We are in the midst of a spiritual and ideological war—and few voices illuminate its contours more sharply than Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A soft-spoken firebrand, she grew up in Somalia and became a devout Muslim during the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kenya. She’s spoken movingly about how, at first, Islam gave her a profound sense of belonging—ritual, rhythm, and community.

And then at age 22, Islam struck and she was betrothed to a man she had never met. She fled—first to Germany, then to the Netherlands. But even in a refugee camp, the man tracked her down. From his perspective, she was his wife—promised by her father, and therefore bound by Islamic creed to fulfill that promise. She had almost surrendered to this fate until a Dutch refugee officer said something that would change her life: “You don’t have to go. The police will protect you.” She has since recalled how foreign those words sounded. That’s the nature of freedom—it often arrives as a whisper, barely recognizable, and then suddenly you remember: you have a choice.

She said no. She stayed. She went on to become a member of the Dutch Parliament and a leading critic of Islam, often mentioned as the “Fifth Horsewoman of New Atheism” alongside prominent figures like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens.

Her fierce critique of Islam via her lived experience drew intense backlash from far-left Dutch armchair defenders of Islam—many of whom, ironically, would not last a week under the very Islamist regimes they rush to defend. That backlash culminated in a political witch hunt, fixating on minor inconsistencies in her decades-old asylum application and ultimately driving her to leave the Netherlands for the United States.

Then, in November 2023, she publicly embraced Christianity, declaring that “the Judeo-Christian tradition is the only answer to the problems of the modern world.”

As someone born into cultural Hinduism, raised in an atheistic science-and-engineering worldview, who turned to Buddhism to cope with depression, then to a shamanic form of Hinduism, and through that met Jesus Christ—I resonate deeply. I see the truth of what she’s pointing to.

There are old, grief-laden parts of me that still long for Hinduism to be the answer. But history tells a painful truth. The Hindu warrior spirit was first softened—some might say neutered—through the rise of Buddhism. Then came two waves of conquest: first by a creed that is, in my view, a satanic distortion of Christ (Islam), and later by Christianity. But these invasions succeeded not merely because of brute force—they succeeded because Hindu civilization had already lost its living connection to the one true God.

There are sincere efforts within certain Vaishnav traditions to rekindle that connection, but they often reach for older variants—fragments of the divine story—rather than its fullness, which I believe is revealed in Christ.

Today’s conflict isn’t merely political—it’s spiritual, and it’s playing out in the physical world. Movements like “Free Palestine” have become frightening coalitions of Red and Green—Communism and Islam—two ideologies that, on their own, have wrought immense destruction. Together, they are seducing a generation of heart-centered but spiritually unmoored youth in the West.

And like it or not, President Trump stands on the front lines of our geopolitical defense against these cancerous ideologies. Many despise him for his ogre-like mannerisms, but they’re so absorbed in their own self-focussed healing bubbles—that never-ending pursuit of sensuality and accompanying emotional processing to manage the chaos those entanglements inevitably stir up— that they fail to see what an ogre is capable of when the battle reaches the gates. If you hate Trump and have never heard about the Congo–Rwanda peace deal he brokered, there’s a good chance you’ve been living in a self-focussed healing bubble—one that confuses discomfort with danger and overlooks the kind of rough strength required to confront real evil.

If this speaks to you, I recommend reading her latest piece in The Free Press and listening to her recent interview on Joe Rogan.

2 Timothy 4:3-5
”For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”