American theologian J. Gresham Machen was describing the impact of the encroachment of revisionist ideas in orthodox Christianity when he famously wrote, “What is today a matter of academic speculation begins tomorrow to move armies and pull down empires.” But this quote could just as easily have come from the pen of Ayaan Hirsi Ali when she first entered public life sounding the alarm regarding the encroachment of unassimilated Muslim migrants into the West. Westerners approached the issue with optimistic naivete—assimilation would happen naturally as migrants saw all the benefits of the free and open society that had emerged from the rich soil of the Judeo-Chrisitan moral tradition.

A Matter of ‘Impassionate Debate’ – An essay on Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel by Trey Dimsdale – Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy