{"id":2098127,"date":"2023-11-14T07:05:01","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T12:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-conversion-of-ayaan-hirsi-ali-to-christianity-is-a-dire-warning-to-the-west\/"},"modified":"2023-11-14T07:10:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T12:10:03","slug":"the-conversion-of-ayaan-hirsi-ali-to-christianity-is-a-dire-warning-to-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-conversion-of-ayaan-hirsi-ali-to-christianity-is-a-dire-warning-to-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"The Conversion Of Ayaan Hirsi Ali To Christianity Is A Dire Warning To The West"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-conversion-of-ayaan-hirsi-ali-to-christianity-is-a-dire-warning-to-the-west%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2098127&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2>Former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi \u200bAli Converts to Christianity<\/h2>\n<p>Over the weekend, Ayaan Hirsi Ali revealed in an <a href=\"https:\/\/unherd.com\/2023\/11\/why-i-am-now-a-christian\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">essay at \u2063Unherd<\/a> that she has become a Christian. For Christians, this is welcome and joyous news. But it\u2019s \u2062also instructive. A former Muslim who very publicly rejected Islam and became an \u2064avowed atheist in the aftermath of the 9\/11 attacks, Ali has been speaking and writing in defense of Western civilization and liberal \u200cvalues for decades.<\/p>\n<p>Now she has come to the conclusion that there \u200cis no way to maintain Western\u200b civilization and no way to preserve its liberal values apart from Christianity. Just as she came to discover the fundamentalist Islam of her youth was a dead\u200c end, she has also discovered the atheism she adopted in response to\u200d it is also a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-psychology-behind-cnns-implosion\/\" title=\"The Psychology Behind CNN\u2019s Implosion\">dead end<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2014206958\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-4bd2f214ed83705de80118c16be2c803 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-4bd2f214ed83705de80118c16be2c803\"><\/div>\n<p>Ali is right, of course, although \u2062the reasons she gives for her conversion might raise some eyebrows. \u201cPart of the answer is global,\u201d \u2063she writes. Ali says the West is under threat from three different but related forces: \u201cthe \u2064resurgence\u2063 of great-power authoritarianism and expansionism in the forms of the Chinese Communist Party and Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia; the rise of global Islamism, which threatens to mobilise a\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wapo-reporter-taylor-lorenz-a-big-fan-of-chinas-authoritarian-covid-lockdowns\/\" title=\"WaPo Reporter Taylor Lorenz a Big Fan of China's Authoritarian COVID Lockdowns\">vast population<\/a>\u200c against the West; and \u2064the viral\u2064 spread of woke ideology, which is eating into\u200c the moral fibre \u2063of the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s also right \u2062about that but wrong to think Christianity\u2063 is primarily about countering those forces or preserving \u2062a particular civilizational or political project.\u200b As great as Western civilization is, it arose as \u2062a <em>byproduct<\/em> of the Christian \u200bfaith, the sole object of which is communion with Almighty God by means of \u2064salvation through Jesus Christ. Things like freedom \u2063of\u200c speech, rule\u200c of law, and human rights are\u200b fruits of the Christian faith, but they \u200dare not\u200b what Christianity is <em>about<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Ali\u2019s conversion is instructive in an important way. As Hussein Aboubakr Mansour <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HusseinAboubak\/status\/1723582815734829068?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noted on X<\/a> (formerly Twitter) over the weekend, Ali was \u201cthe poster child of what the New Atheists promised Islam.\u201d There was a lot\u2063 of discussion after 9\/11 about how Islam needed its own Reformation to tame and secularize it, as Christianity had supposedly been tamed and pacified by the \u200cProtestant Reformation (never mind the century of continental war that it triggered). What the atheists promised\u200c Ali and other disillusioned Muslims was rationalism, freedom of inquiry and expression, and scientific objectivity \u2014 all of which would\u2064 flourish in \u200cMuslim societies just as it had in the West, if only Muslims would set aside their backward\u200d religion and embrace the secular humanism of Western elites.