Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the sort of heroic intellectual who steps out onto the stage of history quite rarely-she is brilliant, though her pro-Western views have probably prevented her from becoming a feminist icon. And she’s courageous.


 Remember when Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker, was stabbed to death because he was making a movie about the violent treatment of women in Islam? A note was attached to Van Gogh’s body warning that Ayaan Hirsi Ali, his collaborator, would be next.


She lives under a fatwa, but that hasn’t stopped her from coming out with her second book, Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations, and from establishing a new foundation to help threatened Muslim women in the West. It’s called the Aha Foundation, and it deserves our support.


 It’s based on the idea that women everywhere deserve an education and freedom, and if you’d care to read some startling information on Muslim women in the U.S. who have suffered violence, or even been murdered by their own families, for trying to embrace Western civilization, Aha has the startling facts. Go to their website for some eye-opening information.