Reception
Hirsi Ali has attracted praise and criticism from Anglophone commentators. Commentator and journalist Christopher Hitchens called Hirsi Ali a "charismatic figure in Dutch politics" and criticised the Dutch government for its negligent attitude towards her protection from "fascist killers". Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times called Hirsi Ali a freedom fighter for feminism who has "put her life on the line to defend women against radical Islam." Novelist and screenwriter Roger L. Simon has praised Ali's defense of women's rights, calling her "one of the great positive figures of our time, a modern Joan of Arc who surpasses the original Joan in a moral sense and is at least her equal in pure guts." He also criticises the ignorance of the Hollywood community about Ali's plight and the assassination of Theo Van Gogh.
The reception of Hirsi Ali's work in Scandinavia has been significant. She spoke at the meeting of the right wing Danish People's Party on 17 September 2010.
Islamic columnist Hesham A. Hassaballa has criticised Hirsi Ali for "making sweeping generalisations about Islam and Muslims" as "the Arab Human Development report speaks only of the Arab – and not Islamic – world". Hassaballa's criticism was in response to a comment Ali made on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" with Neil Conan, where she said "For empirical evidence on whether women and/or the Islamic world is in a crisis, I would like to refer Tony to the Arab Human Development report ... in which the writers of that report say the Arab/Islamic world is retarded when it comes to ... three factors: The freedom of the individual, knowledge, and the subjugation of women." Hassaballa has also criticized Hirsi Ali's statements by saying: "But what left me truly flabbergasted by that NPR interview was Ali's statement about the West: I know that Western societies have had a terrible past from the burning of women as witches all the way to what happened in the Second World War ... that's one part of the West. But there's the other part which is really developing institutions that safeguard the life and freedoms of the individual, and it would be a huge pity to confuse the two and to, you know, lump them together and describe the West only as a source of evil." Yet, she does exactly the same thing when it comes to Islam and the Muslim world."
In its critique of Ali's autobiography, The Economist called her a "chameleon of a woman", referring to her "talent for reinvention".
Read more about this topic: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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