Critic of Islam Finds New Home in U.S.

February 10, 2007
Critic of Islam Finds New Home in U.S.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:05 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As a child, Ayaan Hirsi Ali fled violence in Somalia with her family. As an adult she fled Kenya to escape an arranged marriage. She left her adopted Holland after she was caught up in political turmoil and had her life threatened. Now Hirsi Ali -- a brave critic of Islam to her supporters, a bigot to her critics -- has found refuge in the intellectual bastion of leading U.S. conservatives.

Hirsi Ali joined the American Enterprise Institute last September, after a sometimes stormy 14 years in the Netherlands, where she was a member of parliament and became a central figure in two events that jolted the nation.

First, after she wrote a script for a film that depicted naked women with Quranic verses scrawled on their bodies, a Dutch-born Muslim gunned down the filmmaker, Theo van Gogh. A letter threatening Hirsi Ali was left on a knife plunged into van Gogh's chest. Next, a fight within Hirsi Ali's political party over her Dutch citizenship brought down the government.

These days, Hirsi Ali is promoting her autobiography, ''Infidel.'' It gives a graphic account of how she rejected her faith and the violence she says was inflicted on her in the name of Islam... The Council on American-Islamic Relations thinks Hirsi Ali's campaign amounts to slander and bigotry. ''We believe that contributes to a growing level of Muslim hatred in America,'' said the council's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper. ''It is unfortunate that she had to bring that kind of hate from Europe to the United States.''...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Islam-Critic.html?_r=1&oref=slogin