<\/p>\n<p>According to this theory, Christianity itself had served its purpose in the West, bestowed all its gifts, and could safely be discarded. \u200cWe could live forever, drawing on its capital, which we assumed would never\u2062 run out. The Islamic world needed to\u2063 do likewise, and all would be well.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-559666c4bc2e3363aeaf6c48735c05b2 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-559666c4bc2e3363aeaf6c48735c05b2\"><\/div>\n<p>But \u200dsomething very\u2062 different happened instead. It turns out,\u200d the \u200dcapital was gradually spent\u2062 and never replenished. Liberalism\u200b always depended for its vitality on something\u2062 it cannot\u200c itself supply: the Christian faith, active and alive among the people. As the French philosopher R\u00e9mi Brague wrote back \u2064in the 1990s, \u201cFaith produces its effects only so long as it remains faith and not calculation. We owe European civilization to people\u200d who believed in Christ, not to people who believed in Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ali\u2019s conversion, which is laudable on\u2062 its own (even if she doesn\u2019t quite yet grasp the true object of her new\u2062 faith), is a stark\u2064 reminder that the liberal, secular West cannot survive without the Christian\u2064 faith from which it emerged. Indeed, the\u200c secular elites who once \u2062promised apostate \u2063Muslims like Ali that they could have \u200dall the benefits of Christianity without Christianity itself \u2063are now abandoning the principles they once espoused.<\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks, we have seen this abandonment most potently in the \u2062Red-Green alliance between the global left and the pro-Hamas crowd, who have been marching through the streets of Western cities in a show of force reminiscent of the Black Lives\u200d Matter riots of\u2063 2020. The \u200cnaked antisemitism of the Hamas people, together with the deafening silence of the\u2062 elites of the global left, tells you everything you need to know about the durability of secular humanism.<\/p>\n<p>There is no room anymore for freedom\u200b of speech, \u200bopen inquiry, or\u2064 rational debate among the people and\u2063 institutions that once espoused these ideals. There is \u2063only the brute force of the mob. It\u2019s easy to see \u2064this \u200cat work throughout Western \u2062society, not just on the Israel-Hamas issue. What commitment do our elites really have to liberal totems like\u200c science \u200cand rationality, after all, when they insist that a man can become a woman, or \u200bthat children can consent to castration and sterilization? When a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court\u200b insists\u2062 she cannot define what a woman \u2062is because she is not \u200ba biologist,\u2063 we<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-conversion-of-ayaan-hirsi-ali-to-christianity-is-a-dire-warning-to-the-west\/\" title=\"The Conversion Of Ayaan Hirsi Ali To Christianity Is A Dire Warning To The West\">\u2019ve stepped firmly<\/a> into what C.S. Lewis called the\u2064 void, where\u2062 nothing is objectively true and all that matters is will\u200c and power.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-eee6acffa25c59213804f4c40838a5dd fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-eee6acffa25c59213804f4c40838a5dd\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cUnless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion \u2064of our civilization will continue,\u201d writes Ali. \u201cAnd fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction \u200dof medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indeed it does, and it has\u200d given us all that is good in our\u2062 civilization. Having first rejected the Christian faith, however, our secular elites are now rejecting\u2062 all those other good\u2063 things \u200bthat \u200dsprang from it, \u200band positing a very different sort of society. Instead \u2064of a society that embraces rationality \u200cand freedom and human rights, they \u2062offer something from the pagan past: a society\u2062 that embraces \u200cpower and violence \u200band domination. If we\u2019re honest with ourselves, we can already see, on the streets of London and New York and Paris, what that \u2064society will look like.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> In\u200b what \u200bways does the PAA&#8217;s \u200calignment with a perceived anti-Western agenda undermine the values they claim to\u200c support?