Hirsi Ali downunder talking about new book

August 02, 2008

On her short visit to Australia, she talks about the ideas she will present in her next book. Shortcut to the Enlightenment, due out in 2010, will explore the key differences between Islam and the West through imagined conversations in the New York Public Library between the prophet Mohammed and three of her favourite philosophers, John Stuart Mill, Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek...

"I followed intently the debate in books, on television, in newspapers. And it became clear to me that there were three fundamental incompatibilities between Islam and the West, and three philosophers, whose work I had read and admired, each of whom wrote about one of these issues." ...

"Ideas are very powerful. Ideas inspire people to do things. I think it's good to have the ideas of Western liberal society and Islam put starkly side by side so the reader can see why they are incompatible."