Ayaan Answers: Why Western Liberty Cannot Coexist with Islamic Law

To intelligently discern between legal, moral and ethical options, one must first study them all.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the founder of the AHA Foundation and Restoring the West, and one of the most prominent voices on law, liberty, and the defense of Western civilization.

In this conversation, Ayaan lays out exactly why treating Islamist societies as identically beneficial to Western ones isn’t compassionate, democratic, smart, or even trendy—it is actually culturally suicidal. As someone who grew under Islamist rule, she argues that Western traditions of religious, civil, and political liberties are uniquely better to create and sustain human flourishing.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.