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

Thousands of Croatian football fans chanted slogans glorifying Hitler and Auschwitz in Split, ahead of a match against Ajax Amsterdam, a club with no formal ties to the Jewish community. @TreyDimsdale on why Europe cannot let antisemitism become normalized: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/e… #RestoringTheWest #Antisemitism #Europe

Florida has designated CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Antifa as domestic terrorist groups. No public body in the state can now promote, partner with, or fund CAIR, which is challenging the designation in court. @Ayaan on why the First Amendment is not a suicide pact: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/d… #RestoringTheWest #Florida #DeSantis

Roughly 11,000 new books are published every day, far more than anyone could read in a lifetime. @jarobinson1 on five book lists that guide readers of all ages toward "the best which has been thought and said": URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/b… #RestoringTheWest #Books #Reading

One in four children in the UK starts school unable to use the toilet independently. Now the state is rolling out potty training sessions in 20 more areas. @daisymaeinglese on why the duties of family life belong to parents, not the state: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/s… #RestoringTheWest #Parenting #Family

Under Muslim rule in al-Andalus, Christians and Jews paid a special tax, couldn't build new houses of worship, and were required to wear a mark. In Córdoba in the 850s, 48 Christians were executed. @Ayaan on why the myth of a medieval paradise of tolerance has convinced the West to mistake submission for tolerance: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/a… #RestoringTheWest #AlAndalus #History

On October 8, the European Parliament voted 381 to 167 to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a threat to Europe's democracies and called for its networks to be investigated, defunded, and, where the law permits, designated as terrorist groups. @Ayaan on why Europe's paradigm shift has begun: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/w… #RestoringTheWest #Europe #MuslimBrotherhood

The West wasn't built on power alone. It was built on conviction, courage, and truth spoken aloud. Five speeches that still explain it: Edmund Burke (1774): a representative owes voters his judgment, not just his obedience. William Wilberforce (1789): two decades of defeat in Parliament, and he kept arguing for abolition anyway. Václav Havel (1990): tyranny endures when ordinary people take part in falsehood. Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1978): material prosperity can't sustain a civilization that has abandoned its moral foundations. Winston Churchill (1940): "Their Finest Hour," the defense of civilization itself. In an age of speed over substance, these are worth rereading. By @DelphineChui — 👇 URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/e… #West #History #Churchill #Havel #Solzhenitsyn

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Turkish entities for laundering Iranian oil money to fund the IRGC's Quds Force. Turkey has issued passports to Hamas members. It bought Russian S-400s and lost its spot in the F-35 program over it. @Ayaan: this is a NATO ally. ayaan.restoringthewest.com/n… #RestoringTheWest #Turkey #NATO #NationalSecurity

Conquest and plunder are as old as human society. What set the West apart were parliaments, property rights, and independent courts. @JGustavssonPhD on why @marcorubio is right that guilt makes bad allies: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/r… #RestoringTheWest #Rubio #West

Just 8.5% of France's education spending goes to infrastructure and equipment. Students have been in the streets for three weeks. @TreyDimsdale on why a highly centralized state's failures become a failure of the state itself: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/s… #RestoringTheWest #France #Education

Macron's approval has fallen to 18 percent. Marine Le Pen leads the first-round polling at about 36 percent. @Ayaan on why populism is what follows when a government fails at its basic functions: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/m… #RestoringTheWest #France #Macron

"What's the best book my child will read this year?" The teacher's answer: "Whatever he likes." @jarobinson1 talks with @shulsie, co-author of The Phoenix Principles, about restoring the purpose of American education: forming virtuous citizens for a free republic. URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/a… #RestoringTheWest #Education #SchoolChoice

Brazil, the world's largest Catholic nation, is now 56.7 percent Catholic and 26.9 percent Evangelical. @daisymaeinglese on whether liberation theology turned the Church's attention to politics just as Brazilians needed faith, community, and moral foundations: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/b… #RestoringTheWest #Brazil #Catholic

The Wright brothers flew in 1903. Congress didn't regulate civil aviation until 1926. Had caution come first, no one would have flown. @Ayaan on why America can't regulate its way out of the AI race with China: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/a… #RestoringTheWest #AI #China

On the third anniversary of October 7, hundreds of protesters overran a peaceful vigil for the dead in New York's Union Square, knocking candles from mourners' hands. @Ayaan on why antisemitism is a cause of the conflict, not an effect: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/a… #RestoringTheWest #October7 #Antisemitism

More than 2.4 million Afghan girls are shut out of school by religious decree, while American universities teach "Islamic feminism" as coursework. @Ayaan asks: where is the department of Islamic feminism in Kabul? URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/i… #RestoringTheWest #Feminism #Academia

32 percent of American adults have a tattoo, so inking up won't mark anyone as a rebel. Neither will a conservative uniform win the culture. @DelphineChui on why traditional ideas travel furthest when the people carrying them defy the stereotype: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/c… #RestoringTheWest #Culture #Conservatism

Ireland played Qatar in Dublin in May and Afghanistan at cricket two months ago. Neither prompted a boycott call. @JGustavssonPhD on why a boycott that appears for one state and vanishes for the rest isn't principled: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/i… #RestoringTheWest #Ireland #Israel

On October 7, Hamas killed 1,200 people and abducted more than 250. Three years later, much of the West still can't name the ideology behind it. @Ayaan on what the attempted hijacking of flydubai Flight FZ1073 shows about the October 7 lesson: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/o… #RestoringTheWest #October7 #Israel

Colorado's tort law stops at the state border. The climate suit before the Supreme Court reaches into foreign nations. @TreyDimsdale on why Suncor Energy v. Boulder County could turn state courts into battlegrounds against unpopular industries: URL: ayaan.restoringthewest.com/s… #RestoringTheWest #SupremeCourt #Federalism