Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Islam 'not a religion of peace,' but could become one
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam, said Friday that the religion she once belonged to was not peaceful, and any politicians that claimed otherwise were not to be trusted.
Hirsi Ali made the remarks at the National Review Institute's Idea Summit in Washington, D.C.
"Islam is not a religion of peace," Hirsi Ali said, "but it can become a religion of peace."
She went on to separate Muslims into three categories: jihadists, a moderate majority and reformers. Hirsi Ali said she had been a member of each group at some point in her life, and that "if there was an Islamic State when I was 15, 16, I probably would have joined it."
She claimed that Islam is not peaceful, yet she described the majority of Muslims as observers who aren't radical and who are being pulled in two directions — either by the jihadists or the reformers (also called "heretics," according to Hirsi Ali).
But her speech on Friday was actually somewhat subdued from her usual style. Last November Hirsi Ali described modern feminism as being too focused on "trivial bull----." This time, however, she avoided such inflammatory remarks.
Still, she was arguing for changing Islam into something completely different than it is today, but emphasized that the change will have to come from within the religion, aided by the West.
"Change is not going to be top-down, it's going to be bottom-up," Hirsi Ali said. "And we can influence it. We can catalyze it."
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