One of the most ardent and consistent voices revealing the horrors of Islam has been that of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. For more than two decades, she has warned the world how dangerous the religion in which she grew up is.
Ali recalled in a recent column that the 9/11 attacks led her to rethink her Muslim faith.
"They had done it in the name of my religion, Islam," she wrote, referring to the 9/11 terrorists. "I was a Muslim then, although not a practising one. If I truly condemned their actions, then where did that leave me? The underlying principle that justified the attacks was religious, after all: the idea of Jihad or Holy War against the infidels. Was it possible for me, as for many members of the Muslim community, simply to distance myself from the action and its horrific results?"
After leaving Islam, Ali turned to atheism after reading works by atheist philosophers like Herman Philipse, Bertrand Russell, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins. I liken it to the adherents of Scientology who leave that church and find that they can't believe in anything because of the treatment they received in their former religion.
But there's wonderful news that Ali recently revealed: she has become a Christian. In the same column, she explains her journey to faith in Jesus.
"I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive," she writes. "Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?"
Later, she adds, "Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all."
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Tellingly, Ali admits that her concern about Western civilization also drove her to Jesus. She writes:
We endeavour to fend off these threats with modern, secular tools: military, economic, diplomatic and technological efforts to defeat, bribe, persuade, appease or surveil. And yet, with every round of conflict, we find ourselves losing ground. We are either running out of money, with our national debt in the tens of trillions of dollars, or we are losing our lead in the technological race with China.
But we can’t fight off these formidable forces unless we can answer the question: what is it that unites us? The response that “God is dead!” seems insufficient. So, too, does the attempt to find solace in “the rules-based liberal international order”. The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
That legacy consists of an elaborate set of ideas and institutions designed to safeguard human life, freedom and dignity — from the nation state and the rule of law to the institutions of science, health and learning. As Tom Holland has shown in his marvellous book "Dominion," all sorts of apparently secular freedoms — of the market, of conscience and of the press — find their roots in Christianity.
Leave it to Ali to consider society as a whole while making the biggest personal decision she could ever make. She admits that she has a lot to learn on this new journey of faith.
"That is why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist," she writes in the conclusion of her column. "Of course, I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church each Sunday. But I have recognised, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer."
When I first heard Ali's news, the first person I thought of was my friend and colleague Robert Spencer, who is PJ Media's resident expert on Islam. I sought his thoughts on Ali's embrace of Christianity.
"The conversion of Ayaan Hirsi Ali to Christianity is momentous for many reasons," he told me. "One is her open acknowledgment that the resistance to jihad is a spiritual battle as well as a political one. Another is the prophetic character of her call to the West to recover and marshal its own spiritual resources in this battle. The Christian West held firm against the jihad for a thousand years and only started to give in when it discarded Christianity. May Hirsi Ali's conversion herald a spiritual renewal in the West."
As a Christian, I'm proud to welcome Ali to the family of believers.
Welcome to the family, @Ayaan! It's the best decision you'll ever make. I'll be praying for you to grow in your newfound faith. https://t.co/LUA9QnNvRn
— Chris Queen (@ChrisQueen) November 13, 2023
Let's all pray for Ali as she has made this momentous decision. It will change her life, and knowing her fierce intellect and immense passion, her new faith in Jesus could make an even bigger mark on the world.
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