"Fall of Phaeton" by Sebastiano Ricci 1703-04, Museo Civico, Belluno
SCROLL DOWN FOR IMPORTANT UPDATES MAY 15TH & 16TH
It all started with an urgent e-mail from my friend, the talented young blogger from the Netherlands Michael van der Galien on Friday morning, letting me know that our heroine in the fight against Islamist supremacism, Ayaan Hirsi Ali was under attack, and it was all over the news in Holland the entire day. He was the first to break the story of this astonishingly cowardly act, whilst the International MSM and the Blogosphere were still asleep at the wheel.
On Saturday, the story developed further, and we all became quite concerned. Michael writes:
RTL Nieuw reports that Dutch minister of integration Verdonk is starting an investigation about Ayaan's naturalization process:
As a result of that broadcast (re: the documentary by Zembla I reported about yesterday) members of Parliament, among others Hilbrand Nawijn, asked questions about this case. Friday, Verdonk said that Hirsi Ali had nothing to fear. Verdonk's spokesman didn't want to say, she does have something fear now.
So, one might ask, what is the danger? The danger is quite real; they could take her nationality from her. The Leeuwarder Courant reports: (Dutch newspaper)
According to professor Kees Groenendijk, from the Centrum voor Migratierecht in Nijmegen (center for migration law), possible to take someone's Dutch nationality from him / her if that person received that (re:nationality) through a false declaration.
[...]
That is possible until 12 years after the naturalization. Loes Vellenga-van Nieuwkerk, chairman of the Association Asylum lawyers and -jurists Netherlands (VAJN), confirms his (re: from professor Kees Groenendijk) story. "Lying about your reasons to flea (re: to escape) is a reason to take away the Dutch nationality".[...] Hirsi Ali received her Dutch nationality in 1997.
[...]
In the VVD (re: Ayaan's [and mine may I add] political party) there are critical noises as well. VVD-spokesman for asylum cases (re: immigration cases) Arno Visser finds it 'ironical' that especially the VVD, who stands for a strict immigration policy, has a member of Parliament that lied in their asylum procedure (re: immigration procedure / process). "I did not know this and I never talked about it with her. She has a problem.
There we have it. I reported about it yesterday and I thought to myself; this could get completely out of hand. Now, politicians are already saying that she should resign and even that she should turn in her Dutch nationality.
Did she lie about her reasons to come to the Netherlands? Sure she did. She admitted that in 2002 already. Was that 'right'? No of course not. But they left her alone for 4 years, until some communist network made a documentary about her. Now, all of a sudden, it is a huge scandal.
Those people should be ashamed of themselves. Ayaan is one of the most outspoken people we have in the Netherlands. She is continuously struggling to preserve our freedom of speech. People have threatened her life because of what she said. People continue to threaten her. But she perseveres.
And what do we do? We threaten to take her nationality from her. How fricking characteristic.
So let me get this straight, first they drive her out of her house then they drive her out of the country, and discredit her.
She admitted she had lied in her refugee application when she ran for Parliament in 2002, so this is not news to anyone, and now her political opponents want her stripped of her Dutch citizenship and deported. Others say she should be expelled from Parliament, and now we have even one of the most important former leaders from the VVD (Ayaan's party) saying that she should resign. Well why not just also have her handed over to the Jihadists who are chasing her all these years, and just let her throat be slit after being shot, like her friend and director of their 11 minute movie "Submission" about the bondage of Islam, Theo Van Gogh, who had a note for Hirsi Ali pinned to his mutilated body:
It is possible that,[...] Holland is "a small, provincial country," unable to bear the realities of globalization, which has used a nasty murder as an excuse to conflate issues of Islam, immigration and security. But the country's problems are far from imaginary. Van Gogh and Hirsi Ali are not the only public figures to have been targeted with death threats. Amsterdam's Jewish mayor, Job Cohen - despite meticulous bridge-building with Muslim communities - also requires bodyguards; as does his Moroccan-born deputy, Ahmed Aboutaleb. Similarly singled out by Dutch Islamist radicals are the anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders, and the Dutch-Moroccan artist Rachid Ben Ali, whose work satirises the violence of extremists.
