ABSTRACT
Since opposition to Islam is such an important factor in Dutch right-wing politics, this chapter is dedicated to the most influential Islam critic of the Netherlands: Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Due to the fact that Hirsi Ali’s views on Islam have often been confused with her personal experiences, comparatively little attention has been given to her ideological inspirations. Hirsi Ali became part of the Islamic fundamentalist movement in her teenage years, and joined an influential circle of neoconservative intellectuals after her arrival in the Netherlands and her study in Leiden. This chapter situates her writing in relation to these two formative intellectual influences. It traces the development of Hirsi Ali’s perspective on Islam, which consists of a paradoxical combination of ideas drawn from Islamic fundamentalism and Western Orientalism and neoconservatism. And it shows how these adopted views are – in important respects – in open contradiction with her personal life story, as told in her biography, Infidel.
