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Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women's Rights
Why are so few people talking about the eruption of sexual violence and harassment in Europe’s cities? No one in a position of power wants to admit that the problem is linked to the arrival of several million migrants—most of them young men—from Muslim-majority countries.
In Prey, the best-selling author of Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, presents startling statistics, criminal cases and personal testimony. Among these facts: In 2014, sexual violence in Western Europe surged following a period of stability. In 2018 Germany, “offences against sexual self-determination” rose 36 percent from their 2014 rate; nearly two-fifths of the suspects were non-German. In Austria in 2017, asylum-seekers were suspects in 11 percent of all reported rapes and sexual harassment cases, despite making up less than 1 percent of the total population.
This violence isn’t a figment of alt-right propaganda, Hirsi Ali insists, even if neo-Nazis exaggerate it. It’s a real problem that Europe—and the world—cannot continue to ignore. She explains why so many young Muslim men who arrive in Europe engage in sexual harassment and violence, tracing the roots of sexual violence in the Muslim world from institutionalized polygamy to the lack of legal and religious protections for women.
A refugee herself, Hirsi Ali is not against immigration. As a child in Somalia, she suffered female genital mutilation; as a young girl in Saudi Arabia, she was made to feel acutely aware of her own vulnerability. Immigration, she argues, requires integration and assimilation. She wants Europeans to reform their broken system—and for Americans to learn from European mistakes. If this doesn’t happen, the calls to exclude new Muslim migrants from Western countries will only grow louder.
Deeply researched and featuring fresh and often shocking revelations, Prey uncovers a sexual assault and harassment crisis in Europe that is turning the clock on women’s rights much further back than the #MeToo movement is advancing it.
In Prey, the best-selling author of Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, presents startling statistics, criminal cases and personal testimony. Among these facts: In 2014, sexual violence in Western Europe surged following a period of stability. In 2018 Germany, “offences against sexual self-determination” rose 36 percent from their 2014 rate; nearly two-fifths of the suspects were non-German. In Austria in 2017, asylum-seekers were suspects in 11 percent of all reported rapes and sexual harassment cases, despite making up less than 1 percent of the total population.
This violence isn’t a figment of alt-right propaganda, Hirsi Ali insists, even if neo-Nazis exaggerate it. It’s a real problem that Europe—and the world—cannot continue to ignore. She explains why so many young Muslim men who arrive in Europe engage in sexual harassment and violence, tracing the roots of sexual violence in the Muslim world from institutionalized polygamy to the lack of legal and religious protections for women.
A refugee herself, Hirsi Ali is not against immigration. As a child in Somalia, she suffered female genital mutilation; as a young girl in Saudi Arabia, she was made to feel acutely aware of her own vulnerability. Immigration, she argues, requires integration and assimilation. She wants Europeans to reform their broken system—and for Americans to learn from European mistakes. If this doesn’t happen, the calls to exclude new Muslim migrants from Western countries will only grow louder.
Deeply researched and featuring fresh and often shocking revelations, Prey uncovers a sexual assault and harassment crisis in Europe that is turning the clock on women’s rights much further back than the #MeToo movement is advancing it.
352 pages, ebook
First published February 1, 2021
About the author
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
42 books2,185 followersAyaan Hirsi Ali (Somali: Ayaan Xirsi Cali; born Ayaan Hirsi Magan 13 November 1969) is a Dutch feminist, writer, and politician. She is the estranged daughter of the Somali scholar, politician, and revolutionary opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse. She is a prominent critic of Islam, and her screenplay for Theo Van Gogh's movie Submission led to death threats. Since van Gogh's murder by a Muslim in 2004, she has lived in seclusion under the protection of Dutch authorities.
When she was eight, her family left Somalia for Saudi Arabia, then Ethiopia, and eventually settled in Kenya. She sought and obtained political asylum in the Netherlands in 1992, under circumstances that later became the center of a political controversy. In 2003 she was elected a member of the Tweede Kamer (the Lower House of the Dutch parliament), representing the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). A political crisis surrounding the potential stripping of her Dutch citizenship led to her resignation from the parliament, and led indirectly to the fall of the second Balkenende cabinet.
She is currently a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank linked to neoconservatism, working from an unknown location in the Netherlands. In 2005, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She has also received several awards for her work, including Norway's Human Rights Service's Bellwether of the Year Award, the Danish Freedom Prize, the Swedish Democracy Prize, and the Moral Courage Award for commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hi...
When she was eight, her family left Somalia for Saudi Arabia, then Ethiopia, and eventually settled in Kenya. She sought and obtained political asylum in the Netherlands in 1992, under circumstances that later became the center of a political controversy. In 2003 she was elected a member of the Tweede Kamer (the Lower House of the Dutch parliament), representing the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). A political crisis surrounding the potential stripping of her Dutch citizenship led to her resignation from the parliament, and led indirectly to the fall of the second Balkenende cabinet.
She is currently a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank linked to neoconservatism, working from an unknown location in the Netherlands. In 2005, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She has also received several awards for her work, including Norway's Human Rights Service's Bellwether of the Year Award, the Danish Freedom Prize, the Swedish Democracy Prize, and the Moral Courage Award for commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hi...
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December 1, 2021
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not afraid to tread into controversial subject areas; she does not fall into the category of the politically correct.
Page 135 (my book)
Surely, women’s safety in public places should be a core issue for those who seek to uphold woman’s rights… Outside the West, women are killed, raped, enslaved, confined and debased… Girls are denied education or have their genitals cut. Girls and young women are forced into marriage with men they hardly know.
This book is focused primarily on European countries. Her main thesis is that by allowing hundreds of thousands of Islamic migrants into Europe of whom the majority are male – European values are being endangered – specifically the equality of women. In some branches of Islam, women are subservient to men. They are not permitted to wander alone in public spaces – the street, public transportation, parks, museums… When they do go out, preferably accompanied by a male guardian, they must dress “modestly”, cover their hair and wear a long skirt. An honour code must be upheld.
Page 10
For nothing else so clearly distinguishes Western societies from Muslim societies today than the different ways they treat women.
Page 70
Shrinking from men, being on guard, avoiding drawing attention to oneself; this is the daily life of women in Africa and the Middle East.
What has also happened is that due to the preponderance of men in public spaces where immigrants reside, unaccompanied women have been harassed, leered at, insulted and worse. In Cologne on New Years Eve,2015 (page 64-65) “Fifteen hundred men, most of Arab and North African background converged in the Cologne Central Station and assaulted hundreds of women. 661 women reported being victims of sexual attacks that night.”
There are many more examples of this on a smaller scale – for example at music festivals, swimming pools, beaches, parks… Women in Europe are feeling less safe on the street, attending concerts, sitting in outdoor cafes and the like.
The author is not saying all immigrants and asylum seekers fall into the role of sexual predators, but because so many are now being admitted into Europe it is inevitable that many males will bring their behavior patterns with them.
Most of these men are merely given a warning when brought to court for their bad behavior. Coming from a cruel dictatorship they view this as a sign of weakness from the new country they reside in, and simply continue harassing women. They also respond with disdain to females in the police force.
The author mentions a short film by Sofie Peeters “Femme de la rue” which shows first-hand what it is like to walk on a street in Brussels that is now inhabited mostly by newly arrived male migrants. It is most unpleasant to watch.
Page 273
Western feminists have affectively relegated their Muslim sisters to the past. They are sleepwalking as their own rights begin to be eroded.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali proposes some solutions to resolve this serious problem. One very good one is that all new arrivals should be given sex education courses – and what is a proper sexual relationship – emphasizing that improper sexual contact or verbal statements are unacceptable. All sexual behaviour must be consensual. Also, punishment for sexual misconduct must become far more severe, including deportation – rather than just a warning.
Another method is to get those who have successfully adapted to Europe to participate in the immigration process, some already do. This is far better than using Imams to preach Sharia to the newly arrived. It must be made clear to the new arrivals that Europe is a secular society that does not use religion for legal processes. Learning the language is also essential, inroads have been made on this approach.
Page 266 Nazir Afzal on sex education
“They don’t know what a good relationship is or how to make one. So going up and touching somebody, unlawfully and without consent, is something natural for them.
Page 161
If Egyptian men harass Egyptian women in the streets of Cairo and then come to Germany and do the same thing to German woman in the streets of Cologne, it is not because they feel inferior or oppressed; it is because they think they can get away with it, just as they did back home.
This book is a strong warning. We must maintain the values of secular society and not let religion (in this case Islam) whittle away women’s rights. As the author points out it is only in the last one hundred years that women have made great strides to equality and freedom – to vote, to have reproductive rights, more sexual freedom, access to the public space, the right to work, access to more attire (in other words less restrictive clothing), the right to work, legal rights, less sex segregation…). Religion played little or no role in the granting of these rights. We must not go backward.
Page 135 (my book)
Surely, women’s safety in public places should be a core issue for those who seek to uphold woman’s rights… Outside the West, women are killed, raped, enslaved, confined and debased… Girls are denied education or have their genitals cut. Girls and young women are forced into marriage with men they hardly know.
This book is focused primarily on European countries. Her main thesis is that by allowing hundreds of thousands of Islamic migrants into Europe of whom the majority are male – European values are being endangered – specifically the equality of women. In some branches of Islam, women are subservient to men. They are not permitted to wander alone in public spaces – the street, public transportation, parks, museums… When they do go out, preferably accompanied by a male guardian, they must dress “modestly”, cover their hair and wear a long skirt. An honour code must be upheld.
Page 10
For nothing else so clearly distinguishes Western societies from Muslim societies today than the different ways they treat women.
Page 70
Shrinking from men, being on guard, avoiding drawing attention to oneself; this is the daily life of women in Africa and the Middle East.
What has also happened is that due to the preponderance of men in public spaces where immigrants reside, unaccompanied women have been harassed, leered at, insulted and worse. In Cologne on New Years Eve,2015 (page 64-65) “Fifteen hundred men, most of Arab and North African background converged in the Cologne Central Station and assaulted hundreds of women. 661 women reported being victims of sexual attacks that night.”
There are many more examples of this on a smaller scale – for example at music festivals, swimming pools, beaches, parks… Women in Europe are feeling less safe on the street, attending concerts, sitting in outdoor cafes and the like.
The author is not saying all immigrants and asylum seekers fall into the role of sexual predators, but because so many are now being admitted into Europe it is inevitable that many males will bring their behavior patterns with them.
Most of these men are merely given a warning when brought to court for their bad behavior. Coming from a cruel dictatorship they view this as a sign of weakness from the new country they reside in, and simply continue harassing women. They also respond with disdain to females in the police force.
The author mentions a short film by Sofie Peeters “Femme de la rue” which shows first-hand what it is like to walk on a street in Brussels that is now inhabited mostly by newly arrived male migrants. It is most unpleasant to watch.
Page 273
Western feminists have affectively relegated their Muslim sisters to the past. They are sleepwalking as their own rights begin to be eroded.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali proposes some solutions to resolve this serious problem. One very good one is that all new arrivals should be given sex education courses – and what is a proper sexual relationship – emphasizing that improper sexual contact or verbal statements are unacceptable. All sexual behaviour must be consensual. Also, punishment for sexual misconduct must become far more severe, including deportation – rather than just a warning.
Another method is to get those who have successfully adapted to Europe to participate in the immigration process, some already do. This is far better than using Imams to preach Sharia to the newly arrived. It must be made clear to the new arrivals that Europe is a secular society that does not use religion for legal processes. Learning the language is also essential, inroads have been made on this approach.
Page 266 Nazir Afzal on sex education
“They don’t know what a good relationship is or how to make one. So going up and touching somebody, unlawfully and without consent, is something natural for them.
Page 161
If Egyptian men harass Egyptian women in the streets of Cairo and then come to Germany and do the same thing to German woman in the streets of Cologne, it is not because they feel inferior or oppressed; it is because they think they can get away with it, just as they did back home.
This book is a strong warning. We must maintain the values of secular society and not let religion (in this case Islam) whittle away women’s rights. As the author points out it is only in the last one hundred years that women have made great strides to equality and freedom – to vote, to have reproductive rights, more sexual freedom, access to the public space, the right to work, access to more attire (in other words less restrictive clothing), the right to work, legal rights, less sex segregation…). Religion played little or no role in the granting of these rights. We must not go backward.
February 11, 2021
I literally couldn’t put this book down. I consumed it in 2 days. Ayaan is a true champion of women around the world. This book is data driven, compassionate, and honest. She goes to great lengths to clarify her intentions and aims for seeing the humanity in us all. Bravo!
