Today it’s great to have Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the podcast. Ayaan is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and founder of the AHA Foundation. She has written several books including Infidel (2007), Nomad: from Islam to America, a Personal Journey through the Clash of Civilizations (2010), Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (2015) and The Challenge of Dawa (2017). Her latest book Prey was published by Harper Collins in 2020. In 2005, Ayaan was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world

Topics

[1:58] Ayaan’s early childhood experiences

[4:47] Ayaan’s personal experience with female genital mutilation

[7:39] Which values are moving humanity in a better or worse direction?

[14:02] Ayaan’s relationship with Islam and why she left

[18:41] Ayaan’s current feelings about religion in general

[20:29] Ayaan’s response to critics who doubt her story

[22:19] Ayaan’s conceptualization of Islam and the classifications of Muslims

[28:43] Ayaan’s thoughts on Islam and Western values

[32:39] Ayaan’s response to individuals who call her an "Islamaphobe"

[38:35] Ayaan’s first impressions of the Netherlands

[40:38] Ayaan’s thoughts on modern American feminism

[44:15] Ayaan discusses her own views of feminism

[45:44] Why Ayaan focuses on Muslim migrants in her book

[49:01] How to sidestep vilification of two vulnerable populations

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