book reviews

Nomad: A Personal Journey translator and Dutch MP, to and bad, and that fate is not to be Through the Clash of re-affirm Samuel Huntington’s altered. She argues that this fatalism Civilizations 1990s thesis that a clash of engenders a lack of agency and the By Ayaan Hirsi Ali civilisations will be the source sense that an individual’s aims Fourth Estate, 2010 of global conflict rather than and desires are powerless against $35, 277 pages economics or ideology. In the status quo (God’s will). This ISBN 9780732289775 Nomad, she makes a case against helplessness in the face of sickness, multiculturalism and the language poverty, violence, oppression and Nomad is Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s third of political correctness, which cruelty is the opposite of the culture published work in her campaign, she says has muzzled rigorous of self-reliance associated with as she describes, to enlighten . intellectual discussion about the Enlightenment. Compared Like her first two books, the author the clash between and to Hirsi Ali, who is vigorously herself is the main subject of the the West. self-motivated and athletic in work. She is the nomad of the book’s Hirsi Ali seeks to diffuse expressing her own agency, Islamic title, having lived in , Saudi those critics who accuse her of migrants are suffering under Arabia, , , Holland, misinterpreting the Qur’an in misplaced stoicism. Yet, Western and now the United States, and her previous works by restating democracies, with their cradle to having traversed the centuries Popper’s warning against getting grave welfare systems and grovelling that divide the poverty-stricken bogged down in semantics, in case multicultural platitudes, also tribalism of Islamic Africa to the it clouds the real issue at hand. engender helplessness and anomie rich, liberal and individualist West. The fight Hirsi Ali is picking with within their communities. Hirsi In Nomad, Hirsi Ali continues her Islamists is about practice, not Ali warns that this combination now well-known role as a modern theology. She therefore devotes of religious and policy-based day Enlightenment heroine, only small sections of Nomad to helplessness is destroying the lives advocating the continued resistance the meaning of Qur’anic teachings, of the next generation of European by Western cultures of what she focusing instead on the oppressive and American Muslims born into sees as the tendency of Islam to and violent outcomes of the manner immigrant enclaves in the West. limit and damage the in which these religious She presents a series of highly lives of Muslim people. instructions are put into personal vignettes in support of her Nomad is Hirsi Ali’s practice, particularly in arguments—harrowing accounts call to arms to resolve the areas of sexuality, the of her cousins who have failed, the policy crisis at the oppression of women, disastrously, to build functioning heart of the clash of violence and attitudes lives in the West. One cousin has civilisations. She urges to money. According to contracted HIV but her naivety and Western institutions, Hirsi Ali, Islamic cultural resignation to Allah’s will means she not just governments, attitudes towards these does not practice safe sex with her to refocus their efforts three aspects of life have partner and continues to spread the to integrate Muslim left Muslim immigrants virus. Illustrating the contradiction immigrants. She calls ill equipped to live in between tribal kinship and Western for educators to encourage critical Western countries and relegated individualism, Hirsi Ali tells of thinking, feminists to fight for the those in Islamic countries to a another cousin who works around emancipation of Muslim women barbarous and squalid existence. the clock to send remittances back and girls, and Christian churches One of the most startling sites to relatives in Somalia and fails to to promote themselves to Muslims of the cultural clash elucidated in invest in his own life. as a more loving and tolerant Nomad is in Hirsi Ali’s description Hirsi Ali uses these anecdotes alternative to Islam. of the fatalism of Muslim believers. to put political philosophy into Hirsi Ali uses her own experiences She describes a pervasive belief practice and to illustrate the effects in negotiating between the two that it is Allah’s wish that events of policy failures on individual lives. conflicting cultures, as a refugee, occur in their lives, whether good She argues that for some migrants,

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clinging to Islamic attitudes to she achieves without awkwardly marriage, is being challenged in the sex, violence and money is the spoon feeding her readers. Federal District Court, while public cause of their suffering. In place of Hirsi Ali’s aim is to change, or at opinion polls show Californians these attitudes, Hirsi Ali advocates least open up, the minds of millions regret their decision. The former the confident reassertion of of Muslims and multiculturalists, US First Lady Laura Bush disclosed contemporary Western social values so her books are appropriately her support for same-sex marriage that provide superior outcomes in pitched at a general audience. in her biography. And Greens Party people’s lives. While Nomad is insightful and leader, Bob Brown, advocated For those who have read Hirsi easily read, it may have been more same-sex marriage on morning Ali’s earlier autobiographical works, powerfully presented as a series television to rounds of applause. Nomad may seem a less powerful of more formal essays or policy The essays in Why vs Why on progression. Hirsi Ali’s fascinating recommendations rather than ‘gay marriage’—for opening life is well worth documenting, but the first person autobiographical marriage to same-sex couples by pumping out three autobiographical style we’re so familiar with in her Rodney Croome and against by books by the age of 40 has led to writing. Having gained the world’s Bill Muehlenberg—attempt to some disappointing and distracting attention, Hirsi Ali’s many readers provide some clarity to inform repetition in Nomad. and admirers are ready for a more public debate. But they fail in offered raw details and solid presentation of her policy their task. often disturbing accounts of Hirsi ideas to instigate a new surge by the The arguments of both Ali’s life growing up under Islam. West in the clash of civilisations. Muehlenberg and Croome are Her bravery and frankness in entirely predictable. making her personal experiences Reviewed by Leonie Phillips For Muehlenberg, marriage is public has, as in the feminist a time-tested institution within catchcry, made them political. Yet which heterosexual couples raise the potency of Nomad is the weight Why vs Why Gay Marriage children. Apparently same-sex Hirsi Ali gives to policy rather Yes by Rodney Croome couples don’t want marriage; than ideology. Hirsi Ali has a surer No by Bill Muehlenberg they are promiscuous and cannot grip on the enormous issues she is Pantera Press, 2010 conform to the expectations of grappling with and her certainty $19.95, 120 pages monogamy; there is a homosexual about positive solutions to them ISBN 9780980741841 agenda to destroy the family; is closer at hand than in her earlier and the biological incapacity of books. Her time at the American In 2004, the Howard government same-sex couples to have children Enterprise Institute is reflected in amended the Marriage Act to clarify without the assistance of a third her recent writing, in which she that only heterosexual marriages party justifies excluding them from more clearly proposes solutions would be granted and recognised his sacred institution. to the clash between Islam and in Australia. While pilloried by For Croome, accessing same-sex the West. advocates of same-sex marriage, marriage is about equality, the Nomad is peppered with Hirsi the amendments ensured same-sex rights of consenting adults, the Ali’s poetic turn of phrase and the marriage was off the election agenda necessity for a secular and universal book flows intelligibly, although at a time when its supporters were law applying to every Australian, one discordant note is the facile unlikely to win the fight. and the ‘benefits’ denied to same- list of the many airports she has But with shifting public sex couples. travelled through and the folksy sentiment and accumulating But neither presents a bullet- encounters with Dutch travellers. international precedents, the push proof case. This chapter reads as though Hirsi to allow same-sex marriages is back. To justify the incompatibility Ali is labouring to justify the title Recently Argentina’s Parliament between homosexuals and marriage, of her book. I would argue that it is changed its law. So has Spain’s. Muehlenberg attacks homosexual the subtitle that is more interesting California’s Proposition 8, which men for being promiscuous. The and worthwhile, and something had successfully banned same-sex obvious retort is that heterosexual

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