Ayaan Hirsi Ali has a new article up in Foreign Policy magazine with the totally non-controversial title, “Islam Is a Religion of Violence.” Here she repeats several of the themes of her most recent book, which she dilated in her speech and conversation with me out in San Francisco last month. Despite this categorical title, she holds out some hope for an Islamic reformation that will lead to Islam adapting to modernity—though she is not optimistic in the near term
Excerpt:
The future of Islam and the world’s relationship with Muslims will be decided by which of the two minority groups — the Medina Muslims and the reformers — wins the support of the meccan majority. That is why focusing on “violent extremism” is to focus on a symptom of a much more profound ideological epidemic that has its root causes in Islamic doctrine.
If you have a leisurely hour, here’s Ayaan’s formal remarks to the Pacific Research Institute last month, and my conversation with her after:
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