"Grandmother, I have compared the infidels’ morals to those that you taught us, and I must report that they have, in practice, a better outcome for humans than the morals of your forefathers. You taught us the virtues of suspicion and distrust, and Islam taught us to survive by taqqiyah, pretending to be something you are not…. The infidel does not see life as a test, a passage to the hereafter, but as an end and a joy in itself…. Because the infidel trusts and studies new ideas, there is abundance in the infidel lands. In these circumstances of peace, knowledge, and predictability, the birth of a girl is just fine. There is no need to pout and sulk and every reason to celebrate and rejoice. The little girl sits right next to the little boy in school; she gets to play as much as he does; she gets to eat as much as he does; she gets the same care in illness as he does; and when she matures she gets the same opportunity to seek and find a mate as he does…. The bloodline is tired and impotent; adhering to it leads only to violence. It is no strategy for unity and progress…. Grandma, fevers and diseases are not caused by jinn and forefathers rising from the dead to torment us, or by an angry God, but by invisible creatures with names like parasites and bacteria and viruses. The infidel’s medicine works better than ours, because it is based on facts, inquiry, and real knowledge…. Grandmother, I no longer believe in the old ways. The world began changing in your lifetime, and by now the old ways are not useful to me anymore. I love you, and I love some of my memories of Somalia, though not all. But I will not serve the bloodline or Allah any longer. And because the old ways hamper the lives of so many of our people, I will even strive to persuade my fellow nomads to take on the ways of the infidel."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Atheism activistsWomen activists from the United StatesCritics of IslamAfrican American atheistsAmerican former Muslims
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Chapter 7, “Letter to My Grandmother” (pp. 89-92 passim)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
109 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Ayaan Hirsi Ali →
Related Quotes
"Perhaps the writer who has best identified the problems within the Muslim world is the philosopher Ibn Warraq, of Pak…"
"In countries such as Pakistan and Iran, and to a lesser extent in parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Tanzania…"
"The most pressing question of our time is this: Is European society to be taken over by a radical invasion of Muslim …"
"There is a huge difference between being tolerant and tolerating intolerance."
"[W]ith like-minded people one cannot discuss. With like-minded people one can only participate in a church service, a…"
"Islam is not a race...Islam is simply a set of beliefs, and it is not 'Islamophobic' to say Islam is incompatible wit…"
"Where there is no freedom of speech, there is no conscience."
"Islam is not a religion of peace. It's a political theory of conquest that seeks domination by any means it can."
"Every accommodation of Muslim demands leads to a sense of euphoria and a conviction that Allah is on their side. They…"
"People ask me if I have some kind of death wish, to keep saying the things I do. The answer is no: I would like to ke…"