Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Infidel and Nomad, shown Feb. 14, 2008 in Brussels. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)

When she arrived in the Netherlands in 1992 after fleeing an arranged marriage to a Somali-Canadian, Ayaan Hirsi Ali found herself in an asylum centre filled with other Muslims.

A young woman who had already defied her family's expectations, she began to examine the fundamentals underlying her own faith.

"I wanted to know what they [the infidels] have that we don't have. Why are we all here?" she recalled in an interview with CBC's Q cultural affairs show on Friday.

In Nomad, the new book she is promoting on a tour of Canada this week, she concludes Islam has little to recommend it and advocates a stronger role for the West in promoting its ideas and political systems.

Ali began studying by the ways of the West, first as a political science student and later as a Dutch politician known for her criticism of Dutch multiculturalism.

Her growing disillusionment with Islam was cemented by the 9/11 attacks, a journey she chronicled in her 2007 memoir Infidel.

She has been outspoken against Islamic extremism, condemning in particular the treatment of women in Islam.

In Nomad, she insists Islam and the West are locked in "a clash of civilizations" and says people from the West have not been active enough in spreading the ideas that underlie their society.

"Right now there is no counter-argument," she said. "These ideas about how to build a society, the relationship between men and women, I stumbled on them. If we say, well, let's just allow all Muslims to stumble into them, that's one way of doing it."

But it's not the right way, she said.

"In the context of Islamic terrorism, I think it is time that people with other model alternatives actively seek out Muslim communities and offer it to them."

In Iran, Pakistan, Egypt and other Muslim countries, politics is being islamicized in an attempt to build power for certain groups, she argues.

Create competition of ideas

"We need to compete with agents of radical Islam who to have found their way into vulnerable communities and offer a very simplistic message, and unfortunately young men are adopting it," Ali said.

"What if we had some other guys go in there, some Buddhist, some Christian, but just create competition."

An atheist herself, she is not opposed to advancing the idea of a more tolerant, Christian God, one that is "evolved, science friendly, human friendly, female friendly, not so homophobic," she said.

Ali is keen to promote the ideas of compassion, equality of individuals and fair treatment of women she sees in the West. She argues the fundamentals that underlie Western society are better ideas and that by any measure, such as prosperity, health, freedom, Shariah law is a failure.

"The reasonable individual who shares a background with me, we can compare notes and say, we have tried clanism, we have tried Shariah in Somalia, we have tried different forms of living together, and we failed miserably," Ali said.

"I don't think there are many Somalis that would deny Somalia is a failure."

Ali is know for her passionate criticism of Islam's attitude toward women. She wrote the script for Submission, the film made Dutch director Theo Van Gogh.

Reflects on grandmother's life

Van Gogh was murdered by a radical Islamic fundamentalist after the film came out, and a threatening note left on his body was addressed to her. She continues to live with round-the-clock bodyguards.

Ali said she has regrets about his death.

"I had an extended two years of pure guilt," she said. "I regret to this day the death of Theo Van Gogh. I wish I had convinced him not to put his name on the film."

Nomad refers to her illiterate grandmother, who helped raise her, and to her family's journeys before she broke with them. Ali addresses her grandmother in the book and reflects on the many differences in their lives.

She is currently living in the U.S. and working for a right-wing think tank, the American Enterprise Institute. Ali rejects the left-right divide in North American politics, saying it gets in the way of getting things done.

"Let's move away from all these labels," she said. "Let's discuss the real problems in society. Let's look at the evidence, and let's prioritize.

"I think killing women, denying them education, subjecting them to female genital mutilation — combating that should be the priority of feminists."

Ali's book tour for Nomad continues across Canada this week.