Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Obama ISIS Strategy 'Incoherent'

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim and an outspoken critic of radical Islam, is taking her message of the need for an Islamic reformation to the news media.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington Tuesday, Hirsi Ali said Islam won't be a religion of peace until Muslims change their attitudes toward the Koran and the Hadith, Islam's holy books.

It's a transformation she warns will take decades. She points to growing examples of people living in Muslim countries who are calling for change.

"These despotic states that before the Arab Spring found refuge only in repression are now coming to understand that they have to take Islamic extremism head on," Hirsi Ali told reporters Tuesday.

"These governments [UAE, Saudi Arabia and] Jordan, you name it, they all feel threatened by Islamic extremism," she continued. "And so the time is ripe to say maybe now is when a Muslim reformation will take hold."

Hirsi Ali also labeled the Obama administration's Middle East strategy "incoherent" and described the current conflict with ISIS and radical Muslims as a clash of civilizations.

"We're fighting ISIS alongside Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other Sunni governments that are our allies," she said. "They're waging proxy war in Iraq, in Syria, and Yemen. We're supporting both of them, but we're also opposing them."

"Our policies and our approach to the Middle East right now is incoherent, and the Middle East is in crisis. What was called Islamic civilization is in crisis," she warned.

Many of the topics she covered are from her latest book, Heretic: The Case for a Muslim Reformation, which she also discussed in a recent interview on The 700 Club.