Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Infidel

I bought Infidel the other day because it had been highly recommended in a number of other books that I've read recently. I don't have much to say about it other than that it was an amazingly interesting book that everyone should read.

There were a couple of particularly interesting points in the book. The first was that contrary to some of the reviews I've read the book does not paint all Muslims with the same brush. Ali makes no attempt to argue that all Muslim people believe the same things. As an example, her father believed that female genital mutilation and beating his wife were barbaric, but still saw no problem in arranging his daughter's wedding without her consent.

The biggest strength of Infidel in my opinion is its denunciation of moral relativism in her argument that Holland's attempt at complete respect for the cultures of refugees allows cultural traditions that are harmful for members of society to survive and thrive. I recently had an argument in class with a friend on the issue of moral relativism, and I'd like to show him the passages in Infidel where Ali talks about genital mutilation and spousal abuse. The mutilation sections in particular would provide especially strong evidence in support of my argument that just because a practice comes from a tradition that is foreign to me does not mean that it cannot be criticized. The protection of the vulnerable regardless of who they are or where they are from is far more important than not offending someone by speaking out against their beliefs or practices. Just because someone is born into a culture that treats them like near-valueless property does not mean that they are any less worthy of protection and basic rights than someone who is born into our culture.

Infidel was an incredible book, and I would highly recommend it. I would especially recommend it to those liberals who feel like criticizing the cultural or religious traditions of others is an unbreakable taboo. As Sam Harris puts it, currently the only ones loudly denouncing the ills in other cultures are those on the extreme right, who do so with the wrong motivations and the wrong methods.