The Clash of Civilizations: Hirsi Ali's Long-Awaited Sequel to "Infidel" Now Available
“If Infidel was [Hirsi Ali’s] wake-up call to the West, NOMAD is her battle cry.” —Elle
One of today’s most admired and controversial figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali captured the world’s attention with her memoir Infidel—a #1 bestseller in Europe and a New York Times bestseller for thirty-one weeks. Her new book, NOMAD, 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 open society.
After Infidel was published, readers all over the world contacted Ayaan with questions. They asked about the rest of her family. They asked about the experience of other Muslim women. “Time and again,” she says, “I heard the question: How typical was your experience? Are you in any way representative? So NOMAD is not only about my own life as a wanderer in the West. It is also about the lives of many immigrants to the West—the philosophical and very real difficulties of people, especially women, who live in a tightly closed traditional Muslim culture enclosed within a broadly open one. It is about how Islamic ideals clash with Western ones. It is about the clash of civilizations that I and millions of others have lived and continue to live.”
NOMAD is a compelling combination of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s dramatic personal experiences and stories with riveting exhortations. She shares her commitment to Western values as she adapts to life in the United States, her renewed contact with members of her family (including the deathbed reconciliation with the father who disowned her), and her work to inform the West of the extent of the threats from Islam, both from inside and outside our societies.
In NOMAD, Ayaan explores:
- The three barriers inhibiting Muslim immigrants from integrating into western society: Islam’s treatment of women; Islamic attitudes toward money, credit, and debt; and the socialization of the Muslim mind.
- How multiculturalism can unwittingly foster terrorism.
- Why many Muslim women —even in the U.S.—are prevented from completing their education, controlling their bodies and sexuality, and becoming part of the workforce.
- Why the Feminist movement should create campaigns dedicated to exposing the special circumstances and restrictions of Muslim women and the dangers they face in the West.
- Public education’s responsibility to teach critical thinking and challenge the beliefs of oppressive religions and cultures.
- How Christian churches—by offering an alternative source of spirituality—can help Muslim immigrants to resist the allure of fundamentalism and terrorism.
A portrait of a family torn apart by the philosophical and cultural differences between East and West, NOMAD is also a celebration of free speech and democracy, and a touching, uplifting, and often funny account of one woman’s discovery of today’s America. Above all, NOMAD is an important contribution to the history of ideas and a rousing call to action.