserving a free society requires respect for tradition as well as the constant reappraisal and revision of symbolic codes. In this regard, Michael Polanyi's views in Science, Faith And Society are quite instructive. Nomad delivers a treasure trove of insight, compassion and the remedies to help heal a hurting world.
Devoted to the family, Part One deals with the death of her father and her relations with her mother, half-sister, brother and his son, and her cousins. She holds up the history and experiences of several of her relatives to illustrate the plight of Muslim families, particularly those in the West. Her observations correspond closely to those of Dr Wafa Sultan who grew up in Syria and those of Egyptian-born Nonie Darwish as related in Now They Call Me Infidel and Cruel and Usual Punishment.
It is clear that the letter to her grandmother really addresses Somalis and Muslims. In it she aims to persuade those of a similar background that the old ways no longer work, that new thinking is needed and that progress necessitates the giving up of some traditions and certainties. Alfred North Whitehead showed why symbolism needs to be constantly adapted and modified by new forms of expression. Old symbols must be remolded in accordance with changes in societal structure. Stagnation leads to regression that brings forth toxic fruits like the tyranny and terror of Jihad. But disruptive inversions like the evil trinity of postmodernism, multiculturalism & moral relativism have the same result. Both extremes lead to human sacrifice.
Born in Somalia, Ayaan experienced Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia as a child and Kenya as a teenager. She observes that her journey from Africa to the Netherlands and thence to the United States has been a mental trek from tribalism to truth. In an appealing way the reader rediscovers the marvels of America through Ayaan's eyes. Well, the marvels and the multiculturalists for whom she has little patience. She confronts them and the faux feminists with gusto, exposing their hypocrisy and explaining why the postmodernist dream of a magical "mosaic" of cultures is a dangerous mirage. Their perverse policies create pockets of abuse, oppression and misery. Standards of behaviour apply to all, the author insists.
Hirsi Ali identifies fear and self-loathing as the perps that repress some westerners' ability to distinguish the rights & dignity of the individual from a blind embrace of a culture which undermines that dignity and tramples on those rights. Multiculturalism condemns the children of immigrants to a maze devoid of meaning or purpose. Recognizing the hidden sadism behind seemingly sweet expressions of pious concern, she correctly diagnoses the extreme relativism of the pomo-multicult complex as a disguise mechanism for racism.
Ayaan isolates gender, money & violence as the main barriers to the integration of immigrants into Western society. Muslim attitudes to the status of women, the education of girls, credit, debt and financial planning serve to weaken people's ability to observe their obligations and avail themselves of opportunity. And blind belief in the inerrancy of the religion's scripture and its literal interpretation render the brainwashed mind vulnerable to the lure of violence.
The medicine against these mental traps includes an overdue revision of gender roles in order to emancipate women and release their talents. A further method of healing would be exposure to Enlightenment values in order to free the captive soul from extreme absolutism and its fruits of fatalism, rigidity and spiritual morbidity. To the surprize of many and the indignation of some, Ms Hirsi Ali even calls on the churches to help as she considers a faith of love and forgiveness superior to one of fear and shame. In this, she is absolutely correct.
Putting compassion first, she thus places herself firmly within the framework of what Gertrude Himmelfarb termed the Anglo-Saxon Enlightenment. It differed markedly from the Continental which was suffused by French intellectuals' contempt for religion. Since most of humanity needs to have faith in something or at least find purpose and meaning, this strain gave birth to the utopian movements or Secular Salvationist Ideologies that have tormented humanity ever since. The terror of the French Revolution foreshadowed the atrocities of the 20th century's collectivisms and today's Islamism.
No ideologue, Ayaan Hirsi Ali yearns to set shackled minds free & comfort tortured souls. Her enthusiasm for the Enlightenment has not blinded her to the fact that people seek solace in spirituality. And she clearly recognizes the sinister self-indulgence & indifference of those who reject all absolutes. Preserving a free society requires respect for tradition as well as the constant reappraisal and revision of symbolic codes. In this regard, Michael Polanyi's views in Science, Faith And Society are quite instructive. Nomad delivers a treasure trove of insight, compassion and the remedies to help heal a hurting world.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the eagerly anticipated third book by the phenomenal Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It lives up to expectations and then some, ending on a note of hope and a proposed solution for a future free from murderous Islamic terror. ("Extraordinary talents" that were "indispensable" for the United States of America was inscribed on Ali's visa when she entered the U.S.)
Since the publication of "Infidel" in 2007 her work at the American Enterprise Institute has been, as she describes it, "...a cross between academic work and activism." She soon discovered at AEI that learned discussions of Islam, multiculturalism, and women had been exhausted even before 9/11/01, and there was nothing original she could add to the existing volume of scholarly work.
Culturally speaking, she is 1500 years old; her intellectual life has traversed from Sixth Century Islam in Somalia to the 21st Century in the West. She states early in Nomad that her previous work, Infidel, described her experiences in escaping from Somalia to the West, but only "touched on" her "parallel and equally important mental journey." Nomad is, in large part, the telling of that parallel mental journey.
Thankfully this gifted writer has chosen to continue her autobiographical style, which was so compelling in her preceding book. Here she writes Chapters about her Father, Half Sister, Mother, Brother, Nephew, Cousins, and Grandmother. These were persons close to her that were introduced in Infidel. Their stories are continued, with Ali's genius for finding the right word for every detail of time, place and character. Always, these personal details illuminate the inner workings of Islamic culture.