December 8, 2020
Rooted primarily in facts and charts, Ayaan Hirsi Ali addresses the problems with the mass immigration from majority Muslim countries where mistreatment is unfortunately more common as the culture is just simply different there. She addresses how these immigrants are impacting women's rights and freedoms within the area. Spoke from the middle ground and as an asylum-seeking refugee, she offers important context and personal anecdotes.
February 27, 2023
3.5 stars
One doesn't have to agree with all of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's conclusions to acknowledge that this book represents a very important contribution to discussions around immigration, women's rights, and rising rates of sexual violence committed against women in the West. Not only is Hirsi Ali's argument very nuanced and sensible, she is also far more charitable and gracious toward migrants and asylum-seekers from Muslim-majority countries than her critics would suggest. Being interested in this book and seeking answers to the kinds of questions it raises should not automatically earn one the label of "alt-right xenophobe."
One doesn't have to agree with all of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's conclusions to acknowledge that this book represents a very important contribution to discussions around immigration, women's rights, and rising rates of sexual violence committed against women in the West. Not only is Hirsi Ali's argument very nuanced and sensible, she is also far more charitable and gracious toward migrants and asylum-seekers from Muslim-majority countries than her critics would suggest. Being interested in this book and seeking answers to the kinds of questions it raises should not automatically earn one the label of "alt-right xenophobe."
July 4, 2021
So. The right-wing populists who warned everyone that mass migration from Muslim countries into Europe would result in a culture clash and an increase in violent crime have been proven right. Well, that's awkward.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is herself an immigrant from a Muslim country, went to great lengths to dig up the truth about the impact of the migration crisis on European women. I have a lot of respect for Hirsi Ali; she is a person with integrity who doesn't let anyone's political agenda get in the way of talking about a problem and offering practical solutions. She and her research team traveled to the European countries that had taken in the largest numbers of migrants: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Sweden (as well as some others whose influx of refugees was large relative to the population of the country).
Men of all nationalities, ethnicities, and religions harass and abuse women. We all know that. People are uncomfortable bringing up nationality, ethnicity, and religion when the perpetrator of violence is from a racial or religious minority because they feel like they are singling out a characteristic about someone that should not matter, and to some degree I understand that. There are racists who seize on any instance of nonwhite male misbehaviour to promote racist opinions, and well-meaning people don't want to give them ammunition. But the left-wing has the opposite problem: they only care about male violence when it can be pinned on "straight white men." Race and ethnicity aren't related to a man's propensity for violence, but the ideologies he holds are. The majority of migrants who have traveled to Europe are young men. Migrant Muslim men primarily from the Middle East and North Africa target both women from their own communities who are "immodest" or "act too Western" and Western women because they are "sluts" and leftists pretend they don't see it. Questioning whether their behaviour has something to do with their religion or cultural values makes Muslim men look bad. It's a real issue that people don't want to talk about, and that's why Hirsi Ali wrote this book.
Hirsi Ali remarks on how troubling it is that in the era of the #MeToo movement, when Western societies have finally started to take sexual violence and sexual harassment against women and girls more seriously, the poor and lower class women and girls most affected by the sex crimes in Europe's "no-go zones" don't receive nearly as much attention or sympathy as Hollywood actresses who were harassed by producers. Indeed, the amount of Muslim male violence against women and girls that has been excused, ignored, or covered up by the police, law courts, media, and the general public due to fear of being called "racist" or "xenophobic" should enrage anyone who reads this book. It certainly enraged me.
- Hirsi Ali begins the book by describing how women are slowly disappearing from public life in certain streets and neighbourhoods due to the degree of sexual harassment and assault they have endured walking through them. In some areas of London, Paris, and Stockholm where the sexes once mingled, women are no longer anywhere to be seen.
- It was a big challenge for Hirsi Ali and her assistants to find information about migrants and sex crimes. Most European countries do not record the migration status, ethnicity, or religion of the perpetrators in crime statistics. The ones that do tend to be reluctant to release the information. In 2015, for example, Sweden's minister of justice refused to release data that included the migration status of criminals despite public pressure to do so. Sweden has no problem releasing data about the migration status of victims of crimes, however. One Swedish newspaper took it upon themselves to do some research on their own: looking through 58 gang rape cases in Sweden between 2012 and 2017, they found that of the 112 convicted rapists, 75% were not born in Sweden and 41% of that percentage were asylum seekers. A Swedish documentary on sex crimes during that same period found that 58% of offenders were born outside Sweden. "Of 129 convicted for assault rape, 110 were foreign-born. Of 94 gang rapists, 70 were born outside Europe." (Dömda för våldtäkt, SVT Nyheter)
- "Austria's Federal Ministry of the Interior does publish the migration status of suspects in its crime statistics. Since 2009, sex offenses increased by 11.8 percent. Of the 936 rape cases reported in 2018, more than half of the suspects (55 percent) were not Austrian citizens. In 2017, asylum seekers were suspects in 11 percent of all reported rapes and sexual harassment cases in Austria, despite making up less than 1 percent of the total population. The more general category of "foreigners"—which includes other non-Austrian citizens, who make up around 19 percent of Austria's population—were suspects in almost a third of rape and sexual harassment cases."
- In the other countries that recorded whether criminal suspects were native, foreign, or born to foreign parents, there were similar patterns. In Denmark, statistics show that "non-Western" immigrants and their children accounted for about 40% of rape convictions and between 25% and 33% of groping convictions despite making up less than 13% of the population. In France, foreigners make up 7% of the population but are suspects in 14% of sex crimes. In Germany, asylum seekers make up 1 to 2% of the population but were almost 12% of suspects in sex crimes in 2018 (16.3% for rapes specifically). Hirsi Ali also sought out regional data in Bavaria and Lower Saxony, which received some of the highest numbers of asylum seekers, and found that the numbers showed the same picture.
- I'm glad Hirsi Ali touched on why media outlets have been claiming the exact opposite of what the real data shows, because for the past six years all I've been hearing is that migrants almost never commit crimes and that suggesting that the increase in crime in Europe has anything to do with mass migration from the Muslim world is just racist xenophobic propaganda designed to make you hate migrants. Until sometime last year, before I started investigating this topic more deeply, I believed that most migrants really were integrating well and that it was rare for them to commit crimes. I was so naïve. Anyway the studies that supposedly prove that migrants have not contributed to the increase in European crime rates are sorely lacking. They rely on outdated data, such as one study Hirsi Ali described which only covered crime statistics from 2014 to 2015. The migration crisis began in late 2015 and violent crime spiked in 2017 and 2018, she explains, and none of that data was available to report on even during the years that it happened. It can take a couple of years for governments to collect and process all that data before they can publish it. (From my experience, they also rely on improper methods, like getting survey participants to say that they still feel safe walking through their cities, like one article I remember reading in which the journalist who did such a survey looked at the results and triumphantly reported, "See, 59% of people say they feel safe!" But that leaves 41% of people who don't feel safe...and 41% is still a pretty large percentage! That's about 2 out of every 5 people.)
- The book goes on to discuss numerous cases of sexual violence, many of which were handled horribly by the police and law courts. In these cases migrant men convicted of rape and abuse, including the sexual abuse of children, were handed painfully light sentences such as 150 hours of community service, three weeks in prison, and paying a fine to their victims. The Cologne attacks on New Year's Eve of 2015, during which 1,500 migrant men engaged in mass sexual assaults of women while police did nothing to stop them, later resulted in only three convictions. Hirsi Ali also devotes a chapter to the infamous grooming gangs in Britain, made up primarily of Pakistani men, which the police chose not to investigate because they were afraid of "inciting racial tensions." What I did not know is that it was not just Rotherham, but many other cities, where the rapes and sexual abuses of young girls by such gangs took place, and are still taking place. Some of the rapists have only recently been convicted even though the gang abuses have been going on for more than a decade. It's no wonder many migrant men have no fear of the law when their host country practically rewards them for raping little girls.
- "What is lost on many in the debate about integration is that the individual's relationship with the government is vastly different in the undemocratic societies the immigrants are fleeing. [...] People do not take their problems to the authorities as citizens do in Europe. If they agitate or criticize the government, they can end up in prison or dead. In such countries everyone has a story of a relative or friend who has "disappeared" at the hands of authorities.
For a new arrival, being stopped by a European policeman or policewoman is a disconcertingly tame experience. A caution followed by a letter with a warning is no big deal to someone who in his home country would expect to be beaten or immediately thrown into prison."
- Pro-refugee European citizens who believe migrants are unfairly discriminated against whenever the government decides to deport them take part in some mind-blowing stupidity, such as the following:
"In August 2018, a Somali refugee, Yaqub Ahmed, was escorted onto a Turkish Airlines flight at London's Heathrow Airport to be repatriated to Somalia. He didn't get very far. The pilot refused to take off when passengers loudly protested his deportation. "Take him off the plane!" they chanted—which was exactly what the security personnel did. What the passengers did not know was that Ahmed was being deported as part of his conviction for gang-raping a 16-year-old girl with three of his friends. Before his abortive deportation, he had served four years of a nine-year prison sentence. Shortly after his release, one of his fellow rapists traveled to Syria to fight for the Islamic State."
- The chapter "Why Integration Has Not Happened" is crucial to understanding why Muslim children do worse in school than their non-Muslim peers, why more than half of refugee women in Europe are unemployed, why many migrants are still on welfare, and why "parallel societies" are failing Muslim women and girls.
"It is Muslim women who have the most to gain by integrating in the West, and their husbands and fathers know this. Muslim girls see the freedom and opportunities of their Western counterparts, but when they try to enjoy the same, they are pulled back. Indeed, the process of migration itself causes some men from honor cultures to crack down more severely in the European diaspora than in their country of origin. They forbid their girls to date and have boyfriends or even boys who are friends. They fear rumors and gossip that might tarnish their family's honor. Girls are discouraged from swimming, going to concerts, and participating in leisure activities where boys are present. They are not permitted to wear makeup and Western clothes. A 2016 survey of 1,100 young people aged between 12 and 18 years in Stockholm suburbs found that 56 percent of girls were not allowed to take part in recreational activities with boys."
- The failure of integration has been devastating for women and girls in Muslim communities. Hirsi Ali discusses the problem of domestic violence, honor killings, and forced marriages in Muslim communities that European authorities overlook due to a desire to "respect other cultures" and not be accused of "racism" or "xenophobia." Are you seeing a pattern yet? Muslim apologists love to conflate criticism of Islam with an attack on their ethnic identity; they do it deliberately and stupid people keep falling for it.
Western countries' cowardly and embarrassing capitulation to Islam is setting women's rights back, and people have suffered damage to their careers and reputations for daring to talk about it. I hope this is starting to change, and that European governments heed Hirsi Ali's warning and advice. I love that she offers some solutions, which includes rewriting laws about how the international community should handle refugees. She suggests that countries should accept migrants based on whether they are willing to adopt Western values rather than whether they claim to be asylum seekers, which is such a great idea. It would be better for an "economic migrant" whose life isn't in danger to be accepted because he or she believes in human rights and democracy than for an asylum seeker who has experienced persecution in his own country to be accepted when he hates women, hates the West, and probably has a long history of being an abusive piece of shit. He can fuck off back to his country and die. I don't understand why these types of people don't just migrate to other Muslim countries if they hate the West so much. I disagree with Hirsi Ali on some things; for instance I think European governments should absolutely put in more resources to deport migrants with criminal histories and migrants who contribute nothing to the country. The smartest thing to do would be to end Muslim immigration and only accept non-Muslim immigrants. It's working out for Poland. I have a lot more to say about this topic, but this is supposed to be a book review, so I'll just end it here.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is herself an immigrant from a Muslim country, went to great lengths to dig up the truth about the impact of the migration crisis on European women. I have a lot of respect for Hirsi Ali; she is a person with integrity who doesn't let anyone's political agenda get in the way of talking about a problem and offering practical solutions. She and her research team traveled to the European countries that had taken in the largest numbers of migrants: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Sweden (as well as some others whose influx of refugees was large relative to the population of the country).
Men of all nationalities, ethnicities, and religions harass and abuse women. We all know that. People are uncomfortable bringing up nationality, ethnicity, and religion when the perpetrator of violence is from a racial or religious minority because they feel like they are singling out a characteristic about someone that should not matter, and to some degree I understand that. There are racists who seize on any instance of nonwhite male misbehaviour to promote racist opinions, and well-meaning people don't want to give them ammunition. But the left-wing has the opposite problem: they only care about male violence when it can be pinned on "straight white men." Race and ethnicity aren't related to a man's propensity for violence, but the ideologies he holds are. The majority of migrants who have traveled to Europe are young men. Migrant Muslim men primarily from the Middle East and North Africa target both women from their own communities who are "immodest" or "act too Western" and Western women because they are "sluts" and leftists pretend they don't see it. Questioning whether their behaviour has something to do with their religion or cultural values makes Muslim men look bad. It's a real issue that people don't want to talk about, and that's why Hirsi Ali wrote this book.
