   Sunday, 30 September 2012   Some pieces of writing are so
powerful, so right, so full of 'YES!'.  I warn you now not to
read Christopher Hitchens', "God Is Not Great" in public because
people will think you're strange when you shout out and punch
the air!  And I warn you now not to read this piece by Ayaan
Hirsi Ali entitled "How (and Why) I Became an Infidel". She
wrote it especially for Christopher Hitchens' book, "The
Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-Believer".
First a little background on Ayaan Hirsi Ali:  Born in Somalia
she witnessed first hand female genital mutilation, clerical
cruelty, and religion-inspired barbarism. After escaping to
Holland she watched as her colleague Theo Van Gogh was murdered
by Islamic extremists for satirizing Islamic repression of women
and was told she was to be their next victim. She had initially
believed that Islam could be reformed but soon realised that
it's 'faith' itself which is the problem. When I finally
admitted to myself that I was an unbelie