A central figure among the so-called “New Atheists” revealed in an essay Monday that she has turned to Christianity, not only for the meaning and solace it provides but for its strong and unifying doctrine, which she reckons can “fortify us against our menacing foes.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch-American women’s rights activist, mother, and former politician who ruffled feathers by calling Islam a “nihilistic cult of death” beyond reforming, noted in UnHerd that atheism is a “weak and divisive doctrine” that offers no hope, no anchorage, and no defense against destructive forces at home and abroad.

Ali, who still lives under a fatwa, was raised Muslim in Somalia. In addition to suffering genital mutilation and getting married off to a distant cousin, she was told that many of the things she loved, including music, dancing, and movies, were accursed worldly pleasures and instruments of damnation. Her encounters with the Muslim Brotherhood in Kenya helped cement her antipathy for Islam.