DesiPundit

The Middle Stage has an interesting review of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s autobiography:Infidel.

Central to her argument is her wideranging critique of Islam, a religion of which she was once a faithful adherent. Not only that, she also differs from those who would make a careful distinction between mainstream Islam and militant or fundamentalist Islam. Her problem is with what is taught by the Quran itself, and the message of absolute submission it preaches.

Hirsi Ali regards the Quran less as a transcendent text that communicates the word of God than as “a historical record, written by humans”. Its mindset is too is that of a certain time and place, that “of the Arab desert in the seventh century”. Further, there is no distinction in Islam between the religious and the secular sphere: the Quran legislates on every aspect of life. Women suffer particularly badly, for they are subjugated in the name of the Quran. Their sexuality is seen as provocative and in need of being controlled, and their men are granted absolute rights over them. Many of the Quran’s verses propagate ideas incompatible with modern notions of freedom, equality and individual rights, yet debate on these matters is forbidden because “worship of God means total obedience”.