Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women's Rights Hardcover – February 9, 2021

This book is an eye opener to the world of Islam and its impact on the Western world, especially Western Europe. I learned a lot by reading this book.

Through statistical analysis and interviews with clergy members, social workers, writers, politicians, police men, immigrants, and crime victims, Ayaan Hirisi Ali seeks to show that European woman are facing a crisis of sexual assault at the hands of some migrants from Islamic majority countries and that Europe’s criminal, immigration, social, and political systems have not responded adequately.It is truly heartbreaking to read about young boys and girls, mothers, and grandmothers being raped or sexually assaulted—and infuriating to read that the perpetrators were handed light sentences, or in some cases, no prison time at all, because they “come from a different culture”. Offenders are almost never deported.Ms. Ali’s book is at its most powerful when she focuses on well researched instances of rise in sexual assault cases, the rising atmosphere of fear in cities, and the failures of the immigration and criminal justice system to curtail violent offenders with no interest in conforming to western norms. Particularly timely is her argument that, even if women’s rights are not legally curtailed, the rights of women are effectively eroded if women do not feel safe in their bodily integrity in public, and if the law does not punish violations of that integrity.This, she claims is the current state of affairs in many European cities, and it is predominantly the result, however unpopular it may be to claim, of young male migrants from conservative Islamic majority countries.Prey becomes somewhat less powerful as it confronts Muslim communities more broadly in Europe. It is Ms. Ali’s belief that the rise of sexual assault in European communities is related not just to an influx of young men from countries who see so called “immodest women” as fair game, but to the existence of what she calls “parallel societies” of Muslim immigrants who do not have much desire to integrate themselves into European society, which would require that they support the equality of women, and instead resort to welfare support and crime.It is not so much that Ms. Ali’s arguments about certain communities of Muslim immigrants and their failure to integrate are entirely unpersuasive or unimportant for understanding how some Muslim migrants view and treat women, however, they lack the focus and urgency of her chapters focused on sexual assault. Perhaps as an American, I see urban ethnic enclaves as inevitable, and as a socially conservative Catholic, see people living according to more family-oriented norms as more desirable than does Ms. Ali.Of course, it is also true that a just society cannot turn a blind eye to injustices against women, such as forced marriages of children, domestic violence, and FGM (female genital mutilation) that occur in such neighborhoods.On the whole, Ms. Ali’s book is a strong challenge to the leaders of Europe to reform their criminal justice, immigration, and educational systems in order to protect the rights of their female citizens and better integrate newcomers to society. They ignore her at their peril.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali gives a view of what has happened in Europe since the surge of Muslim Immigrants hit these countries in 2014 to present day. She details the increase of women who have been harassed and sexually molested. Women are afraid to go out at night alone. They no longer feel free to dress as they once did. The culture of European citizens is in conflict with the culture of new immigrants from Muslim countries.It is greatly disturbing that many politicians will not recognize the threat toward women that these new immigrants pose. They don’t want to admit that there is a problem with these new arrivals. They seem more afraid of being called xenophobic than they are of failing to uphold the law. Hirsi Ali proves that immigration has made European women less safe with statistics from the various municipalities.Hirsi Ali, an immigrant herself, gives many ways that governments around Europe could work to solve this problem. New immigrants should be given instruction of the different culture they will be entering. They must be acclimated to the new way of thinking about women. Those who show an unwillingness to accept the European culture should be sent back to their home country.I highly recommend Americans read Hirsi Ali’s book, Prey. It will make you aware of the difficulty in accepting thousands of immigrants from countries where cultural differences exist. These differences make it hard for new immigrants to fit in, get jobs, and live peacefully. It shows how a stable civilization can be impacted negatively with increased crime, increased welfare and increased homelessness. This book will offer a warning to Americans of what can happen if we allow unchecked immigration at our southern border.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's newest book, "Prey", while researched and well-thought out for what Ayaan wanted to say to address the problems she was addressing, adding stories and examples of laws and loopholes that are used by immigrants, leaves you waiting with bated breath, waiting for Hirsi Ali to give concise solutions to the problems that she sees. It also, however, educates the reader to understand that the first problem to be solved is: not recognizing what is actually going on in Europe AND that what is going on IS a problem, further exacerbated by other problems of sexism, patriarchy, rape culture, porn culture, etc. The book seems like a broken record in many ways, in the sense that, Hirsi Ali recounts some stories that we've heard before (those that made international press), societal problems, problematic cultural norms, religious values and political yo-yoing of problems and legislative impotence to deal with violence, etc. What is different about Hirsi Ali's book, however, is that "Prey" superimposes the "broken record" parts of Hirsi Ali's monograph with the issues of increased immigration and specifically with increased immigration from Muslim-majority cultures to demonstrate how immigration is changing Europe and women's rights in Europe. This book is not only a study on these issues: it is a warning to Europe and the entire world to pay attention and understand how mass immigration has, is and will continue, to change their cultures, permanently, for better and for worse.