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  2020. These self-proclaimed\u200c champions of human rights and social justice have turned a\u2063 blind\u200d eye to the \u2062oppressive and regressive nature of radical Islam, all in \u200cthe name\u2062 of their anti-Western \u200cagenda. This unholy alliance undermines the very values they claim to support, and it\u2063 is a clear \u200bdemonstration \u2063of the \u2062bankruptcy \u2062of secular \u2062humanism.<\/p>\n<p>Ali\u2019s conversion, while personal to her, serves as a \u2062wake-up call\u2063 for the West. It reminds us that what we have taken for granted &#8211; \u2063our\u200b freedoms, our rights, our\u200c civilization &#8211; are not self-sustaining. They are not the natural\u2062 outcome\u200d of human progress or\u200b empirical \u200dreasoning. Rather, they\u200b are rooted in a deeply-held faith\u200b that acknowledges\u2063 the inherent dignity and\u2063 worth\u200b of every individual, as created in \u2062the image of God.<\/p>\n<p>Christianity, \u200cwith its teachings of\u2064 love, forgiveness, and \u200credemption, has been the \u2062wellspring from which Western civilization has flowed. It has shaped our laws, our moral compass, and our commitment to justice and\u200b equality. It is\u2062 the foundation upon which \u2062our societies have been built and\u2062 should not \u2063be dismissed or discarded lightly.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately,\u200d in our\u200b pursuit of progress and enlightenment, \u200dwe have often\u2064 overlooked this foundational truth. \u200cWe have embraced a shallow \u200dand materialistic worldview that \u200cdenies the\u200c transcendent \u2062and reduces human existence to mere \u2062atoms\u2063 and molecules. We have substituted the pursuit of individual \u2062desires and ambitions for a higher \u200dpurpose and meaning. And in doing so, we have lost our sense of identity and \u200bpurpose as\u200b a society.<\/p>\n<p>Ali\u2019s\u200c journey, from Islam to atheism and\u200b now to\u200d Christianity, is a powerful testament \u200cto the human search for truth and \u2063meaning. \u200bIt exposes the emptiness\u2062 of\u200d the secular ideologies that promised liberation\u2064 but only\u2063 delivered a \u200dvoid.\u2064 It challenges us to reexamine our assumptions \u2063and reconsider the role of\u2063 faith in our lives and in the life of our civilization.<\/p>\n<p>The Western world is \u2064at \u200ba crossroads. We are facing profound challenges &#8211; from the rise of authoritarian\u2063 regimes to the erosion of traditional \u200dvalues to\u2062 the fragmentation of our communities. These challenges cannot be effectively addressed by \u2062political maneuvering, social engineering, or technological innovation alone.\u200c They \u200brequire a deeper,\u2064 spiritual \u2062response.<\/p>\n<p>Ali\u2019s conversion reminds us that\u200d Christianity, with its\u200d timeless message of love, hope, and redemption,\u200c holds the\u200d key to the\u200b renewal and survival of Western civilization. \u200dIt offers a framework of \u200cvalues \u200band principles\u2064 that can guide us through these \u200cturbulent times and\u200d restore the unity and purpose \u2063that we have \u200dlost.<\/p>\n<p>As Christians, we should welcome Ali with open arms, embracing her as\u2064 a fellow traveler on \u2063this journey of\u200b faith. We should learn from \u200bher experiences and insights, and we should draw strength from her courage \u200cand conviction. Her \u2063conversion is a powerful \u2062testimony to the transformative power of the Gospel \u2064and a reminder that no one is beyond the\u2064 reach of \u2063God&#8217;s grace.<\/p>\n<p>May Ali&#8217;s journey inspire us to recommit\u200b ourselves to the Christian faith \u2064and to the values that have shaped and\u200c defined\u200c Western civilization. May it remind us<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the weekend, Ayaan Hirsi Ali revealed in an\u00a0essay at Unherd that she has become a Christian. For Christians, this is welcome and joyous news. But it\u2019s also instructive. A former Muslim who very publicly rejected Islam and became an avowed atheist in the aftermath of the 9\/11 attacks, Ali has been speaking and writing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":2098128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2098127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2098127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2098128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2098127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2098127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2098127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}