The Restoring the West Manifesto I spent the first part of my life living under oppression. I know what it means to be silenced, to have your freedom stolen, to watch a civilization reject the very values that make human flourishing possible. I also know what it means to be free. And I know that freedom is not inevitable — it must be defended, understood, and taught anew to every generation. The West is at risk of losing that fight. And too many people who should be leading the defense have no idea how to do so. That’s why we’re launching Restoring the West. The Crisis We Face The civilization that gave the world individual liberty, the rule of law, scientific inquiry, and human dignity is under siege — not primarily from external enemies, but from internal collapse. Many of our institutions have been captured. Too many of our universities teach students to despise their own inheritance of broad thought and discourse. Our media amplifies every grievance to leftist ideology, while ignoring threats from intolerant ideologies and forces. Our leaders lack the moral vocabulary and fortitude to defend what we’ve built. Meanwhile, illiberal ideologies — from political Islamism to postmodern identity politics — advance unchecked, demanding submission to group identity over individual conscience, censorship over free speech, and tribal loyalty over universal human rights. Classical liberals and conservatives? Too often, we’re losing. We win elections but lose the culture. We defend policies but surrender the principles. We react to provocations but fail to plant ideas that endure. We even wage wars to liberate oppressed people in other nations, yet we fail to explain—both to outsiders and to our own citizens—the moral absolutes that demand we use our power against evil, such as the death cult that served as the operating system of Iran’s Islamist regime. The West will not be restored by winning news cycles. It will be restored by winning the argument for why the West is worth preserving. Our Guiding Principles: DEFEND JUDEO-CHRISTIAN VALUES, UNAPOLOGETICALLY The features that have uniquely made our civilization a place where all can flourish are rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition: individual liberty, equality before the law, freedom of conscience and expression, and the dignity of every human being. These values built free societies. These values are now under attack. We will defend them without apology or equivocation. FIGHT ILLIBERALISM IN ALL ITS FORMS Whether cloaked in religious orthodoxy or academic jargon, illiberalism seeks the same end: the suppression of individual freedom in service of collective control. We oppose political Islam, which seeks to impose religious law on free societies. We oppose postmodern ideologies that replace individual rights with identity hierarchies. We refuse to choose between these threats. We recognize them both as enemies of Western civilization. PLANT IDEAS THAT ENDURE This publication is not about outrage or affirmation. It's about intellectual ammunition. Every piece we publish will advance a clear argument, address serious objections, and connect to the project of civilizational renewal. We write for people who need to be persuaded, not just people who already agree. Our goal is to shape minds, change debates, and arm veterans and new generations for the work ahead. SPEAK WITH MORAL CLARITY I did not escape one form of oppression to tolerate another. I will not pretend that all cultures are equal, that all ideas are equally valid, or that we can restore the West through euphemism and evasion. Moral clarity is not extremism — it's the precondition for moral action. We will say what is true, even when the truth is uncomfortable. FIVE PILLARS, ONE MISSION Everything we publish connects to the civilizational foundations we must restore: Faith & Family - The roots of free societies Education - Where the future is won or lost Law & Liberty - Without which we are subjects, not citizens Nation & Citizenship - The framework for self-governance Media, Arts & Culture - Where values are formed or deformed These aren't talking points. These are the fronts in a war for civilization itself. SMART BREVITY, SERIOUS PURPOSE Busy people need clear arguments, not bloated essays. We respect your time by making every word count. But efficiency serves substance, not the other way around. We will never sacrifice intellectual rigor for algorithmic reach or dumb down complex arguments for easier consumption. Excellence is the standard we want restored in our civilization — it’s the standard we hold ourselves to here. Why This Matters I have seen what happens when civilizations abandon their principles. I have lived under the thuggish sandal of illiberalism. I know the price of freedom because I know what life costs without it. Too many of the institutions that once defended Western civilization have failed or been captured. The task of restoration falls to us — to those who understand what’s at stake and refuse to surrender what generations before us built and bled for. This is not pessimism. This is realism coupled with resolve. The West can be saved. But only if we’re willing to make the argument for why it deserves to be saved — and then do the work required to save it. Welcome to Restoring the West. — Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Beslan. The Moscow theater siege. Domodedovo Airport. Crocus City Hall. Russia has suffered some of the deadliest Islamist terror attacks of the 21st century — while Putin markets himself as Christianity's last fortress. @Ayaan: Moscow has more Muslims than any other city in Europe. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/c… #RestoringTheWest #Russia #Geopolitics

Ancient Athens broke tribal politics to build democracy. DSA is doing the opposite — organizing 130,000 members through "your group, your chapter, your tribe." @Ayaan: Berlin just copied Mamdani's playbook, and 47% of young voters followed. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/c… #RestoringTheWest #Politics #Citizenship

Mamdani just created a taxpayer-funded Office of Worker Power — staffed by career union organizers, reporting to a former labor secretary — to actively help private-sector workers unionize against their employers. @Ayaan: City Hall just stopped being a referee and started playing for one team. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/l… #RestoringTheWest #NYC #EconomicFreedom