Hirsi Ali remarks on how troubling it is that in the era of the #MeToo movement, when Western societies have finally started to take sexual violence and sexual harassment against women and girls more seriously, the poor and lower class women and girls most affected by the sex crimes in Europe's "no-go zones" don't receive nearly as much attention or sympathy as Hollywood actresses who were harassed by producers. Indeed, the amount of Muslim male violence against women and girls that has been excused, ignored, or covered up by the police, law courts, media, and the general public due to fear of being called "racist" or "xenophobic" should enrage anyone who reads this book. It certainly enraged me.
- Hirsi Ali begins the book by describing how women are slowly disappearing from public life in certain streets and neighbourhoods due to the degree of sexual harassment and assault they have endured walking through them. In some areas of London, Paris, and Stockholm where the sexes once mingled, women are no longer anywhere to be seen.
- It was a big challenge for Hirsi Ali and her assistants to find information about migrants and sex crimes. Most European countries do not record the migration status, ethnicity, or religion of the perpetrators in crime statistics. The ones that do tend to be reluctant to release the information. In 2015, for example, Sweden's minister of justice refused to release data that included the migration status of criminals despite public pressure to do so. Sweden has no problem releasing data about the migration status of victims of crimes, however. One Swedish newspaper took it upon themselves to do some research on their own: looking through 58 gang rape cases in Sweden between 2012 and 2017, they found that of the 112 convicted rapists, 75% were not born in Sweden and 41% of that percentage were asylum seekers. A Swedish documentary on sex crimes during that same period found that 58% of offenders were born outside Sweden. "Of 129 convicted for assault rape, 110 were foreign-born. Of 94 gang rapists, 70 were born outside Europe." (Dömda för våldtäkt, SVT Nyheter)
- "Austria's Federal Ministry of the Interior does publish the migration status of suspects in its crime statistics. Since 2009, sex offenses increased by 11.8 percent. Of the 936 rape cases reported in 2018, more than half of the suspects (55 percent) were not Austrian citizens. In 2017, asylum seekers were suspects in 11 percent of all reported rapes and sexual harassment cases in Austria, despite making up less than 1 percent of the total population. The more general category of "foreigners"—which includes other non-Austrian citizens, who make up around 19 percent of Austria's population—were suspects in almost a third of rape and sexual harassment cases."
- In the other countries that recorded whether criminal suspects were native, foreign, or born to foreign parents, there were similar patterns. In Denmark, statistics show that "non-Western" immigrants and their children accounted for about 40% of rape convictions and between 25% and 33% of groping convictions despite making up less than 13% of the population. In France, foreigners make up 7% of the population but are suspects in 14% of sex crimes. In Germany, asylum seekers make up 1 to 2% of the population but were almost 12% of suspects in sex crimes in 2018 (16.3% for rapes specifically). Hirsi Ali also sought out regional data in Bavaria and Lower Saxony, which received some of the highest numbers of asylum seekers, and found that the numbers showed the same picture.
- I'm glad Hirsi Ali touched on why media outlets have been claiming the exact opposite of what the real data shows, because for the past six years all I've been hearing is that migrants almost never commit crimes and that suggesting that the increase in crime in Europe has anything to do with mass migration from the Muslim world is just racist xenophobic propaganda designed to make you hate migrants. Until sometime last year, before I started investigating this topic more deeply, I believed that most migrants really were integrating well and that it was rare for them to commit crimes. I was so naïve. Anyway the studies that supposedly prove that migrants have not contributed to the increase in European crime rates are sorely lacking. They rely on outdated data, such as one study Hirsi Ali described which only covered crime statistics from 2014 to 2015. The migration crisis began in late 2015 and violent crime spiked in 2017 and 2018, she explains, and none of that data was available to report on even during the years that it happened. It can take a couple of years for governments to collect and process all that data before they can publish it. (From my experience, they also rely on improper methods, like getting survey participants to say that they still feel safe walking through their cities, like one article I remember reading in which the journalist who did such a survey looked at the results and triumphantly reported, "See, 59% of people say they feel safe!" But that leaves 41% of people who don't feel safe...and 41% is still a pretty large percentage! That's about 2 out of every 5 people.)
- The book goes on to discuss numerous cases of sexual violence, many of which were handled horribly by the police and law courts. In these cases migrant men convicted of rape and abuse, including the sexual abuse of children, were handed painfully light sentences such as 150 hours of community service, three weeks in prison, and paying a fine to their victims. The Cologne attacks on New Year's Eve of 2015, during which 1,500 migrant men engaged in mass sexual assaults of women while police did nothing to stop them, later resulted in only three convictions. Hirsi Ali also devotes a chapter to the infamous grooming gangs in Britain, made up primarily of Pakistani men, which the police chose not to investigate because they were afraid of "inciting racial tensions." What I did not know is that it was not just Rotherham, but many other cities, where the rapes and sexual abuses of young girls by such gangs took place, and are still taking place. Some of the rapists have only recently been convicted even though the gang abuses have been going on for more than a decade. It's no wonder many migrant men have no fear of the law when their host country practically rewards them for raping little girls.
- "What is lost on many in the debate about integration is that the individual's relationship with the government is vastly different in the undemocratic societies the immigrants are fleeing. [...] People do not take their problems to the authorities as citizens do in Europe. If they agitate or criticize the government, they can end up in prison or dead. In such countries everyone has a story of a relative or friend who has "disappeared" at the hands of authorities.
For a new arrival, being stopped by a European policeman or policewoman is a disconcertingly tame experience. A caution followed by a letter with a warning is no big deal to someone who in his home country would expect to be beaten or immediately thrown into prison."
- Pro-refugee European citizens who believe migrants are unfairly discriminated against whenever the government decides to deport them take part in some mind-blowing stupidity, such as the following:
"In August 2018, a Somali refugee, Yaqub Ahmed, was escorted onto a Turkish Airlines flight at London's Heathrow Airport to be repatriated to Somalia. He didn't get very far. The pilot refused to take off when passengers loudly protested his deportation. "Take him off the plane!" they chanted—which was exactly what the security personnel did. What the passengers did not know was that Ahmed was being deported as part of his conviction for gang-raping a 16-year-old girl with three of his friends. Before his abortive deportation, he had served four years of a nine-year prison sentence. Shortly after his release, one of his fellow rapists traveled to Syria to fight for the Islamic State."
- The chapter "Why Integration Has Not Happened" is crucial to understanding why Muslim children do worse in school than their non-Muslim peers, why more than half of refugee women in Europe are unemployed, why many migrants are still on welfare, and why "parallel societies" are failing Muslim women and girls.
"It is Muslim women who have the most to gain by integrating in the West, and their husbands and fathers know this. Muslim girls see the freedom and opportunities of their Western counterparts, but when they try to enjoy the same, they are pulled back. Indeed, the process of migration itself causes some men from honor cultures to crack down more severely in the European diaspora than in their country of origin. They forbid their girls to date and have boyfriends or even boys who are friends. They fear rumors and gossip that might tarnish their family's honor. Girls are discouraged from swimming, going to concerts, and participating in leisure activities where boys are present. They are not permitted to wear makeup and Western clothes. A 2016 survey of 1,100 young people aged between 12 and 18 years in Stockholm suburbs found that 56 percent of girls were not allowed to take part in recreational activities with boys."
- The failure of integration has been devastating for women and girls in Muslim communities. Hirsi Ali discusses the problem of domestic violence, honor killings, and forced marriages in Muslim communities that European authorities overlook due to a desire to "respect other cultures" and not be accused of "racism" or "xenophobia." Are you seeing a pattern yet? Muslim apologists love to conflate criticism of Islam with an attack on their ethnic identity; they do it deliberately and stupid people keep falling for it.
Western countries' cowardly and embarrassing capitulation to Islam is setting women's rights back, and people have suffered damage to their careers and reputations for daring to talk about it. I hope this is starting to change, and that European governments heed Hirsi Ali's warning and advice. I love that she offers some solutions, which includes rewriting laws about how the international community should handle refugees. She suggests that countries should accept migrants based on whether they are willing to adopt Western values rather than whether they claim to be asylum seekers, which is such a great idea. It would be better for an "economic migrant" whose life isn't in danger to be accepted because he or she believes in human rights and democracy than for an asylum seeker who has experienced persecution in his own country to be accepted when he hates women, hates the West, and probably has a long history of being an abusive piece of shit. He can fuck off back to his country and die. I don't understand why these types of people don't just migrate to other Muslim countries if they hate the West so much. I disagree with Hirsi Ali on some things; for instance I think European governments should absolutely put in more resources to deport migrants with criminal histories and migrants who contribute nothing to the country. The smartest thing to do would be to end Muslim immigration and only accept non-Muslim immigrants. It's working out for Poland. I have a lot more to say about this topic, but this is supposed to be a book review, so I'll just end it here.
February 9, 2021
Ayaan Ali has done expectational research into the sexual assault crisis in Europe and the affects of it. Here book is thought provoking, eye-opening, and in many ways convicting. She challenges the ideals that we have today and asks what it means to be liberal and what it should mean. For the quality research that she does her book was hard to keep focus because as she points out the issues that we are seeing I was constantly asking the question, “so what can we do to change things?” without receiving an answer. Here book is 18 chapters and out of the 18 only 4 of them cover solutions in thoughts on what we can do to change things. She dedicated the first majority to the many issues of sexual assault and immigration. I wish that she would have pieced where she introduced and issue and the problems and then gave the solution for it after discussing it and before moving on to the next issue. Framing the book as she did, I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.
She does a great job of pointing out the issues with sexual assault: not taking women seriously, the police not doing enough, the light sentencing or no sentencing, the way that a victim has to prove themselves over and over again, the intrusive nature of the way women have to prove they have been assaulted, the fact that have to face their predator over and over in court to get a sentencing, and this double standard idea that the predator’s life is being ruined through the case and the victim’s hasn’t been by the assault. The issue I have again and again each chapter is not “maybe she is wrong” or “are the statistics true?” The issue I have is that she is only giving example after example to back up her point, but not giving a solution. I am aware and understand what is happening but what are we to do? I want to know how to help. How to decrease the horrors that exist for us women for simply being women. I want to know...where do we go from here? And it isn’t until the last four chapters that she gives that which is tough because it would be really easy to lose readers before they get to that point.
Other than the framework of her book I thought the information was incredible and something no one is talking about. It felt very contradictory to what I have learned in the past. It is very convicting for me, as a liberal and a feminist, to hear from an immigrant the issues she faces. It poses obvious questions that many have heard before such as: if the roles were reversed and this was happening to men would they do something about it? I find myself leaning toward not believing Ayaan’s research, which is crazy, and second guessing her because of the convicting, controversial, and contradictory views that she is speaking on. It is hard to rate and review because I feel so split. I feel that I can’t speak on this as a Caucasian American who has lived with so many privileges that my nightmares don’t come close to the actual horrors that these women have lived through and the other side of me that says “that’s the point;” that I have to use my voice and my privilege to make people listen and pay attention to what is happening.
Ali made me open eyes and realize that there are women that are left behind in the current feminist movement as much as we don’t want to believe it. “Progress is progress” is a quote that I think comes to mind when I think of the attitude that I have had toward my feminist journey and while that remains true, we have to be aware of where we are progressing and what is falling through the cracks. We also have to look at if that progression is turning a blind eye or regressing other movements. Ali isn’t wrong to say or believe that “we need a new feminist movement” but maybe we don’t have to wait for a new one maybe we just need more awareness and to reawaken the current movement.
If you are looking to understand what women, especially migrant women, in Europe are going through and looking to be convicted in a way that gets you moving to help others and you love research this is the book for you.
*I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.*
She does a great job of pointing out the issues with sexual assault: not taking women seriously, the police not doing enough, the light sentencing or no sentencing, the way that a victim has to prove themselves over and over again, the intrusive nature of the way women have to prove they have been assaulted, the fact that have to face their predator over and over in court to get a sentencing, and this double standard idea that the predator’s life is being ruined through the case and the victim’s hasn’t been by the assault. The issue I have again and again each chapter is not “maybe she is wrong” or “are the statistics true?” The issue I have is that she is only giving example after example to back up her point, but not giving a solution. I am aware and understand what is happening but what are we to do? I want to know how to help. How to decrease the horrors that exist for us women for simply being women. I want to know...where do we go from here? And it isn’t until the last four chapters that she gives that which is tough because it would be really easy to lose readers before they get to that point.
