{"id":24250,"date":"2021-03-10T05:26:14","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T10:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24250"},"modified":"2021-03-10T05:26:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T10:26:16","slug":"ayaan-hirsi-ali-migration-book-review-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/03\/10\/ayaan-hirsi-ali-migration-book-review-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Mass Migration, Culture, and the Undermining of Women\u2019s Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Immigration is usually discussed in terms of border security, national sovereignty, wages, jobs, and sometimes even the environment. However, in her latest book, Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women\u2019s Rights<\/a><\/em>, Hoover Institution research fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali, addresses the negative impact of mass migration \u2013 specifically from the Muslim world to Europe \u2013 on the rights and dignity of women, and the hypocritical and cowardly refusal of Western elites and all too many feminists to protect them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Author<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hirsi Ali was born in the African nation of Somalia and raised Muslim, but fled to the Netherlands, where she obtained asylum, in the early 1990s to avoid a forced marriage. There, she worked as a translator for Somali refugee women, and served in the Dutch parliament from 2003 to 2006. As her Hoover Institution bio<\/a> states, \u201cin 2004 Ayaan gained international attention following the murder of Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh had directed her short film\u00a0Submission<\/em>, a film about the oppression of women under Islam. The assassin, a radical Muslim, left a death threat for her pinned to Van Gogh\u2019s chest.\u201d In 2006, \u201cdisillusioned with the Netherlands,\u201d Hirsi Ali came to the United States, but even here \u201chas to live with round-the-clock security, as her willingness to speak out and her abandonment of the Muslim faith have made her a target for violence by Islamic extremists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author of Prey<\/em> is no opponent of\nimmigration or granting asylum. She does, however, strongly believe that\nmigrants and refugees must integrate into their host societies and respect\ntheir values \u2013 and that the host national governments should push them to do\nso. The problem, she argues, is that neither of those things seem to be\nhappening, which, in turn, is jeopardizing the freedoms and rights of women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A case in point: the sharp increase in sexual assaults\nagainst girls and women in Western European nations following the 2015 wave of\nasylum-seekers\/migrants from Muslim-majority nations. In her solidly-researched\nmonograph, Hirsi Ali proves that this rise in sexual violence against women is\nlargely and directly attributable to the sudden influx of men from Muslim\nsocieties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hirsi Ali describes story after confirmed story of migrants from Islamic-majority countries \u2013 predominantly young men, but older ones also participating \u2013 hanging around Western European cities in large groups harassing, groping, or even raping women in public places. Of course, plenty of cases of \u201clone wolf\u201d sexual assault also occurred, but many took the form of so-called \u201crape games\u201d (taharrush gamea<\/a> <\/em>in Arabic) in which large groups of men encircled women and attempted to assault them. Many of the victims were native-born, although immigrants or tourists were targeted as well. (Asylum centers were also rife with migrant-on-migrant violence). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cultural Roots of the Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem, Prey <\/em>argues, boils down to\nculture, or rather the clash of diametrically opposite cultures \u2013 a Western liberal\none that values individual freedom and female autonomy versus a collectivistic\nIslamic one that often oppresses women and views them as inferior. Hirsi Ali\nemphasizes that the issue is not race or ethnicity \u2013 the perpetrators come from\nmany different ethnic and racial groups \u2013 but rather one of being raised in\nIslamic societies where polygamy is frequently practiced and women are viewed\nas subordinate commodities. Women considered \u201cimmodest\u201d \u2013 which can mean\nsomething as innocuous as walking in public without a veil or male chaperone \u2013\ncan easily be deemed \u201cfair game\u201d for harassment, or worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This same misogynistic attitude was all too often\nprojected onto European women, both by migrants coming as part of the post-2015\nwave, as well as immigrants who came from Muslim-majority countries earlier. European\nwomen, especially if they freely moved around in public, without a male\ncompanion, and if they dressed in an allegedly revealing manner, were viewed as\n\u201casking for it.\u201d Moreover, as Hirsi Ali emphasizes, \u201creligious teachings from\nthe twelfth century, still cited in mosques today, distinguish some women as\nvirtuous and chaste by nature and others as licentious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why the European Elites Don\u2019t Seem to Care<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With great frustration, Hirsi Ali notes that the\nreaction of the European elites \u2013 including mainstream politicians,\njournalists, academics, and police leadership \u2013 to the post-2015 sexual assault\nwave was a mix of denial, cover-ups, apathy, cultural relativism, and even\nblaming the victims. All too many migrant rapists and harassers received slaps\non the wrist \u2013 if they were caught at all \u2013 while women were told by government\nor media figures to cover up, avoid certain public places, buy pepper spray,\netc. Some women were even accused of \u201cxenophobia,\u201d \u201cracism,\u201d or \u201cIslamophobia,\u201d\nwhile some lawyers and activists fought hard to ensure that migrant criminals\nand rapists are not deported (very few are removed anyway). As a classical liberal\nfeminist, the author is particularly disappointed with many Western feminists\nwho, in the age of #MeToo, have chosen to look the other way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did the European elites stick their heads in the\nsand? A big chunk of the puzzle is simply Western guilt and the desire to atone\nfor the sins of the past, such as racism or colonialism. In Germany\u2019s case, the\ndrive to finally overcome the legacy of Hitler and the Holocaust was a major\nmotive in Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s decision to open her country\u2019s borders to\na mass influx of Middle Eastern migrants and asylum-seekers. The irony is that\nthis not only led to increased sexual assault against women but also more\nattacks against Jews. The European elites also preferred to keep quiet about migrant\nsexual assault, lest it benefit so-called \u201canti-immigration\u201d parties. Center-left\nparties, having lost many working-class voters, \u201chave embraced the idea that\ngrowing numbers of Muslim immigrants are the new proletariat,\u201d and thus prefer\nto eschew any accusations of \u201cIslamophobia.\u201d And the extreme left even welcomed\nthe migrant crisis as \u201can opportunity to \u2018deal a death blow to capitalism\u2019 and\nenthusiastically adopted refugee rights as an instrument in their \u2018project of\nuniversal liberation.\u2019 Indeed, some have embraced the idea of open borders as\nan almost revolutionary project.\u201d The dignity of women could thus not be\nallowed to get in the way of mass migration and was sacrificed on the altar of\nthe above interlocking ideological agendas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hirsi Ali states that it was a \u201cpassionate desire to preserve\u201d Western civilization, without which the book \u201cwould have no meaning,\u201d and which \u201callows for liberties and freedoms unlike any other civilization,\u201d that drove her to write the book. To save the West, she proposes fundamentally reforming asylum and immigration, allowing entry primarily on the basis of \u201chow far they [immigrants and asylees]are likely to abide by the laws and adopt the values of their host society.\u201d Above all, Prey <\/em>is a much-needed reminder of how crucial culture is \u2013 or should be \u2013 to the immigration debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immigration is usually discussed in terms of border security, national sovereignty, wages, jobs, and sometimes even the environment. However, in her latest book, Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women\u2019s Rights, Hoover Institution research fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali, addresses the negative impact of mass migration \u2013 specifically from the Muslim world to Europe \u2013<\/p>\n

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