In many ways, the Netherlands is a crucible case within Europe, because the issues surrounding immigration are so stark. For example, the economic argument deployed by both leftwing multiculturalists and free-market conservatives - that immigration revives aging populations, provides new labor resources, and generates entrepreneurial activity - simply does not apply in the Netherlands. There has been no overall economic benefit to population change since unskilled guest workers were invited to the Netherlands in the early 1970s. According to Paul Scheffer, a leading critic of multiculturalism and professor of urban sociology at Amsterdam university, up to 60% of first-generation Turkish and Moroccan populations are unemployed. "It's a huge failure," he says, "everyone can see that."
Within a generation, the Netherlands has swung from blithe open-door immigration to anxious protectionism. During the 1990s, there was quite literary no immigration policy in the country, and a laissez-faire, multicultural orthodoxy reigned. Numbers of asylum seekers escalated annually from 3,500 in 1985 to over 43,000 in 2000 - pro rata among the highest in the EU. By 2001, 46% of the population of Amsterdam consisted of first- or second-generation immigrants. It is in the Netherlands that European multiculturalism, with its tendency to produce segregation, most dramatically flourished and died.
It is important to be cautious of the Dutch figures. In the Netherlands, an immigrant is classified as anyone with one or more parents born abroad. But within a generation, the shift in population has by any calculation been large, rapid and difficult to handle. Perhaps the most remarkable sign of the acceleration of change is that two thirds of schoolchildren in Amsterdam now come from immigrant backgrounds. Add to this the fact that nearly 1 million of the Netherlands' 1.7 million immigrants are Muslim and it is not hard to see how issues of Islam and migration have become entangled.
Which is why Hirsi Ali's full-frontal attacks on Islam generate such acute discomfort. The Netherlands, with an overall population of 16 million, has among the highest concentrations of Muslim inhabitants in the EU. Hirsi Ali argues that there is less a problem with migration in general, than with its Muslim component in particular, and that she should know, because she is herself a Muslim migrant. Hopes for a moderate Islam are only meaningful, she argues, if it is possible to chip away the theological brickwork - constructed, she believes, on a foundation of female oppression - which permeates the structure of the religion. But Islam, she says, is unable to endure criticism or change, and is essentially at odds with European values. With up to 20 million Muslims living in the EU, the journey she has taken in the past 16 years from Africa to Europe, from asylum seeker to politician, and from devotion to apostasy, has come to appear central to the story of the crisis of multiculturalism on the continent. This month, Time magazine selected her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world - an odd but remarkable acknowledgment for a 35-year-old Somali who four years ago was unknown, even in the Netherlands.
An interesting indication of the extent to which Hirsi Ali needles people are the lurid epithets and insults she draws from across the political spectrum. While internet extremists lent her a quasi-legendary status as the "Wicked Infidel Mortadda," even a figure from the Dutch liberal left such as Geert Mak will reach for phrases such as "Somali princess" and "Joan of Arc" to explain her unsettling charisma. From a free-market perspective, the Economist rather oddly defines her as a cultural ideologue of the new right. Other commentators have dismissed her as a politician of rage, a self-hating orientalist, a liberal jihadist, and an enlightenment fundamentalist.
While the name-calling tends to reveal more about Hirsi Ali's critics than it does about her, there is a more subtly personal line of attack that genuinely galls her. This is the idea that what she thinks and says is somehow born of the scars of a traumatized background. "Why are journalists obsessed with personal history?" she asks in her quiet, Africa-lilted English (one of six languages she speaks, including Somali, Arabic, Amharic, Swahili and Dutch). "From my background, being an individual is not something you take for granted. Here it is all you, me, I. There it is we, we, we. I come from a world where the word 'trauma' doesn't exist, because we are too poor. I didn't have an easy life compared to the average European. But compared to the average African, it wasn't all that bad. I know that to some people I am traumatized, that there is something wrong with me. But that just allows them not to hear what I say."
The United States Government should immediately and unreservedly show their support for this courageous woman and offer her asylum and U.S. citizenship. "Such a move would let the world know yet again, who stands for universal individual rights, and who is willing to shoulder the risks associated with guarding those rights." But then Dutch courage as we all know is relative.
MONDAY MAY 15TH UPDATE: Via Michael van der Galien comes the news this morning that:
In The Hague is expected that Ayaan Hirsi Ali will leave. De Volkskrant reports she will start working at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative thinktank in Washington. Agreements about her personal security would already been made.
[...]
She was expected to go to the US in May 2007, but because she must leave her house, that has been advanced. Hirsi Ali wants to finish her book "een korte weg naar de verlichting" (A Short road / path to Enlightenment).