Other than the framework of her book I thought the information was incredible and something no one is talking about. It felt very contradictory to what I have learned in the past. It is very convicting for me, as a liberal and a feminist, to hear from an immigrant the issues she faces. It poses obvious questions that many have heard before such as: if the roles were reversed and this was happening to men would they do something about it? I find myself leaning toward not believing Ayaan’s research, which is crazy, and second guessing her because of the convicting, controversial, and contradictory views that she is speaking on. It is hard to rate and review because I feel so split. I feel that I can’t speak on this as a Caucasian American who has lived with so many privileges that my nightmares don’t come close to the actual horrors that these women have lived through and the other side of me that says “that’s the point;” that I have to use my voice and my privilege to make people listen and pay attention to what is happening.
Ali made me open eyes and realize that there are women that are left behind in the current feminist movement as much as we don’t want to believe it. “Progress is progress” is a quote that I think comes to mind when I think of the attitude that I have had toward my feminist journey and while that remains true, we have to be aware of where we are progressing and what is falling through the cracks. We also have to look at if that progression is turning a blind eye or regressing other movements. Ali isn’t wrong to say or believe that “we need a new feminist movement” but maybe we don’t have to wait for a new one maybe we just need more awareness and to reawaken the current movement.
If you are looking to understand what women, especially migrant women, in Europe are going through and looking to be convicted in a way that gets you moving to help others and you love research this is the book for you.
*I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.*
September 27, 2020
This book has many tables with statistics on rapes and sexual assaults in the EU, and that is exactly what's going on there. However, the author is contradicting herself while explaining the problem. The introduction is dedicated to bash anyone who is not so called progressive or liberal, she even brushed up on the Soviet Army raping German women, conveniently forgetting to mention how many Soviet women were raped by the German soldiers, but perhaps for her Soviet women's lives do not matter as much. I do not agree with Putin but I did not see how his mention is relevant to the rape of the German women by some criminal immigrants from Asia Minor. The author refuses to see the problem is not Islam or Syrians, and not even immigration but on one hand, the big politics and bad decisions of Angela Merkel, who Germans keep electing, by the way, as well as the liberal justice. LIBERAL justice. It is progressivism and liberalism that defend the rapists and liberal courts that let them go to commit more crime! If they got more severe punishment, others would be cautioned and they would think twice before doing something like that. If people were smart during election times and wanted to defend themselves, they would never have chosen the officials they have multiple times.
February 22, 2021
A much needed analysis on the erosion of women's rights in Western Europe- particularly those countries that have taken in asylum seekers and migrants from Muslim-majority countries. I am not one to stick my head in the sand or avoid non-PC issues so I was already aware of much of what Ali discusses in her book. (I have been aware of No-Go Zones in many European cities for quite a while now despite all the Leftists' objections to the existence of such. There are now apps that allow tourists to avoid crime-ridden No-Go Zones in popular cities in Europe for their safety.) Ali is uniquely positioned to write this book as she was an asylum seeker herself. Born in Somalia, she suffered Female Genital Mutilation at the hands of her grandmother as a child. She later fled Africa to escape a forced marriage. She found asylum in The Netherlands where she eventually became a member of Parliament. Now living in the US she advocates for women's rights and free speech. Her book Infidel discusses her journey as an asylum seeker, her successful integration into Western society, and her becoming a target of Islamic militants. Her book Prey is a logical next move. As I, and others, have observed, attacks against European women have risen sharply in the wake of mass migration of young men from Muslim-majority countries. Using stats (those she and her team of researchers were able to procure- for some reason Sweden seems especially reluctant to release its stats on these attacks), Ali breaks down the sexual assaults, aggressions, rapes and murders in recent years at the hands of migrants, some of whom are in the countries illegally. She also discusses the disturbing trend of European women altering their dress and behavior (i.e.- not walking in the streets alone at night, avoiding certain neighborhoods) to avoid being the target of verbal and physical attacks. Ali discusses court cases and outcomes as well as the research she and her team conducted while in Europe. She analyzes why European leaders are loathe to discuss this touchy subject and profiles the people working to make change, some of which were asylum seekers themselves. She not only discusses the problems but puts forth viable solutions as well (besides throwing money at the problem). Every European leader dealing with the issue of integrating recent migrants and asylum seekers from Muslim-majority countries would do well to read this book and take to heart the words of Ayan Hirsi Ali.
Read
August 17, 2021I abandoned this book at 10%, which is unusual for me, I try to go through at least 25% before I give up. The list of facts and data and the effort of compiling things into a context is worth mentioning, but the experienced analyst in me cringed and cried at the clutter of data and cherry picking arguments and other logical fallacies, so I stopped.
March 17, 2021
It’s a particularly strange time to be a woman in Western society, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali notes in her book PREY. Decades of effort at demanding fair and equal opportunity are suddenly relegated to a lower tier of importance, behind the perceived needs of others higher up on the intersectional hierarchy.
Ms. Hirsi Ali notes that women in Western European nations are increasingly at risk of losing the gains they’ve achieved in their societies due to the influx of immigrants from incompatible cultures who refuse to integrate into the cultures of the countries they’ve been allowed to enter and remain as refugees or immigrants.
Even worse, women’s very safety is in jeopardy. She cites many cases of horrific abuse suffered by women who’ve done nothing more than live as they assumed they could (i.e., walking in the evening, wearing clothing of their choice) at the hands of barbarians whose culture allows them to treat women as playthings and property.
My main quibble with this book is the presentation of data in the first section. It’s overlong and clumsy, although to be fair, listening to the audiobook is probably not the ideal way to consume such data.
The author herself narrated the audiobook. I’ve heard her speak before and she speaks quite normally, but the glacial pace of the narration at 1X is off-putting (I’ve long suspected that the narration speed of many audiobooks is slowed down, artificially, on purpose). Sped up, the narration becomes a delight.
Ms. Hirsi Ali notes that women in Western European nations are increasingly at risk of losing the gains they’ve achieved in their societies due to the influx of immigrants from incompatible cultures who refuse to integrate into the cultures of the countries they’ve been allowed to enter and remain as refugees or immigrants.
Even worse, women’s very safety is in jeopardy. She cites many cases of horrific abuse suffered by women who’ve done nothing more than live as they assumed they could (i.e., walking in the evening, wearing clothing of their choice) at the hands of barbarians whose culture allows them to treat women as playthings and property.
My main quibble with this book is the presentation of data in the first section. It’s overlong and clumsy, although to be fair, listening to the audiobook is probably not the ideal way to consume such data.
The author herself narrated the audiobook. I’ve heard her speak before and she speaks quite normally, but the glacial pace of the narration at 1X is off-putting (I’ve long suspected that the narration speed of many audiobooks is slowed down, artificially, on purpose). Sped up, the narration becomes a delight.
May 23, 2021
„Dies ist eine Triggerwarnung, die für das gesamte Buch gilt. Wenn Sie es lesen, sollten Sie getriggert sein.“
Mit diesen Worten beginnt das Buch „Beute: Warum muslimische Einwanderung westliche Frauenrechte bedroht“ von Ayaan Hirsi Ali, einer niederländisch-amerikanischen Politikwissenschaftlerin, Frauenrechtlerin und Islamkritikerin.
Tenor des Buches ist, dass eine Massenintegration aus mehrheitlich muslimisch geprägten Ländern ein Gefahr für die Werte der westlichen Welt und insbesondere für die westlichen Frauen darstelle. Ali berichtet von sexualisierter Gewalt die muslimische Männer gegen westliche Frauen ausüben würden und dass die westliche Gesellschaft dies einfach ignoriere, um nicht in die Ecke der Islam-Feindlichkeit gestellt zu werden. Sie berichtet von Vierteln in Brüssel und Paris, in denen es keine Frauen mehr auf der Straße gäbe, weil Frauen sich nicht mehr in diese männerdominierten Viertel trauen würden.
Um zu beweisen, dass sexuell gewalttätige muslimische Männer die Rechte der Frauen in Europa zurückdrängen, sucht Ali Kriminalitätsdaten, Zeitungsartikel und sozialwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zusammen. Sie gibt offen zu, dass die Daten dazu sehr gering sind. Das hält sie aber nicht davon ab sie trotzdem als Grundlage für ihr Buch zu nutzen. Das sexualisierte Gewalt auch von nicht muslimischen Männer ausgehen kann, lässt sie in ihrem Buch bewusst beiseite. Nach der Lektüre könnte man den Eindruck gewinnen, dass die meisten Sexualverbrechen in Westeuropa von muslimischen Geflüchteten an fremden Europäerinnen begangen wurden. Das ist nicht der Fall - die Männer, die die größte Bedrohung für europäische Frauen darstellen, sind die Männer, die die größte Bedrohung für Frauen überall darstellen: Männer, die Frauen kennen.
Das Buch hat gleich mehrere Probleme: Es ist offensichtlich mehr als Islam-feindlich! Es ist feindlich gegenüber Geflüchteten und bedient in vielen Punkten ein rechtes populistisches Narrativ. Das mag vielleicht auch mit Alis schwacher Quellenarbeit zusammenhängen. In vielen Abschnitten des Buches verlässt sie sich auf ihr Gefühl. Ein Sachbuch, das auf dem Bauchgefühl der Autorin basiert, scheint kein sehr gelungenes Sachbuch zu sein.
Zudem zitiert sie für meinen Geschmack zu viel Springer-Presse, die nicht gerade bekannt ist für eine vorurteilsfreie Recherche.
Es gehe Ali, so schreibt sie, nicht darum muslimische geflüchtete Menschen zu Dämonisieren. Das Problem ist aber, dass es sich genau so liest. Ihr ginge es darum, eine Debatte anzustoßen. Ob dieses Buch ein geeigneter Anstoß ist, bleibt fraglich.
Keine Leseempfehlung!
Mit diesen Worten beginnt das Buch „Beute: Warum muslimische Einwanderung westliche Frauenrechte bedroht“ von Ayaan Hirsi Ali, einer niederländisch-amerikanischen Politikwissenschaftlerin, Frauenrechtlerin und Islamkritikerin.
Tenor des Buches ist, dass eine Massenintegration aus mehrheitlich muslimisch geprägten Ländern ein Gefahr für die Werte der westlichen Welt und insbesondere für die westlichen Frauen darstelle. Ali berichtet von sexualisierter Gewalt die muslimische Männer gegen westliche Frauen ausüben würden und dass die westliche Gesellschaft dies einfach ignoriere, um nicht in die Ecke der Islam-Feindlichkeit gestellt zu werden. Sie berichtet von Vierteln in Brüssel und Paris, in denen es keine Frauen mehr auf der Straße gäbe, weil Frauen sich nicht mehr in diese männerdominierten Viertel trauen würden.
Um zu beweisen, dass sexuell gewalttätige muslimische Männer die Rechte der Frauen in Europa zurückdrängen, sucht Ali Kriminalitätsdaten, Zeitungsartikel und sozialwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zusammen. Sie gibt offen zu, dass die Daten dazu sehr gering sind. Das hält sie aber nicht davon ab sie trotzdem als Grundlage für ihr Buch zu nutzen. Das sexualisierte Gewalt auch von nicht muslimischen Männer ausgehen kann, lässt sie in ihrem Buch bewusst beiseite. Nach der Lektüre könnte man den Eindruck gewinnen, dass die meisten Sexualverbrechen in Westeuropa von muslimischen Geflüchteten an fremden Europäerinnen begangen wurden. Das ist nicht der Fall - die Männer, die die größte Bedrohung für europäische Frauen darstellen, sind die Männer, die die größte Bedrohung für Frauen überall darstellen: Männer, die Frauen kennen.
Das Buch hat gleich mehrere Probleme: Es ist offensichtlich mehr als Islam-feindlich! Es ist feindlich gegenüber Geflüchteten und bedient in vielen Punkten ein rechtes populistisches Narrativ. Das mag vielleicht auch mit Alis schwacher Quellenarbeit zusammenhängen. In vielen Abschnitten des Buches verlässt sie sich auf ihr Gefühl. Ein Sachbuch, das auf dem Bauchgefühl der Autorin basiert, scheint kein sehr gelungenes Sachbuch zu sein.
Zudem zitiert sie für meinen Geschmack zu viel Springer-Presse, die nicht gerade bekannt ist für eine vorurteilsfreie Recherche.
