Aayan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Believes it’s Time to Reform Islam

Aayan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is a former Muslim and a best-selling author, spoke openly about the Islamic religion on ABC’s This Week.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali claims that Islam is “not a religion of peace.”  She believes that Muslims truly need to eliminate the Islamic followers who are horrible and violent.

She also talked about a large Muslim group that she describes as “peace-loving” that she feels should be more “for” a reform. Martha Raddatz inquired as to whether or not Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be the “voice” for Islamic reform since she no longer follows the Muslim faith.

Manal Omar also made an observation similar to Raddatz’s. Ali and Omar expressed a few disagreements over some of the content in the Qu’ran.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali insists she’s not “attacking” the Muslims, she just feels that courageous steps need to be taken.

Ali abandoned the faith and became a huge critic, to the extent that Brandeis University backed out of giving her an honorary degree when her views on the Muslim religion were protested by so many people.

Ali feels that Islam is “completely corrupted” and needs to be reformed to the extent that Christanity was back in the 16th century.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is now an atheist. In her book titled Heretic, released just last week, she expresses that there has to be a new way for world’s 1.6 billion Muslims to save their religion. Ali states in her book that there are 3 types of Muslims: the reformers, the violent ones, and the ones who wish to practice the way they want without challenging the teachings of the Koran, and without terrorist attacks committed in the name of the Muslim faith.

She wrote in her book that no other modern religion still considers dissent a crime punishable by death.

She appreciates the fact that Obama has been attempting to strike some sort of delicate balance, however, she feels that but much more needs to be done.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali also argues for these 5 amendments to be applied to the Muslim faith. She wrote in her book that, “Only when these five things are recognized as inherently harmful and when they are repudiated and nullified, will a true Muslim reformation have been achieved.”

These 5 notions are:

  1. The ultimate infallibility of Prophet Muhammad the holy Quran’s literal interpretation
  2. The ideal that the life we have after our death is of more importance than our life here on Earth
  3. Sharia law
  4. The allowance of any Muslim to be able to enforce their ideas of what’s right and/or wrong on another person
  5. Jihad (or holy war)

The rejection of these ideas, some of them dating all the way back to the 7th century, is something of a shocking proposition to those who are faithful.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali also wrote that the largest obstacle that needs to be changed within the world of Islam is the suppression of the type of critical thinking she is attempting.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the keynote speaker at the 2015 American Atheists National Convention, taking place this weekend in Memphis, TN.

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