Ayaan Hirsi Ali

From Celebrity Atheist List

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1969 - ), born in Somalia and raised in Kenya. She became a Dutch citizen through political asylum and was a member of the Dutch parliment from 30 January 2003 until 16 May 2006. She is now a fellow at the conservative thinktank the American Enterprise Institute.

She is under threat from Islamists for her public rejection of the Muslim faith and its cultural practices which subjugate women.

In a BBC World Service radio interview [1] the week of June 19, 2005 Ali talks about the steps which led up to her rejection of Islam ...

I came to the conclusion [that] I do not believe in the existence of a god or in the hereafter.

She co-produced (with Theo van Gogh) the short film Submission, Part I on the lack of rights for women under Islam. Van Gogh was later murdered by an Islamic extremist in reaction to the film.