Ali was raised Muslim in Africa and escaped from an arranged marriage through receiving asylum in the Netherlands, while she was on-route to meet her potential husband. She later became a member of the Dutch Parliament, but had to leave the Netherlands when she received a death threat by Islamist extremists. She had co-produced a film on Islam's repressive treatment of women, and her colleague, a descendent of Van Gogh, was murdered. A knife stuck in his chest had a note on it stating that Ali was next.

Ali is an atheist and she muses about her various family members' allegiance to Islam, perplexed and disappointed at their narrow-mindedness and superstitious natures. Within this is her loss over close connections with her family.

Ali sounds an alarm bell about the extremist terrorist segment of Islam, stating it is a grave mistake to think we can negotiate with them. I have not gotten that far into the book to hear this argument, but look forward to it.