Infidel

Please check out the recent article from the New York Times:

In Europe, Debate Over Islam and Virginity

We came together to discuss Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali The book opened our eyes to the lives of Muslim women around the globe- far away on the other side of the Atlantic ocean- in Africa and in Europe. One thing I learned from Infidel is that Islam like other faiths is evangelical- The world crept in on us as a group of men ( tall.. strong-powerful) walked in and in the room next to us began to talk about their faith: Islam, and their rewards for spreading their faith. As the men continued in the other room- I got nervous- I didn't want to speak to0 loudly that I disagreed with many of the aspects of how Islam defined women, I kept thinking- should we invite them to our discussion- we didn't it was awkward, it brought up in me my own discomfort with what was foreign to me. I sensed that speaking would get me nowhere- and perhaps more than anything I was afraid of them.
I have lived and worked in some of the toughest parts of New York, I have traveled on my own in Malaysia an Islamic country, and here I was in a coffee shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico- and despite my desire to be brave and to learn more- my deepest instinct told me that these men where to be feared. I took Women's Studies classes in the late 90's- I knew about the state of women under the Taliban before the towers fell ( I spent a year living right next to ground zero- I felt what happened each day as I walked past it to get to the subway) I knew about female circumcision- so the topics were not new to me, the suffering that occurred in Somalia was within my frame of knowledge - reading Infidel brought all of this out of my brain and into my emotions.

I encourage all of you to add your reflections on our discussion of Infidel by adding your comments to this blog