In an interview on Women and Islam

Let’s talk about the Mosab Hassan Yousef book, Son of Hamas. You say he came to the same conclusions as you did, but via a completely different route?

Yes. That is the good thing about it. I always get these accusations, ‘Oh, but you are just from Somalia’, your case is not representative. There are many memoirs, but again, if you tell me to reduce it to just one, I pick his. I read a review of this book and it made me buy it instantly. What I liked about it is that it is by a man. It is the story of a man who grew up as the son of a prominent person in Hamas, immersed in the doctrine and the suicide killings. But he ends up living in a US suburb and completely adopting American values.

It’s not only timely [it has just been published] but a lot of people argue that ‘if only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be resolved…’ or say, ‘Maybe we should talk to the Muslim Brotherhood, we should talk to Iran, we should talk to Hamas. Why not talk to the bad guys? Talking is always good.’ But this to me does not address the fundamental issue. In this book, the author talks about the in-depth philosophy, the philosophy behind Hamas, about the constitution of Hamas, and why peace is absolutely not on its agenda. It’s about how that has first and foremost harmed the interests of the Palestinian people. It makes it clear that it’s a struggle for struggle’s sake, a kind of aimless and eternal struggle. He describes not just what was going on inside of Hamas, and what went wrong, but he goes on to describe what it did to him, and how he discovered an alternative philosophy, and why he chose it. He comes from a completely different background to mine, and yet he comes to the same conclusion.

Which is what? To move to a US suburb?

No, no. He had come to the US before. It hadn’t yet hit him, the whole idea of freedom, but he lived it. And then he decided to explore the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and find out what it all means and how it works. And he came to the conclusion that this is really much better and superior to the Koran as a constitution and following the Prophet Mohammed’s example, which is Hamas’s way.

So the American way?

You can call it America versus Islam, but you can also call it Islam versus the West.

But you like being in America.

I love being in the United States. I should have come here to start off with. Elsewhere people talk about freedom; here you actually live it. And I love the American think-tank world – you don’t have to quote old books, you can experiment with your own thoughts. You don’t have to be a great scholar – the point is to show that you are grappling with problems and finding answers. At the American Enterprise Insititute, I can write anything – almost nothing is off-limits. Some people think my book Nomad is outrageous, but I’m just looking for answers.

In what way?

For example, I suggest Muslims should convert to Christianity, which is quite outrageous.

But can you really blame all the things that have happened to you on Islam? For example, isn’t female circumcision an African thing? Indonesian Muslims don’t traditionally circumcise.

That’s not true. The Muslim Brotherhood have also spread and established themselves in Indonesia. From Egypt they have exported the practice of female genital mutilation. The Indonesians never knew it, they didn’t practise it before, but female genital mutilation found its way to Indonesia through Islam.

So you are arguing that even if some of these practices predate Islam…

They were incorporated into Islam. In Islam, if you are a believer, you believe God brought the Koran and you get offended if anyone says anything about the Koran. But if you are not a believer, like me – I have left the faith. So I am able to think where Islam was founded, and what you see is that it was founded in an Arab, patriarchal, tribal, desert culture – and many of the practices and customs of that culture remain.