A friend of mine invited me to a forum held in my city, Ottawa, where Ayaan Hirsi Ali was to present her views on Islam and launch her new book, Nomad.

Before I could accept the invitation, I asked myself several questions. Who is Ayaan Hirsi? What will she talk about? What will I benefit from the meeting? My knowledge about Ayaan was limited to what I had read about her in the press, both international and local Somali media. I have never read her books, Infidel and Nomad or anything else by her.

I was fortunate however to meet her late father, Hirsi Magan Isse in Dubai and Bossaso. I used to listen to his Islamic teachings on Radio Kulmis, in Somalia when I was a teenager. Mr. Hirsi was an elite, politician and famous patriot who highly respected Islam and Somali culture. He was also famous on writing Othomani and Somali languages which he even looked for appropriate Somali wording for any foreign word. Examples of such words are “ashtray” which he called Dambas Qaad. A “watch” he called goorayso and many more.

Like many, I had closely followed media reports of his daughter Ayaan’s decision to renounce Islam and her constant abuse of the Islamic belief, culture and principles cherished by 1.6 billion Muslim faithful across the globe. 

To sell Nomad Westerners, she rewrote herself as a person who was completely unsophisticated and uncultured; who had not seen a town, a large sum of money and who never went to school.

And so I accepted the invitation to see and hear Ayaan and her campaign for myself so that I could understand her hatred of Islam. There Prophet, may peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have said that “‘seeing for yourself is not equal to hearing from someone else.”

Thursday night

I arrived at the Ottawa International Writers Festival at 7 o’clock in the evening on June 10. As I entered the Mayfair Theater, I met both uniformed and plain-clothes security officers keeping guard. The theatre was packed to full capacity with some people standing. Fortunately a friend found two chairs at the front left in the second row.   

As I settled in my seat, I surveyed the faces of the people who had come to listen to Ayaan. I realized they were mostly white and of different ages. I saw just two black faces and the only Muslims around appeared to be me and my friend. I suppose that being a literary event, those who attended were fans of Ayaan’s books who wanted to personally meet her. I also sensed that Muslims, and in particular Somalis, had not come because they do not appreciate her anti-Islamic and anti-Somali views.

Minutes later, security officers entered the place and secured the area where Ayaan would sit. Ottawa Police officers were also deployed at the gates. Shortly after that, a man and a woman, who I think were Ayaan’s assistants entered the building and sat on two chairs in front of me.

The gate opened and Ayaan Hirsi entered to a standing ovation from the crowd. As she sat on the chair just in front of us and she glanced up and smiled at us. Officials from Writers Festival opened the forum and CBC Ottawa reporter Lucy van Oldenbarneveld took over as host of the event.

For twenty minutes, Ayaan read from her new book Nomad, which she described as continuation of her other book Infidel. In her reading, she explained her understanding of the difference between Islam and the West on the issue of money.

She painted a picture that I can say was blurry as she narrated her life in refugee camps in Holland, the manner in which she got her immigration papers and how she finally settled down in her new home. She described the “slavery” that Somali women faced; how they weren’t even allowed to handle money. She painted a picture of a grim, miserable life in Somalia, full of restrictions before she experienced freedom and happiness in the European refugee camp.

For sure, I was surprised by the negative picture that Ayaan painted about Somali women and Islam. Some of the most astonishing comments I heard her make were:

• That the largest sum of money she ever held or seen was the 5000 Gildar she got from the Dutch social office to buy some things for her house.
• That she was asked by a social worker her savings and her reply was, “What are savings?” Ayaan claimed that it was the first time that she had heard about the concept of savings, though “(She) used to see (her) grandmother hiding money from my mother and father under her pillow.”
• That upon receiving the sum of 5000 Gildar, she bought a carpet and curtains for the house she had been provided with by the social office and remained with a change of 400 Gildar. She claimed that a lady who used to teach her Dutch wondered how Ayaan could live without even a bed, chairs or a TV not knowing that Ayaan did not know the meaning of those basic furnishings.