When Notre Dame burned in 2019, the world grieved for more than a building. Bishop Barron's answer for why: beauty points beyond ourselves. @DelphineChui reviews "Heaven in Stone and Glass," a pilgrimage through France's Gothic cathedrals. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/w… #RestoringTheWest #FaithAndFamily #FilmReview

An EU official warned Elon Musk that X could face massive fines over a Trump interview — reaching across the Atlantic to police American political speech. @Todd_Huizinga on the EU's Digital Services Act and Biden's "censorship-industrial complex." URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/f… #RestoringTheWest #FreeSpeech #Censorship

A Middle East Forum investigation found pro-Iranian networks inside Iraq's Interior Ministry padding payrolls with ghost identities and fake dependents to siphon state funds toward regime loyalists. @Ayaan on how that money moves — and why U.S. financial oversight hasn't caught up. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/i… #RestoringTheWest #Iran #NationalSecurity

Colorado's "universal" preschool program grants exceptions for income, disability, race, even gender identity — but bars Catholic schools from teaching Catholic doctrine while participating. @TreyDimsdale: a law full of exceptions for secular interests isn't "generally applicable" just because the state says so. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/c… #RestoringTheWest #ReligiousFreedom #SupremeCourt

54% of Americans admit they're not proficient in the kitchen. One survey found most can barely cook anything but eggs. @jarobinson1: cooking isn't just a life skill — it's fractions, chemistry, physics, and family, all at once. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/c… #RestoringTheWest #Parenting #FaithAndFamily

Nearly 200 content creators, coordinated through a private Signal group, fed talking points to make Mamdani's campaign look like spontaneous grassroots energy. @Ayaan: while conservatives publish policy papers for a few hundred readers, the left built an influencer army reaching millions. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/m… #RestoringTheWest #Politics #Media

Behavioral problems misdiagnosed as ADHD. Insecure attachment patterns that persist into adulthood. Erica Komisar traces both back to one thing: maternal absence in a child's first three years. @daisymaeinglese reviews "Being There" — 👇 URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/r… #RestoringTheWest #FaithAndFamily #Motherhood

St. Paul's Cathedral just signed a 4-year deal with a nightclub to host raves under Wren's dome, above Nelson's tomb. No mosque in the West would ever do this. @Ayaan on what that contrast reveals — and it isn't flattering to either side. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/l… #RestoringTheWest #FaithAndFamily #Church

Female Eiffel Tower staff were told to stay out of sight for a visiting delegation, replaced by men. The same London MP who fought to open a men's club to women cheered a street procession that kept women separate. @Ayaan: "Where are the women, Stella?" URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/w… #RestoringTheWest #WomensRights

Qatar exiled Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi gave him a platform in Doha. Decades later, South Africa's ANC government took Israel to the ICJ on genocide charges. @Ayaan traces the network — and the money — connecting the two. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/s… #RestoringTheWest #SouthAfrica #Israel #NationalSecurity

The Met just cancelled a John Galliano exhibition, 15 years after his racist tirade and conviction. He apologized. He got sober. He's still not forgiven. @DelphineChui: if repentance never leads to restoration, what does repentance even mean? URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/g… #RestoringTheWest #Culture #Art

"We were not called to be victorious; we were called to be faithful." — Austin Ruse For nearly 30 years, @FridayFax (C-Fam) has fought at the UN to block a global "right" to abortion and stop family and gender from being redefined in international law. @Todd_Huizinga talks with Ruse — 👇 URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/d… #RestoringTheWest #FaithAndFamily #UnitedNations

Britain's Forced Marriage Unit received over 100 referrals involving children 12 and under in the past 5 years. 27 were age 5 or younger. @Ayaan: institutions are so afraid of the bigotry label that they refuse to even ask why children are disappearing from classrooms. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/u… #RestoringTheWest #UK #ChildProtection

Legalization was sold as a modest reform: regulate it like alcohol, cut crime, raise revenue. Instead, legalization became commercialization. @TreyDimsdale: liberty isn't the same as license, and the marijuana experiment proves it. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/m… #RestoringTheWest #DrugPolicy #RuleOfLaw

110,000 New Yorkers signed a petition asking Mamdani to stay away from Ground Zero on 9/11's 25th anniversary. He came anyway — and cameras caught him and AOC laughing as families read the names of the dead. @Ayaan: this isn't a storm in a teacup. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/z… #RestoringTheWest #NYC #September11th

Kids outgrow Mother Goose. They shouldn't outgrow poetry. @jarobinson1's 5 narrative poems every parent should read aloud — from "Paul Revere's Ride" to "Casey at the Bat": URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/p… #RestoringTheWest #Parenting #Poetry

Zohran Mamdani appointed a CAIR-linked immigrant affairs commissioner and a legal adviser who dismantled NYPD's mosque surveillance program. He's also called Siraj Wahhaj — an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombing plot — a "pillar" of the community. @Ayaan on who's now shaping policy at City Hall. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/n… #RestoringTheWest #NYC #NationalSecurity