Es gehe Ali, so schreibt sie, nicht darum muslimische geflüchtete Menschen zu Dämonisieren. Das Problem ist aber, dass es sich genau so liest. Ihr ginge es darum, eine Debatte anzustoßen. Ob dieses Buch ein geeigneter Anstoß ist, bleibt fraglich.
Keine Leseempfehlung!
May 6, 2021
The mass migration of Muslim men to Europe over the last decade has caused several integration problems for their host countries. One of these issues is an Islamic one. Sharia Law is an oppressive ideology that does not respect the rights of women. Sexual Harassment and rape of girls of all ages, even minors, are now commonplace in Western Europe.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's great book analyzes the numbers and seeks to provide a path forward for western countries to retail their liberalism in the face of this illiberal ideology.
The book starts with an epigraph: "This is a trigger warning for the entire book.
Reading it, you should be triggered." And indeed, the book is quite infuriating for someone that respects womens' rights.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's great book analyzes the numbers and seeks to provide a path forward for western countries to retail their liberalism in the face of this illiberal ideology.
The book starts with an epigraph: "This is a trigger warning for the entire book.
Reading it, you should be triggered." And indeed, the book is quite infuriating for someone that respects womens' rights.
April 12, 2021
A bold, brave dive into the erosion of women's rights, in part by a tepid fear from Euopean institutions to tackle the issue of immigration and assimilation.
Anyone who is a serious student of Women's Right's and the fight for equality should consider this a must read.
Anyone who is a serious student of Women's Right's and the fight for equality should consider this a must read.
April 13, 2021
Goed boek weer van Ayaan Hirsi Ali over vrouwenrechten die onder druk komen te staan door de toenemende invloed van de islam in Europa.
Komt wat traag op stoom door veel droge onderzoeken en zeer concrete casussen, maar tweede deel maakt alles goed.
Komt wat traag op stoom door veel droge onderzoeken en zeer concrete casussen, maar tweede deel maakt alles goed.
April 11, 2024
If you want to completely write off Ayaan Hirsi Ali because you don't think there is a problem or a connection to a sudden mass influxes of young male migrants and increased sexual violence against women and children, please look up a singular event: the New Years Eve celebration in Cologne, Germany 2015- 2016.
It will also illustrate why this has been the most difficult book for me to ever read content wise. I DONT WANT THIS TO BE REALITY! She repeatedly reminds the reader not to look away from the real violence suffered by women from what is essentially idealist or virtue signaling policies. I NEEDED every single reminder - it hurt so badly that I just wanted to forget the whole thing. "How can immigration ever be a bad thing? No one is illegal, etc. Most rapists are white men, etc." - I could feel cognitive dissonance occuring with each page turning and clashing with my extensive Progressive programming-I felt physically sick because of this. Since my stomach was curling- I had to take sooo many breaks. Like weeks at a time after certain records from very real events that have ruined girls' lives and were 100% preventable.
But when a policy implemented with kind intentions leads to hurting women and girls on a large scale- government officials, police, law, and policymakers come together to cover it up. I wanted to trust these people and for this to be a terrible dream because it's 2024....
And as we see in the US right now- people are quick to turn away or vilify the women who dare speak of the too real, nightmarish consequences they are experiencing from progressive policies - all sharing a belligerent refusal to listen to the most vulnerable females and with even women writing them off because they have no clue what it's like to be low income, unable to afford a lawyer or a freaking female refugee.
The author wants a new women's liberation movement because the current tide of mainstream feminism has LOST THE PLOT. She proposes a new liberation movement with a singular goal: for people born female to be able to exist in public and school without being threatened or raped or murdered.
Female spaces and protections ARE on the chopping block - always. She thinks the prioritzation of identity politics and concepts like intersectionality and multiculturalism have been co-opted and all served to ultimately distract from the actual most primary objectives for feminism: for women and girls to be physically safe while in public spaces. Without this, women are second class citizens- unable to recieve an education or opportunities, relegated to the home, unable to work or travel or leave the house without a chaperone- they quickly resume their longstanding history of being treated as male property.
Feminism has made no progress at all if there are still women and girls being raped and killed by even strangers when trying to exist in public life, go to and from school, doing normal activities outside the home.
Feminism is directly tied to the physical safety of females in public. I don't know how it isn't setting off everyones alarm bells that this isn't guaranteed anymore in "first world" countries- that 1000+ women can be dragged away and raped at an organized public event with their partners and children by their side.
When you understand her life and how she hard she fights for women who are not being heard, you can imagine her surprise at the U.S. She is not sure why the MeToo movement garnered so much outrage when it always centered very privileged, high income women's problems in a misogynistic industry they choose and often end up further enabling these abusers in.
Rather than the sexual violence faced by truly vulnerable women with little to no escape options, it was the suffering of celebrity women in Hollywood that was elevated and heralded as the pinnacle of movement in womens equality while the same population was able to wave off non-Western sexual oppression as cultural relativism'.
To women squeamish about sounding insensitive - she says: 'multiculturalism' has been harmful because it has allowed the notion that certain females do not deserve education or any of the same equal rights as Western women. She doesn't want you to pause when it comes to speaking out against physical harm towards other females- ignore any academics or any misguided progressives who attempt to dissuade you from saying violence against women, regardless if its practiced as part of some 'cultures' as is the case with genital mutilation- isn't for YOU to criticize because you are white/christian/Jewish/American etc. She begs you to make sure that female physical safety is the top priority at ALL TIMES because it is through the normalization of sexual violence and deprioritization of female safety that men have been able to limit women's rights; she's been in countries where women have only recently been unable to walk without a male nor mandated to cover up their bodies in the streets- yet we Western feminists act as if this has been a longstanding cultural norm and its not our place to get involved.
Instead, we in the UK/Canada/USA are much more comfortable dealing with new Western feminism classics like
-"women are not a 'protected class' - a woman is just an idea that can exist in a man's head"
and
-"if you aren't centering people who were born with the most advantageous biological sex to have in every single country/culture/moment of history, then that's not feminism!
and ultimately landing Western feminism at the amazing 2024 take:
- "stop talking about female sex based oppression as if its the same thing as 'womens rights' when you need to call biological females 'cis women' and only use this language to support the new framework that 'Cis women" are actually massively privileged for being born into the biological sex that we have historically treated as legal property and not allowed to vote or decide for themselves if they will become mothers, werent even allowed a credit card til the 70s, etc. It's never been about biological strength/pregnancy/genitals or physiology - women have been oppressed across cultures for centuries because men despise feminity!!!!
Yeah, we lost the plot so hard it's not even funny. Womens liberation movements, she argues, should strive first and foremost to make it so that women and children are able to be in public without experiencing violence and have equal access to education. Anything less erodes women's rights, and they WILL cease to exist in public life. She said her entire goal was to escape the sexist values from her home country. So she's pissed that people would claim persecution from those countries but also try to bring along their ways of subjugating women with them. Many are fine enough with leaving their religion identity- but hold onto the sexist practices that were formerly disguised as Islam - because Islam itself was not the actual problem.
The fact is that lawmakers in Europe are now afraid to confront cultural clash issues that have come about as a result of entire areas becoming refugee majorities and naturally imparting non-Western values on women and children in these communities. Doctors have been shocked that they see girls who have recently had FGM and the criminal system has never before dealt with so many instances of sexual violence, unused to the fact that many countries essentially condone gang rapes on young girls and police have been shocked to arrest people at their homes for honor killing a family member.
This is a significant, worldview changing, comprehensive piece of work with incredibly well researched arguments. She is passionate, deeply compassionate to women and children- and it is so so so much easier to write her off as some fear mongering conservative. Yes, this is what her opponents label her- liberals/progressives who refuse to give her perspective or extensive research a chance because the kneejerk reactiom to criticism of the current asylum seeking system/illegal immigration (the second is what happens each time an asylum seeker application is denied; it is a myth that anyone denied through that specific 'legal avenue' actually gets deported or kept from any welfare benefits in Europe and soon the US.)
But there is no one MORE qualified to form an opinion on the asylum seeking situation than a woman who escaped Somalia, lived in Saudia Arabia, and finally managed to get to safety in the West- but not before experiencing the horror that women and female children are being put through in these extreme patriarchal societies- ones so obsessed with female genital mutilation that they send them back from the West to their home country they are seeking asylum from just to make sure they cannot experience Bodily autonomy because the West prohibits a very dangerous 'surgery' that is solely an attenpt to control female sexuality and make sure there will be no mistaking their refugee community's new Western location will grant equality or freedom for 'their' women. But these countries taking in more than a million immigrants from countries that regularly have "honor killings" and normalized gang raping women in public spaces so much that many places have become "no go zones" for women and girls as too many were attacked and threatened for participating in public life- with women shut out of even walking to their local market without a male accompanying them- and that this is directly because of the major influx of migrants from countries that actively use rape and violence against even little girls, to make sure that no one born a woman can ever be safe outside the home- and being anywhere else is an invitation to commit sexual violence.
Tldr: Read it. Don't say it's alt right propaganda. She's NOT A REPUBLICAN. SHES A SOMALI REFUGEE WHO DOESN'T WANT ANY OTHER GIRLS SUBJECTED TO FGM OR any of the many dehumanizing practices used against people who got the shit luck of being born female.
It will also illustrate why this has been the most difficult book for me to ever read content wise. I DONT WANT THIS TO BE REALITY! She repeatedly reminds the reader not to look away from the real violence suffered by women from what is essentially idealist or virtue signaling policies. I NEEDED every single reminder - it hurt so badly that I just wanted to forget the whole thing. "How can immigration ever be a bad thing? No one is illegal, etc. Most rapists are white men, etc." - I could feel cognitive dissonance occuring with each page turning and clashing with my extensive Progressive programming-I felt physically sick because of this. Since my stomach was curling- I had to take sooo many breaks. Like weeks at a time after certain records from very real events that have ruined girls' lives and were 100% preventable.
But when a policy implemented with kind intentions leads to hurting women and girls on a large scale- government officials, police, law, and policymakers come together to cover it up. I wanted to trust these people and for this to be a terrible dream because it's 2024....
And as we see in the US right now- people are quick to turn away or vilify the women who dare speak of the too real, nightmarish consequences they are experiencing from progressive policies - all sharing a belligerent refusal to listen to the most vulnerable females and with even women writing them off because they have no clue what it's like to be low income, unable to afford a lawyer or a freaking female refugee.
The author wants a new women's liberation movement because the current tide of mainstream feminism has LOST THE PLOT. She proposes a new liberation movement with a singular goal: for people born female to be able to exist in public and school without being threatened or raped or murdered.
Female spaces and protections ARE on the chopping block - always. She thinks the prioritzation of identity politics and concepts like intersectionality and multiculturalism have been co-opted and all served to ultimately distract from the actual most primary objectives for feminism: for women and girls to be physically safe while in public spaces. Without this, women are second class citizens- unable to recieve an education or opportunities, relegated to the home, unable to work or travel or leave the house without a chaperone- they quickly resume their longstanding history of being treated as male property.
Feminism has made no progress at all if there are still women and girls being raped and killed by even strangers when trying to exist in public life, go to and from school, doing normal activities outside the home.
Feminism is directly tied to the physical safety of females in public. I don't know how it isn't setting off everyones alarm bells that this isn't guaranteed anymore in "first world" countries- that 1000+ women can be dragged away and raped at an organized public event with their partners and children by their side.
When you understand her life and how she hard she fights for women who are not being heard, you can imagine her surprise at the U.S. She is not sure why the MeToo movement garnered so much outrage when it always centered very privileged, high income women's problems in a misogynistic industry they choose and often end up further enabling these abusers in.
Rather than the sexual violence faced by truly vulnerable women with little to no escape options, it was the suffering of celebrity women in Hollywood that was elevated and heralded as the pinnacle of movement in womens equality while the same population was able to wave off non-Western sexual oppression as cultural relativism'.
To women squeamish about sounding insensitive - she says: 'multiculturalism' has been harmful because it has allowed the notion that certain females do not deserve education or any of the same equal rights as Western women. She doesn't want you to pause when it comes to speaking out against physical harm towards other females- ignore any academics or any misguided progressives who attempt to dissuade you from saying violence against women, regardless if its practiced as part of some 'cultures' as is the case with genital mutilation- isn't for YOU to criticize because you are white/christian/Jewish/American etc. She begs you to make sure that female physical safety is the top priority at ALL TIMES because it is through the normalization of sexual violence and deprioritization of female safety that men have been able to limit women's rights; she's been in countries where women have only recently been unable to walk without a male nor mandated to cover up their bodies in the streets- yet we Western feminists act as if this has been a longstanding cultural norm and its not our place to get involved.
