{"id":6351,"date":"2015-03-29T13:16:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-29T18:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/?p=6351"},"modified":"2015-03-29T13:16:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-29T18:16:35","slug":"ayaan-hirshi-ali-is-she-the-reformer-or-the-zealot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2015\/03\/ayaan-hirshi-ali-is-she-the-reformer-or-the-zealot.html","title":{"rendered":"Ayaan Hirshi Ali: Is She the Reformer or the Zealot?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Is Islam a violent religion in need of a \u201creformation?\u201d Are Muslims responsible for 70% of the violence in the world?<\/p>\n

These are some of the claims that the celebrated author, \u00a0Ayaan Hirsi Ali, makes in her new book Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now<\/a>.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Many Muslims and some writers\u00a0disagree with Hirshi Ali\u2019s characterization of Islam as a violent\u00a0religion and recently took their debate to Twitter.<\/p>\n

On one side was Max Bluementhal, a journalist\u00a0and author, and on the other was Ali Hirshi\u2019s husband ,<\/a> Nial Ferguson<\/a>, the British historian, author, and Harvard professor.<\/p>\n

Hirshi Ali is a Somali-born Muslim who fled her tribal village in 1977 and eventually settled in the Netherlands. In 2003, she\u00a0\u00a0was elected to the Dutch Parliament and in 2005, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2006, she emigrated to the United States where she founded a women\u2019s rights organization\u00a0and became a fellow at the Kennedy Government School at Harvard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here Hirshi Ali talks to\u00a0 CNN about her book<\/a>\u00a0and here she talks to the \u00a0 New York Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

Max Blumenthal responds to Hirshi Ali\u2019s argument in an\u00a0essay for Alternet called \u201c Exposing Anti-Islam Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali\u2019s Latest Deception<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the stories and take a look at\u00a0the tweets below. The last tweet \u00a0is from Reza Aslan, author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth<\/a>\u00a0who wonders how you can have a reformation of Islam if you are at war with all of Islam.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n

.@nfergus<\/a> \u201cIf you look at 70 percent of the violence in the world today, Muslims are responsible\u201d \u2014 @Ayaan<\/a> http:\/\/t.co\/n9WRy26DaE<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) March 27, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n