She also spoke on lengthy about Somalis living in Holland who use credit cards and the money from the social office to enable their relatives in Kenya migrate to Europe. She also talked about how severed communication with Somalis after she learnt Dutch and became translator at the social office.
        
After she finished reading from her book, the interview began with Ms. van Oldenbarneveld. To paraphrase some of the questions she was:

• How do you, after renouncing Islam want to make an overhaul of the Islamic belief?
• What made you abandon Islam, and when did you decided to leave the religion?
• People who are opposed to you say Ayaan just wants to fill the ears of those who already hate Islam? Are your readers and listeners only those who hate Islam?

In her responses, Ayaan depicted Islam as oppressor of women and danger to the existence of human kind. While responding to what made her renounce Islam, she claimed that the suffering of her mother and granny made her want to avoid end up like them. She also claimed that her mother refused her to attend school in spite of her father willingness. Ayaan also claimed that an incident where a Somali lady, was raped by Kenyan forces and abandoned in a refugee camp in Kenya also influenced her to renounce the religion.  
   
Ayaan’s most shocking narration was her call to Christians to go into the Muslim neighborhoods and influence the faithful to abandon Islam.

Conclusion

Things that really left me amazed about her book and what she told the people who attended the forum were her lies about Islam and herself. As we all know, Ayaan was born to a wealthy and well educated family. Her father was a man who in early 1960s graduated from Columbia University and was educated in Italy. He was from the social elite; a famous politician, scholar and linguist. Ayaan got her education in Kenya, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia where she attended highly respected schools. She is not someone who suffered or went through refugee camps.

So, the picture she painted about her life is far from truth, I can only say is fiction and night dreams which she is using in real life to confuse people who don’t have enough knowledge about Islam.  
     
To sell Nomad Westerners, she rewrote herself as a person who was completely unsophisticated and uncultured; who had not seen a town, a large sum of money and who never went to school. She fantasizes about having been rescued from the bush where she lived with animals. A life that she describes as barbaric and inhumane.    

What is also shocking is the way she depicts her family, her mother, father and granny as people who lived a distressful life full of suffering and hardship. This is not the reality. Furthermore, I am shocked by her awful depiction of Islam, the way she wants war against Islam, to create divisions amongst Muslims and other religions and to make people suffer. 

The other thing that I can only describe as stupidity is her blanket condemnation against peaceful multiculturalism in the western countries. If it weren’t for the West’s acceptance of Muslims and immigrants, (which Ayaan fights against), she would have not arrived Holland, where she would become a parliamentarian.

In conclusion, Ayaan is an intelligent person but filled with hatred that has blinded her from the truth, so she cannot differentiate between culture and faith, truth and falsehood. She is living a distressful life where she can’t even walk without security guard, preferring to live in hiding.  
  
The likes of her are people who strive hard to see the world, which is now engulfed in fighting and hatred, without life of companionship, understanding and respect. She is simply campaigning for a divided world.

Ayaan believes that if Islam was criticized openly it would collapse. I believe it would be valuable if Muslims who are knowledgeable about Islam engaged her in a calm discussion and corrected her gently. I think the absence of Muslims or Somalis at gatherings is what gives Ayaan chance to confuse more people, who have no idea about Islam.

It seems there are people, who seek to misuse Islam for their own aims. Some claim to be guiding to the “right” way which involves violence while others call for a total overhaul or annihilation of the religion. We must not allow these groups or individuals to take Islam hostage by dividing us and painting a bad picture of our religion.

The more than billion faithful shall speak and defend itself from inciters both inside and outside. Muslims shall stand to protect the religion and correct whenever people try to depict our beliefs badly.

A longer, unedited version of this article first appeared in the Garowe Online (www.garoweonline.com), a Somali online magazine. Reprinted here with permission.