Instead, we in the UK/Canada/USA are much more comfortable dealing with new Western feminism classics like
-"women are not a 'protected class' - a woman is just an idea that can exist in a man's head"
and
-"if you aren't centering people who were born with the most advantageous biological sex to have in every single country/culture/moment of history, then that's not feminism!
and ultimately landing Western feminism at the amazing 2024 take:
- "stop talking about female sex based oppression as if its the same thing as 'womens rights' when you need to call biological females 'cis women' and only use this language to support the new framework that 'Cis women" are actually massively privileged for being born into the biological sex that we have historically treated as legal property and not allowed to vote or decide for themselves if they will become mothers, werent even allowed a credit card til the 70s, etc. It's never been about biological strength/pregnancy/genitals or physiology - women have been oppressed across cultures for centuries because men despise feminity!!!!
Yeah, we lost the plot so hard it's not even funny. Womens liberation movements, she argues, should strive first and foremost to make it so that women and children are able to be in public without experiencing violence and have equal access to education. Anything less erodes women's rights, and they WILL cease to exist in public life. She said her entire goal was to escape the sexist values from her home country. So she's pissed that people would claim persecution from those countries but also try to bring along their ways of subjugating women with them. Many are fine enough with leaving their religion identity- but hold onto the sexist practices that were formerly disguised as Islam - because Islam itself was not the actual problem.
The fact is that lawmakers in Europe are now afraid to confront cultural clash issues that have come about as a result of entire areas becoming refugee majorities and naturally imparting non-Western values on women and children in these communities. Doctors have been shocked that they see girls who have recently had FGM and the criminal system has never before dealt with so many instances of sexual violence, unused to the fact that many countries essentially condone gang rapes on young girls and police have been shocked to arrest people at their homes for honor killing a family member.
This is a significant, worldview changing, comprehensive piece of work with incredibly well researched arguments. She is passionate, deeply compassionate to women and children- and it is so so so much easier to write her off as some fear mongering conservative. Yes, this is what her opponents label her- liberals/progressives who refuse to give her perspective or extensive research a chance because the kneejerk reactiom to criticism of the current asylum seeking system/illegal immigration (the second is what happens each time an asylum seeker application is denied; it is a myth that anyone denied through that specific 'legal avenue' actually gets deported or kept from any welfare benefits in Europe and soon the US.)
But there is no one MORE qualified to form an opinion on the asylum seeking situation than a woman who escaped Somalia, lived in Saudia Arabia, and finally managed to get to safety in the West- but not before experiencing the horror that women and female children are being put through in these extreme patriarchal societies- ones so obsessed with female genital mutilation that they send them back from the West to their home country they are seeking asylum from just to make sure they cannot experience Bodily autonomy because the West prohibits a very dangerous 'surgery' that is solely an attenpt to control female sexuality and make sure there will be no mistaking their refugee community's new Western location will grant equality or freedom for 'their' women. But these countries taking in more than a million immigrants from countries that regularly have "honor killings" and normalized gang raping women in public spaces so much that many places have become "no go zones" for women and girls as too many were attacked and threatened for participating in public life- with women shut out of even walking to their local market without a male accompanying them- and that this is directly because of the major influx of migrants from countries that actively use rape and violence against even little girls, to make sure that no one born a woman can ever be safe outside the home- and being anywhere else is an invitation to commit sexual violence.
Tldr: Read it. Don't say it's alt right propaganda. She's NOT A REPUBLICAN. SHES A SOMALI REFUGEE WHO DOESN'T WANT ANY OTHER GIRLS SUBJECTED TO FGM OR any of the many dehumanizing practices used against people who got the shit luck of being born female.
March 26, 2021
Fascinating and also terrifying, this book should get everyone’s attention— especially women. Ms Hirsi Ali gives a well documented account of how the immigration policies of Western European countries are changing and even threatening the hard won freedoms of women in European countries. With statistical data and anecdotal accounts of vastly increased crimes against and daily harassment of European women in public areas in Europe by male immigrants that have come to Europe since 2015, she educated the reader about immigration in Europe and the lack of proper coordination and consequences enforced by immigration policy since 2015 in Europe. She presents the problem as one the governments are ill equipped or unwilling to address head on. But, she clearly sees it as a threat to European women’s rights and to their safety if not addressed by the immigration authorities in those countries with the most egregious failures. It is a book that free countries everywhere should be aware of and consider whether their own immigration policies are sufficient to safeguard the women of those countries, lest a century of women’s fight for rights in the free world may be lost in just a few years of immigration mismanagement or oversight. It is a complex and well written discourse and warning for free world governments and their citizens.
April 30, 2021
Ali is one of my favorite religious/atheist authors. Most of the English speaking atheist authors come from Christian backgrounds and marginally or fully secular societies. Most of us have never experienced compelled religion. Most of us have never been physically harmed because of religion.
That's not the case with Ayaan. So her opinions carry a lot of weight with me. As she says in the book, the United States and other western nations are not The Handmaid's Tale, Muslim nations are. We allow them to roll back the West's progress in the emancipation of women at a huge cost - We are allowing women to once again become prey for sexual predators. Her numbers are in order. She decries the idea that it's racism. The ideals that force women back into hiding are religious and patriarchal.
She offers solutions near the end of the book, which I found practical on a surface level. Obviously, she's very pro-immigration and wants genuine refugees to prosper in the west.
She never touches on the insanity of religious fundamentalism, which is present in all religions, but that's a nastier subject that she's dealt with in other books.
That's not the case with Ayaan. So her opinions carry a lot of weight with me. As she says in the book, the United States and other western nations are not The Handmaid's Tale, Muslim nations are. We allow them to roll back the West's progress in the emancipation of women at a huge cost - We are allowing women to once again become prey for sexual predators. Her numbers are in order. She decries the idea that it's racism. The ideals that force women back into hiding are religious and patriarchal.
She offers solutions near the end of the book, which I found practical on a surface level. Obviously, she's very pro-immigration and wants genuine refugees to prosper in the west.
She never touches on the insanity of religious fundamentalism, which is present in all religions, but that's a nastier subject that she's dealt with in other books.
March 24, 2021
This book is constructed with a fascinating and controversial premise, but Ms. Ali backs up all of her writing with data. While the data is sometimes overwhelming, the topic is very important and well presented. The Rights of Women are being diminished around the world both by men and by religion, a fact that is irrefutable. Ms. Ali has been condemned for her view that Islam considers women as inferior to men, but that certainly seems to be the case in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, and others. Contrary to her critics, I found the book to be thought-provoking and well-researched even though critical of many of the new immigrants in Europe. It is a conversation we should be having around the world and this book presents one side of the discussion.
March 1, 2021
This is an important read for everyone in western society. I see a lot of similarities with the way this immigration challenge is being handled and how other public issues are being handled. The focus on topics that cater to a certain narratives while incredibly important issues are buried is way to common an occurrence these days.
February 15, 2021
I admire her so much, but this book was not engaging at all. I don’t think we needed more than ten pages to support the argument. I think this book was a miss. Sorry.
March 22, 2021
Prey, Ayaan Hirsi Ali
This is a carefully and well-researched thorough analysis of how migrants adjust to their new homeland in Europe, and it also exposes their effect on how females are viewed and treated. In all cases, it is the Muslim community of migrants that fares the worst with regard to integration. The largest number of immigrants were from Muslim countries and were men. The author sets out to learn why they fail to integrate into the society of their new host country and why women in the countries they enter are far more likely to be abused. She does not believe throwing money at the problem will solve it. It is not that they are not welcomed or that there are no programs to assimilate them into society. It is rather that they isolate themselves, forming their own “mini-Muslim countries” within communities, obeying the laws of Islam, more often than not. Sometimes the laws are more extreme examples of Sharia. In the communities in which they settle, they are allowed to make their own laws and disregard the rules of the country in which they now live. Often, they do not wish to assimilate and identify with their new country, but they cling, instead, to their old homeland and ways. This remains so, even though they left to find a better life. They still recreate the place they abandoned.
In the newly created Muslim communities, the language of their new country is ignored in their homes. The children are very sheltered. There are neighborhood "religious police" always watching their movement. Women are afraid to move about freely. In the home and their schools, they are taught to adhere to strict Islamic doctrine and males are taught to disrespect females. Ali provides suggestions to solve the problem of the lack of Muslim assimilation into the society of their new homelands, but these suggestions have largely been resisted because they resist a broader education. They believe that they can resist it all because they must face their G-d in the end and their G-d cannot be resisted. This behavior is accompanied by a great deal of fear because this Muslim community responds violently and is not punished adequately for its overreactions or crimes. Fear of being called names like racist and xenophobe etc. control the narrative. However, any response from the host country that shows weakness makes the offenders believe that their behavior is acceptable, so it continues and grows worse.
I have read several books by this author. All are well researched, and her honest appraisals of the situations are refreshing. She does not shy away from identifying the problems and telling the truth about them. An immigrant herself, from a Muslim country, she is very much aware of racism and of the stigma attached to criticizing Muslims, but also aware of the abuse of women in Muslim countries and now in the countries Muslims emigrate to, as well. She believes acknowledging the problems is not racism, but the first step in solving it. She refuses to be afraid to speak the truth.
While the statistics she offers are mind-numbing, they are eye-opening. The individual stories are horrendous, so much so that although the author advises the reader to read them all, I had to skim many because they were overwhelmingly brutal. The conditions that exist in Europe, and sadly in America today (although she does not address the United States), are deteriorating because explanations and suggestions to address the problems are met with anger, accusations and rebuttals, not solutions. Sadly, that doesn’t solve the problem, but exacerbates it. Rather than deal with the reality, an alternate reality is created in which to hide from the truth and protect those migrants, so as not to offend them. That means the harm they inflict on others is unregulated, unchecked and without consequences; the abuse of women is allowed to flourish.
This mass migration can inflict negative changes upon a civilized society. When the powers that be allow anyone to enter the country, regardless of cultural background or history of criminal behavior, only havoc can ensue. If their criminal behavior is allowed, soon it becomes accepted and the “outsiders” effectively control the narrative, changing the world of the “insiders” negatively. Women hide in their homes, don’t go out alone, not for religious reasons but out of fear. It was not until the order to allow unfettered immigration was instituted that rampant abuse of women began to occur. This mass influx, according to the author, also coincided with mass terrorist attacks across Europe. Although denied, at first, it has now been acknowledged that there are “no go” zones in which whites and women are unwelcome and law enforcement, ambulances and fire departments will not enter without a security escort for fear of being attacked.
Searching for help when faced with this religiously motivated abusive behavior by migrant men, women are brushed off, blamed, refused justice or simply ignored by government officials, law enforcement and other witnesses because even they fear being ostracized, ridiculed, labeled racists or worse, even suffer retaliation from the unpunished offenders. Anyone who speaks the truth about the situation, is probably going to be in danger, judges included. It is for this reason that the crimes are not punished appropriately, if at all. It is probably why Ali’s books do not get the wide recognition they deserve. If they were applauded, the people praising them would be wrongfully labeled as anti-immigrant, xenophobic or racists, rather than pro law enforcement, pro respect for women, pro controlled borders, and pro appropriate punishment for crimes. They would all require bodyguards.
When immigrants who claim to be children are bearded men, and are still believed, something is wrong with the society that pretends to believe them, not with the culture of these migrants who abuse women. If the system was more tightly controlled, rotten eggs would be removed before admitted, truly deported and not allowed back, not given comfort and sanctuary by misguided citizens believing they are being compassionate when they are allowing their society to become disrespectful to women and reversing the rights they worked so hard to achieve. Law abiding, moral immigrants would be admitted regardless of country or color or religion. Those who could add something to society would be encouraged to come and be welcomed. Those willing to learn the language and take on the cloak of their new country would succeed, but to do so, they would be expected to abide by the laws and show some appreciation for the opportunity they are being given.
All those who believe that our borders should be open, that anyone should have unfettered access to anyone’s country, should read this book. Actually, everyone should read this book because we are all effected by mass migration when it has a negative impact on our country, and if the Muslim migrant resists integration, he merely recreates his own country within a safe space that is provided for him, in his host country. Ali investigated the situation and wrote the book because she wanted to know why certain streets were emptying of European women. She found out why and outlines the reasons for the failure of Muslims to integrate into the society of their host countries. They won’t work in certain industries, won’t work next to women, won’t obey the laws of the country, and these refusals to adjust are being accepted and accommodated. She offers sensible suggestions to solve the problems, not eliminate them. She is not against immigration. Bleeding hearts are motivated by altruistic concerns, but they are not solving the problem, they are creating it. If you welcome immigrants, they will come, if they have no requirements to enter, they, most likely, will not be the cream of the crop. It is a recipe for disaster.