At the midpoint of the book Ali includes an examination of Islamic society in terms of its three chief characteristics: sex, money, and violence. Her writing is so rigorous and concise it is difficult to describe her themes without quoting long stretches of her own work. Ali knows well the beauty and power of simple words.
In the last three Chapters and Conclusion Ayaan Hirsi Ali boldly proposes Christian proselytizing as an answer to the worldwide Islamic expansion that is taking place. She herself is a professed atheist, but understands that Muslims (and most people) need a redemptive God and belief in a higher power to provide moral guidance. She propounds an alliance of enlightened secularists with Christians to evangelize Islam, because "The Christianity of love and tolerance remains one of the West's most powerful antidotes to the Islam of hate and intolerance. Ex-Muslims find Jesus Christ to be more a more attractive and humane figure than Muhammad, the founder of Islam."
Ali's proposal that Christianity turn the tables on Islam by converting Muslims is elaborated at considerable length, but comes as a surprise and a problematic notion for this reader. But the ideas put forward in the last part of the book may be tentative and exploratory, preparing the way for exposition in this intrepid author's next work.
A brief moving Epilogue is Ali's "Letter to My Unborn Daughter." This is an imagined missive to the child that Ali hopes, one day, to have. Essentially it contains, in six memorable pages, the personal Credo of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
This review refers to the hardcover edition.
Since the publication of "Infidel" in 2007 her work at the American Enterprise Institute has been, as she describes it, "...a cross between academic work and activism." She soon discovered at AEI that learned discussions of Islam, multiculturalism, and women had been exhausted even before 9/11/01, and there was nothing original she could add to the existing volume of scholarly work.
Culturally speaking, she is 1500 years old; her intellectual life has traversed from Sixth Century Islam in Somalia to the 21st Century in the West. She states early in Nomad that her previous work, Infidel, described her experiences in escaping from Somalia to the West, but only "touched on" her "parallel and equally important mental journey." Nomad is, in large part, the telling of that parallel mental journey.
Thankfully this gifted writer has chosen to continue her autobiographical style, which was so compelling in her preceding book. Here she writes Chapters about her Father, Half Sister, Mother, Brother, Nephew, Cousins, and Grandmother. These were persons close to her that were introduced in Infidel. Their stories are continued, with Ali's genius for finding the right word for every detail of time, place and character. Always, these personal details illuminate the inner workings of Islamic culture.
At the midpoint of the book Ali includes an examination of Islamic society in terms of its three chief characteristics: sex, money, and violence. Her writing is so rigorous and concise it is difficult to describe her themes without quoting long stretches of her own work. Ali knows well the beauty and power of simple words.
In the last three Chapters and Conclusion Ayaan Hirsi Ali boldly proposes Christian proselytizing as an answer to the worldwide Islamic expansion that is taking place. She herself is a professed atheist, but understands that Muslims (and most people) need a redemptive God and belief in a higher power to provide moral guidance. She propounds an alliance of enlightened secularists with Christians to evangelize Islam, because "The Christianity of love and tolerance remains one of the West's most powerful antidotes to the Islam of hate and intolerance. Ex-Muslims find Jesus Christ to be more a more attractive and humane figure than Muhammad, the founder of Islam."
Ali's proposal that Christianity turn the tables on Islam by converting Muslims is elaborated at considerable length, but comes as a surprise and a problematic notion for this reader. But the ideas put forward in the last part of the book may be tentative and exploratory, preparing the way for exposition in this intrepid author's next work.
A brief moving Epilogue is Ali's "Letter to My Unborn Daughter." This is an imagined missive to the child that Ali hopes, one day, to have. Essentially it contains, in six memorable pages, the personal Credo of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
This review refers to the hardcover edition.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
*"Nomad" is easy to read; and it makes many things very clear.
*Part 1 describes what happened to the author's relatives. These case histories already make you think a lot and draw a few conclusions.
Part 2 recounts how Ayaan left Holland for the United States. Her impressions about that new country are very interesting.
Part 3 explains the troubled relationship that many people from her background have with sexuality, money, and violence.
Part 4 lays down the solutions she offers. Juicy material.
*Particularly touching is her "Letter to my unborn daughter", found towards the end of the book...
*If you go to the website of the AHA foundation and click on the link following WHAT DO WE KNOW, you'll access a very complete and informative document.
*This book is about undoubtedly one of the major challenges of the century. Buy it.
*Part 1 describes what happened to the author's relatives. These case histories already make you think a lot and draw a few conclusions.
Part 2 recounts how Ayaan left Holland for the United States. Her impressions about that new country are very interesting.
Part 3 explains the troubled relationship that many people from her background have with sexuality, money, and violence.
Part 4 lays down the solutions she offers. Juicy material.
*Particularly touching is her "Letter to my unborn daughter", found towards the end of the book...
*If you go to the website of the AHA foundation and click on the link following WHAT DO WE KNOW, you'll access a very complete and informative document.
*This book is about undoubtedly one of the major challenges of the century. Buy it.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
I will read anything written by this author
Ms. Ali does such a great job giving the reader a glimpse inside the world of Muslim women. So much of this way of life is almost incomprehensible for an average American woman,... Read more
Published 12 months ago by DNewcomb
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nomad
Hirsi Ali is dedicated to enlightening the world on the subject of mistreatment of women by the Muslim culture. It is an important book but also very intersting. Read more
Published on September 25, 2010 by Thomas Hardy
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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.
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