This book is an honest, fearless appraisal of the effect of migration on a country not willing to control its borders.
This is a carefully and well-researched thorough analysis of how migrants adjust to their new homeland in Europe, and it also exposes their effect on how females are viewed and treated. In all cases, it is the Muslim community of migrants that fares the worst with regard to integration. The largest number of immigrants were from Muslim countries and were men. The author sets out to learn why they fail to integrate into the society of their new host country and why women in the countries they enter are far more likely to be abused. She does not believe throwing money at the problem will solve it. It is not that they are not welcomed or that there are no programs to assimilate them into society. It is rather that they isolate themselves, forming their own “mini-Muslim countries” within communities, obeying the laws of Islam, more often than not. Sometimes the laws are more extreme examples of Sharia. In the communities in which they settle, they are allowed to make their own laws and disregard the rules of the country in which they now live. Often, they do not wish to assimilate and identify with their new country, but they cling, instead, to their old homeland and ways. This remains so, even though they left to find a better life. They still recreate the place they abandoned.
In the newly created Muslim communities, the language of their new country is ignored in their homes. The children are very sheltered. There are neighborhood "religious police" always watching their movement. Women are afraid to move about freely. In the home and their schools, they are taught to adhere to strict Islamic doctrine and males are taught to disrespect females. Ali provides suggestions to solve the problem of the lack of Muslim assimilation into the society of their new homelands, but these suggestions have largely been resisted because they resist a broader education. They believe that they can resist it all because they must face their G-d in the end and their G-d cannot be resisted. This behavior is accompanied by a great deal of fear because this Muslim community responds violently and is not punished adequately for its overreactions or crimes. Fear of being called names like racist and xenophobe etc. control the narrative. However, any response from the host country that shows weakness makes the offenders believe that their behavior is acceptable, so it continues and grows worse.
I have read several books by this author. All are well researched, and her honest appraisals of the situations are refreshing. She does not shy away from identifying the problems and telling the truth about them. An immigrant herself, from a Muslim country, she is very much aware of racism and of the stigma attached to criticizing Muslims, but also aware of the abuse of women in Muslim countries and now in the countries Muslims emigrate to, as well. She believes acknowledging the problems is not racism, but the first step in solving it. She refuses to be afraid to speak the truth.
While the statistics she offers are mind-numbing, they are eye-opening. The individual stories are horrendous, so much so that although the author advises the reader to read them all, I had to skim many because they were overwhelmingly brutal. The conditions that exist in Europe, and sadly in America today (although she does not address the United States), are deteriorating because explanations and suggestions to address the problems are met with anger, accusations and rebuttals, not solutions. Sadly, that doesn’t solve the problem, but exacerbates it. Rather than deal with the reality, an alternate reality is created in which to hide from the truth and protect those migrants, so as not to offend them. That means the harm they inflict on others is unregulated, unchecked and without consequences; the abuse of women is allowed to flourish.
This mass migration can inflict negative changes upon a civilized society. When the powers that be allow anyone to enter the country, regardless of cultural background or history of criminal behavior, only havoc can ensue. If their criminal behavior is allowed, soon it becomes accepted and the “outsiders” effectively control the narrative, changing the world of the “insiders” negatively. Women hide in their homes, don’t go out alone, not for religious reasons but out of fear. It was not until the order to allow unfettered immigration was instituted that rampant abuse of women began to occur. This mass influx, according to the author, also coincided with mass terrorist attacks across Europe. Although denied, at first, it has now been acknowledged that there are “no go” zones in which whites and women are unwelcome and law enforcement, ambulances and fire departments will not enter without a security escort for fear of being attacked.
Searching for help when faced with this religiously motivated abusive behavior by migrant men, women are brushed off, blamed, refused justice or simply ignored by government officials, law enforcement and other witnesses because even they fear being ostracized, ridiculed, labeled racists or worse, even suffer retaliation from the unpunished offenders. Anyone who speaks the truth about the situation, is probably going to be in danger, judges included. It is for this reason that the crimes are not punished appropriately, if at all. It is probably why Ali’s books do not get the wide recognition they deserve. If they were applauded, the people praising them would be wrongfully labeled as anti-immigrant, xenophobic or racists, rather than pro law enforcement, pro respect for women, pro controlled borders, and pro appropriate punishment for crimes. They would all require bodyguards.
When immigrants who claim to be children are bearded men, and are still believed, something is wrong with the society that pretends to believe them, not with the culture of these migrants who abuse women. If the system was more tightly controlled, rotten eggs would be removed before admitted, truly deported and not allowed back, not given comfort and sanctuary by misguided citizens believing they are being compassionate when they are allowing their society to become disrespectful to women and reversing the rights they worked so hard to achieve. Law abiding, moral immigrants would be admitted regardless of country or color or religion. Those who could add something to society would be encouraged to come and be welcomed. Those willing to learn the language and take on the cloak of their new country would succeed, but to do so, they would be expected to abide by the laws and show some appreciation for the opportunity they are being given.
All those who believe that our borders should be open, that anyone should have unfettered access to anyone’s country, should read this book. Actually, everyone should read this book because we are all effected by mass migration when it has a negative impact on our country, and if the Muslim migrant resists integration, he merely recreates his own country within a safe space that is provided for him, in his host country. Ali investigated the situation and wrote the book because she wanted to know why certain streets were emptying of European women. She found out why and outlines the reasons for the failure of Muslims to integrate into the society of their host countries. They won’t work in certain industries, won’t work next to women, won’t obey the laws of the country, and these refusals to adjust are being accepted and accommodated. She offers sensible suggestions to solve the problems, not eliminate them. She is not against immigration. Bleeding hearts are motivated by altruistic concerns, but they are not solving the problem, they are creating it. If you welcome immigrants, they will come, if they have no requirements to enter, they, most likely, will not be the cream of the crop. It is a recipe for disaster.
This book is an honest, fearless appraisal of the effect of migration on a country not willing to control its borders.
March 31, 2021
Truthy or True?
I am extremely glad I read this book. The author's key point is this: "Women's safety from predatory men is the issue around which all true feminists must rally and coalesce." And yet, time and again, we don't. Instead, we find ourselves caught up in other fights/concerns -- racism, Islamophobia, reconciliation/forgiveness, etc. What the author clearly lays out is the dystopian future that awaits if we allow women's rights to be out in public to be eroded.
The main problem I have with this book is that it tried to find evidence to support the claims, when countries are either not collecting the evidence or are hiding it. So the author had to cobble together a lot of stats that aren't quite enough for me. The over-emphasis on statistics at the beginning of the book & their (admitted) flaws made me wonder whether I am buying her arguments because they sound true, or because they are true.
She takes a long time to attempt to rebut the perception that because she is speaking out against the OBVIOUSLY misogynist culture of the Islamic world, she is not a racist. As someone from the U.S., I'm still grappling with the way Europeans have flagged anti-religious feelings with racism. They are two separate things. Racism is the hatred of someone because of immutable characteristics. People's religions are mutable. This isn't the same thing & the fact that European liberals have decided they are is striking to me.
In the U.S. -- for men and women -- race seems to trump gender in terms of the "worst" behavior. Racial slurs cannot be quoted in a research paper, but misogynist slurs are used on network TV. Seems like the same thing is going on in Europe, but even worse because the horrific cultural views of women in the Middle East are trickling into and affecting mainstream European society. What Ali does show us is how the slippery slope of "cultural relativism" is allowing Sharia-culture, where women must remove themselves from the public sphere, else face physical violence as well as shunning, has arrived in Europe.
I'm not sure whether Ali's important points would have been better made in a shorter essay, but I hope that book reviewers from La Monde and The Economist, etc. pick it up and use their reviews to highlight her salient points.
Because she does make some extremely good arguments about how the "Wir shaffen das" attitude towards open doors/welcome, WITHOUT appropriate support/structure, has failed both native-born European women AND the Islamic immigrants who have arrived. I appreciated the fact that Ali made proposals on how to fix it -- and need to spend some time considering her first reform suggestion: i.e. forget about figuring out whether someone is in danger -- everyone who migrates is in danger of some extreme harm, whether extreme poverty or physical violence/death -- and focus on the likelihood of assimilation/integration.
Our inability to discuss problems in our society for fear of being labeled racist is ridiculous. I wish the epithet 'misogynist' had 1/2 as much weight as 'racist'. The failure of the state to protect its citizens is inexcusable. I am an opponent of the U.S.'s "lock em up" justice system for a variety of reasons, but the lack of consequences for the cases Ali cites is a significant problem, underscoring the misogyny of the judicial class, that devalues women's pain/suffering, as well as the European liberal society's lack of preparation to face a large influx of people with very different expectations of how the world works/should work.
You should read this book if you live in Europe and have not had an opportunity to discuss the perceptions of women with large groups of Muslim men.
I am extremely glad I read this book. The author's key point is this: "Women's safety from predatory men is the issue around which all true feminists must rally and coalesce." And yet, time and again, we don't. Instead, we find ourselves caught up in other fights/concerns -- racism, Islamophobia, reconciliation/forgiveness, etc. What the author clearly lays out is the dystopian future that awaits if we allow women's rights to be out in public to be eroded.
The main problem I have with this book is that it tried to find evidence to support the claims, when countries are either not collecting the evidence or are hiding it. So the author had to cobble together a lot of stats that aren't quite enough for me. The over-emphasis on statistics at the beginning of the book & their (admitted) flaws made me wonder whether I am buying her arguments because they sound true, or because they are true.
She takes a long time to attempt to rebut the perception that because she is speaking out against the OBVIOUSLY misogynist culture of the Islamic world, she is not a racist. As someone from the U.S., I'm still grappling with the way Europeans have flagged anti-religious feelings with racism. They are two separate things. Racism is the hatred of someone because of immutable characteristics. People's religions are mutable. This isn't the same thing & the fact that European liberals have decided they are is striking to me.
In the U.S. -- for men and women -- race seems to trump gender in terms of the "worst" behavior. Racial slurs cannot be quoted in a research paper, but misogynist slurs are used on network TV. Seems like the same thing is going on in Europe, but even worse because the horrific cultural views of women in the Middle East are trickling into and affecting mainstream European society. What Ali does show us is how the slippery slope of "cultural relativism" is allowing Sharia-culture, where women must remove themselves from the public sphere, else face physical violence as well as shunning, has arrived in Europe.
I'm not sure whether Ali's important points would have been better made in a shorter essay, but I hope that book reviewers from La Monde and The Economist, etc. pick it up and use their reviews to highlight her salient points.
Because she does make some extremely good arguments about how the "Wir shaffen das" attitude towards open doors/welcome, WITHOUT appropriate support/structure, has failed both native-born European women AND the Islamic immigrants who have arrived. I appreciated the fact that Ali made proposals on how to fix it -- and need to spend some time considering her first reform suggestion: i.e. forget about figuring out whether someone is in danger -- everyone who migrates is in danger of some extreme harm, whether extreme poverty or physical violence/death -- and focus on the likelihood of assimilation/integration.
Our inability to discuss problems in our society for fear of being labeled racist is ridiculous. I wish the epithet 'misogynist' had 1/2 as much weight as 'racist'. The failure of the state to protect its citizens is inexcusable. I am an opponent of the U.S.'s "lock em up" justice system for a variety of reasons, but the lack of consequences for the cases Ali cites is a significant problem, underscoring the misogyny of the judicial class, that devalues women's pain/suffering, as well as the European liberal society's lack of preparation to face a large influx of people with very different expectations of how the world works/should work.
You should read this book if you live in Europe and have not had an opportunity to discuss the perceptions of women with large groups of Muslim men.
April 15, 2024
Solid
January 28, 2022
Hmmm this book was really weird and had me raising my eyebrows pretty much throughout the last third. This definitely presents an important perspective of immigration. The rise of sexual assault cases stemmed from mass migration of men from Muslim-majority countries was something I did not even hear about before seeing this book on my library's shelf.
The first half (or maybe 3/4, I don't remember around when things turned for me) was super interesting and heartbreaking to hear about the cases of sexual assault against women and the lack of justice for these victims. However, when Ali started talking about misogynistic Islamic principles and proposing certain solutions to the problem, things seemed a little iffy.
In the "Social Control in Muslim-Majority Countries" section, Ali said the following of Muslim societies: "Men are perceived to be strong and women weak...Women are expected to...submit unconditionally to their husbands...An important element of maintaining social order in these societies is keeping male sexual desire, which is seen as a powerful force, locked within the bounds of marriage...To manage male sexuality, men are permitted to have more than one wife. Polygamy is encouraged as a matter of necessity to cushion this chaotic force." I don't like how she said this as a matter of fact. Because while I see conservative Muslims having this worldview, I'd like to see evidence that supports this generalization of Muslim societies. When I studied Islam, there was an emphasis on the equality of the sexes and that polygamy was a practice during the Prophet (PBUH)'s time because men could provide financial security to their wives since a lot of their husbands died in war.
In the same section, she also said that if a woman from one family is raped, the family will commit a "retaliatory rape" against a women of the perpetrator's family. She also said that "more than any other major religion, Islam formalizes the subordination of women."
In Chapter 13, Ali brings in other religions and ethnic groups to general that "Indians and Sikh cultures force their girls to marry, the Chinese still practice selective abortion of girls, and Italians notoriously sexualize women." In this chapter, she also said that dawa is basically terrorist recruiting and that "permitting girls to wear head scarves to school...further entrenches the segregation of [Muslim] communities from the rest of liberal society." I don't understand how allowing girls the freedom to wear headscarves goes against liberal society??
In Chapter 16, Ali said "in these days, those who advocate the superiority of Western civilization are demonized, especially on university campuses, as racists or white supremacists." I feel like that demonization is kinda valid? Saying that Western civilizations are superior is definitely racist in my book.
In Chapter 18 on what should be done about the immigration issue, Ali says that "migrants should be selected on the basis of their likelihood of adapting and flourishing in the West." I just feel like at this point Ali has completely derailed from the issue of how to stop immigrants from committing sexual assault and switched gears to how to stop immigrants from bringing their own points of view to our western countries. I definitely agree to a point: a large and deeply problematic mindset of many of these immigrants is that women are subservient sexual objects. But Ali's take seems very broad and critical of the entire immigrant worldview. In the same chapter, she also seems to praise the UK and Israel (counties best known for colonization, human rights abuses, and genocide) in their surveillance of people. She suggests the same camera-based surveillance to ensure that migrants assimilate to Western culture.
All in all, I think Ali brings up a very important issue of the misogynist views of Muslim men and how it leads to sexual assault, but she lacks in presenting solutions to the problem. The impression I got was that instead of blaming the individuals who commit these heinous acts, she blames the religion itself but with the disclaimer "I'm Muslim so I can't be anti-Islam." Idk man just something to think about.
The first half (or maybe 3/4, I don't remember around when things turned for me) was super interesting and heartbreaking to hear about the cases of sexual assault against women and the lack of justice for these victims. However, when Ali started talking about misogynistic Islamic principles and proposing certain solutions to the problem, things seemed a little iffy.
In the "Social Control in Muslim-Majority Countries" section, Ali said the following of Muslim societies: "Men are perceived to be strong and women weak...Women are expected to...submit unconditionally to their husbands...An important element of maintaining social order in these societies is keeping male sexual desire, which is seen as a powerful force, locked within the bounds of marriage...To manage male sexuality, men are permitted to have more than one wife. Polygamy is encouraged as a matter of necessity to cushion this chaotic force." I don't like how she said this as a matter of fact. Because while I see conservative Muslims having this worldview, I'd like to see evidence that supports this generalization of Muslim societies. When I studied Islam, there was an emphasis on the equality of the sexes and that polygamy was a practice during the Prophet (PBUH)'s time because men could provide financial security to their wives since a lot of their husbands died in war.
In the same section, she also said that if a woman from one family is raped, the family will commit a "retaliatory rape" against a women of the perpetrator's family. She also said that "more than any other major religion, Islam formalizes the subordination of women."
In Chapter 13, Ali brings in other religions and ethnic groups to general that "Indians and Sikh cultures force their girls to marry, the Chinese still practice selective abortion of girls, and Italians notoriously sexualize women." In this chapter, she also said that dawa is basically terrorist recruiting and that "permitting girls to wear head scarves to school...further entrenches the segregation of [Muslim] communities from the rest of liberal society." I don't understand how allowing girls the freedom to wear headscarves goes against liberal society??
In Chapter 16, Ali said "in these days, those who advocate the superiority of Western civilization are demonized, especially on university campuses, as racists or white supremacists." I feel like that demonization is kinda valid? Saying that Western civilizations are superior is definitely racist in my book.
In Chapter 18 on what should be done about the immigration issue, Ali says that "migrants should be selected on the basis of their likelihood of adapting and flourishing in the West." I just feel like at this point Ali has completely derailed from the issue of how to stop immigrants from committing sexual assault and switched gears to how to stop immigrants from bringing their own points of view to our western countries. I definitely agree to a point: a large and deeply problematic mindset of many of these immigrants is that women are subservient sexual objects. But Ali's take seems very broad and critical of the entire immigrant worldview. In the same chapter, she also seems to praise the UK and Israel (counties best known for colonization, human rights abuses, and genocide) in their surveillance of people. She suggests the same camera-based surveillance to ensure that migrants assimilate to Western culture.
All in all, I think Ali brings up a very important issue of the misogynist views of Muslim men and how it leads to sexual assault, but she lacks in presenting solutions to the problem. The impression I got was that instead of blaming the individuals who commit these heinous acts, she blames the religion itself but with the disclaimer "I'm Muslim so I can't be anti-Islam." Idk man just something to think about.
March 27, 2021
Fabulous....Ayaan is absolutely splendid
Read
June 21, 2022I wanted to give Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book a try because throughout my life I have been discouraged from reading books by her or Rushdie because of their anti Islamic views. I picked this book specifically because it focused on women’s rights and immigration - two topics that I’m passionate about. Immediately, the book started bashing Islam and Muslim and immigrant men — hence, I still wanted to continue reading it with an open mind because Ali is known as one of the most influential scholars of our time and I felt like she was taking us to a conclusion or solutions for how we can try and fix some of the issues facing women and immigrants. However, the book was 90% bashing Islam, Muslim men, and immigrants. It felt like she was generalizing the most fundamental of Wahhabis and using their actions/behaviors/Love of Sharia law and using it to describe the entire Muslim population. The solutions she offered were assimilation and adoption of western culture, and anti immigrant policies. Later, I learned that she actually supported Trump’s Muslim ban and agreed with several of his anti immigrant policies. This didn’t sit well with me because I guess I expected better. Maybe if I had neo-orientalist views, I would align more with Ali but I don’t. I feel like there are better books and better ways to have conversations about this topic than to preach Islamophobic viewpoints in a world that’s already very Islamophobic. Of course I’m biased as a Muslim, I fully acknowledge that and I still think she’s a very educated and intelligent writer. I just wish she used her talent more constructively rather than to be divisive.
December 9, 2021
Immigration problem in Europe is a 'Chicken comes home to root' issue.
The question is, where do this refugees comes from? In turmoil countries such as Libya (invaded and destabilized by Western), Sahel Region (Northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, the extreme south of Algeria, Niger, the extreme north of Nigeria, the extreme north of Cameroon and Central African Republic, central Chad, central and southern Sudan) are in constant wars because of tribal and ethnic differences resulted by states created by the western themselves without consultation and considering reality of the particular societies; nations like France are stealing resources from those countries in collaboration with the leaders they are keeping in Power like Biya of Cameroon who in turn become corrupt and arrogant because they are protected by European nations. So, what they face in Europe is a result of their own actions. Its a chicken come home to roost.
The question is, where do this refugees comes from? In turmoil countries such as Libya (invaded and destabilized by Western), Sahel Region (Northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, the extreme south of Algeria, Niger, the extreme north of Nigeria, the extreme north of Cameroon and Central African Republic, central Chad, central and southern Sudan) are in constant wars because of tribal and ethnic differences resulted by states created by the western themselves without consultation and considering reality of the particular societies; nations like France are stealing resources from those countries in collaboration with the leaders they are keeping in Power like Biya of Cameroon who in turn become corrupt and arrogant because they are protected by European nations. So, what they face in Europe is a result of their own actions. Its a chicken come home to roost.
June 18, 2021
In this day and age of cancel culture and illiberal techniques to spread "liberal" ideas, one must tread lightly when addressing the topics raised in this book. It takes a prodigious amount of courage to write a book on this topic when you have a fatwa calling for your death. I felt a wide range of emotions while reading this; I oscillated between anger, fear, disgust, and sadness. Ultimately, Ali's commitment to speaking up about cold, hard facts gave me hope. My respect and admiration for her are tremendous.
March 22, 2021
This was...really quite alarming
June 24, 2021
Are the rights of immigrants any more important than the rights of women? So far, politicians, media, and other typical left-wing suspects in Europe and elsewhere have answered yes. And the consequences have been swift and broad-reaching, continuing to snowball in recent years following German Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to essentially open the floodgates to open borders for migrants following the Syria crisis of 2015. This and other similar shortsighted policies have contributed to the increase in sexual violence against women and others throughout western Europe.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is herself an immigrant, twice, and knows of what she speaks. She originally fled an arranged marriage in Somalia and sought asylum in Holland where within a short period she rose from refugee to Dutch translator, to PhD and member of parliament. However, her outspokenness about the challenges of radical Islam threatened her safety in one of the most tolerant democracies in the world. Thus she fled again, this time to the United States.
The focus of this book is the failure of western governments in Europe in particular to assimilate migrants to secular societies that clash with the values of immigrants who have primarily come from conservative Islamic countries of south Asia and north Africa. Instead, migrants cluster in communities where they speak their own languages, maintain their own cultures, and in some instances import sharia law. Even Merkel admits to areas of Germany where no one dares go.
One of the main issues is women now being forced to withdraw from public life, cover up in modest clothing, and avoid areas that have become men-only such as cafes, parks, and streets in certain neighborhood in Molenbeek (Brussels, Belgium), Rinkeby (Stockholm, Sweden) and beyond. The author frets that this is not only a step backwards, but that it will only continue as the demographics of Europe are rapidly shifting with increasing numbers of Muslim migrants who are not assimilating.
Of course the typical suspects (see above) make or are afraid of accusations of racism at even mentioning the problem, let alone addressing it. But Ali spends the first several chapters setting forth facts and data as well as personal stories to demonstrate that the problem is real, and that sexual assault and violence against women is going unpunished. She then provides prescriptions including sex education, modifying the asylum rules which are outdated from the Geneva Convention in the 1950s designed for an altogether different set of circumstances (e.g., Jews immigrating to the U.S. and elsewhere), and modulating the incentives such as welfare that draw refugees to begin with.
This is an important book with far-reaching implications that should not be ignored. Hopefully policy makers are taking note and will get serious about protecting all women and preserving western values that have brought more freedom than at any time in history before it is too late.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is herself an immigrant, twice, and knows of what she speaks. She originally fled an arranged marriage in Somalia and sought asylum in Holland where within a short period she rose from refugee to Dutch translator, to PhD and member of parliament. However, her outspokenness about the challenges of radical Islam threatened her safety in one of the most tolerant democracies in the world. Thus she fled again, this time to the United States.
The focus of this book is the failure of western governments in Europe in particular to assimilate migrants to secular societies that clash with the values of immigrants who have primarily come from conservative Islamic countries of south Asia and north Africa. Instead, migrants cluster in communities where they speak their own languages, maintain their own cultures, and in some instances import sharia law. Even Merkel admits to areas of Germany where no one dares go.
One of the main issues is women now being forced to withdraw from public life, cover up in modest clothing, and avoid areas that have become men-only such as cafes, parks, and streets in certain neighborhood in Molenbeek (Brussels, Belgium), Rinkeby (Stockholm, Sweden) and beyond. The author frets that this is not only a step backwards, but that it will only continue as the demographics of Europe are rapidly shifting with increasing numbers of Muslim migrants who are not assimilating.
Of course the typical suspects (see above) make or are afraid of accusations of racism at even mentioning the problem, let alone addressing it. But Ali spends the first several chapters setting forth facts and data as well as personal stories to demonstrate that the problem is real, and that sexual assault and violence against women is going unpunished. She then provides prescriptions including sex education, modifying the asylum rules which are outdated from the Geneva Convention in the 1950s designed for an altogether different set of circumstances (e.g., Jews immigrating to the U.S. and elsewhere), and modulating the incentives such as welfare that draw refugees to begin with.
This is an important book with far-reaching implications that should not be ignored. Hopefully policy makers are taking note and will get serious about protecting all women and preserving western values that have brought more freedom than at any time in history before it is too late.
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