And Charles Johnson has this: "Dutch liberal politicians and Islamic front groups are smiling at the news of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s departure. Apparently Hirsi Ali was the only thing standing in the way of a utopian harmonious society" Yeah right.
Dr Judith Klinghoffer is having a deja vu: "The big losers here are the Dutch. Moreover, their message to the Islamists: Do not worry. We will get your dirty work done "our way."
FURTHER UPDATE: Michael sends urgent e-mail: The witch hunt continues. She is now not considered Dutch, does not have a valid Dutch Passport according to the Dutch Minister Verdonk, This will present untold immigration problems when attempting to enter the US as planned, and obviously have a huge impact on her personally.
UPDATE TUESDAY MAY 16TH: An emotional Press Conference
Wow, I'm so glad that i have found you, oh ye great oracle Galien! Not only do you know the opinion of 'most Dutch people', but you also have found the true nature of islam! You have just insulted a billion people by calling them agressive and violent! Can you just imagine the mothers and children, the hard working fathers if they hear this? If this were true, there would be a constant crusade against the western countries. The word islam actually means 'peace' (liberally translated).
The Christians were very peaceful, by subjugating at least 70 per cent of the world's surface, with their lovely crusades, inquisitions, homophobia, condoning domestic violence, the raping of children by priests, driving millions of people into their deaths by condemning the use of condoms and racism. And since you've brought up the holocaust: the pope allowed it to happen! I'm so glad you've posted this message. It shows that you have a complete black and white view of the world, which automatically makes you a very lonely, shallow person. I'm quite happy to leave this blog behind now, letting you spawn your ghastly opinion here without any evidence, because there is NO point discussing with you, since you've already made up your opinion.
According to your web site, you're Dutch! I was very surprised to see that. You should know better, that our PM has apologized in Israel for the extensive role the Netherlands has played, the countless lessons you've had in school on the subject, the annual repetition of remembering the fallen and the celebration of freedom on the 4th and 5th of May.
Good day Galien, and good luck in the strange, hatefull world you live in.
Posted by: Koen | Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 03:09 PM
Koen, please try to read what people post next time. Alexandra did not 'mention' the land of the free; the author of that article, called Dutch Courage which appeared in the Wall Street Journal, mentioned it.
The author of that article is completely right. His main point was that most Dutch weren't so harsh about her turning in her passport because they favor such strict immigration laws, but because she caused a lot of unrest.
Christianity and Islam are absolutely not comparable. The Islam is aggressive and violent. Jesus was (probably) the most loving man who ever walked on this earth. Muhammed killed many and taught his followers to do the same.
recent history of dhimmitude? Well I can’t blame you for never being in a Dutch secondary school
One word: hahahahaha.
Good day Koen.
Posted by: Michael Galien | Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 01:46 PM
Dear ‘bloggers,’
Inevitably the tone I set came forth out of the harsh and unjust description of the Netherlands.
However, I never intended to offend any of the authors personally. Quite interestingly, this line was crossed immediately by your reactions.
The point that I in fact do not agree with minister Verdonk was completely missed, but she is our minister, meaning she has the power to do her job within the limits of the law. The Royal Dutch Parliament has proclaimed that she did not use the space provided to her by the Royal Dutch courts, and that they demanded that this space will be used. A motion has been passed which forces minister Verdonk that she must look into the matter, basically putting her on political custody. Verdonk is under heavy criticism in the Netherlands, since she tries to use these incidents to raise her political profile for the right wing. A party leader, Femke Halsema, tried her to admit in parliament that she lied, causing her almost to cry. There is some justice after all.
It is in fact not ‘my’ legal interpretation, it is the interpretation of the minister. The office of the minister has never been officially informed of the false name Ayaan gave. The office of the minister and the person of the minister are 2 distinct things. It is, however, highly unlikely that Verdonk did not personally know about this. It is therefore, on legal grounds, that Verdonk may revoke her passport. The Royal Dutch Parliament has stopped this procedure.
Ayaan was already resigning her duties as an MP since after the terrible ‘kicking out of the house incident’ she felt that it was time to move to a more prestigious place where her opinion will be heard in a wider audience. She did not ‘flee’. She could have moved anywhere else in the Netherlands. The neighbours of this particular area were very affluent, ignorant people. They do not represent the ‘general feeling’ of the Netherlands. They are millionaires who basically invested all their money into their houses and the stock market, drinking sherry all day with other rich people. In the Netherlands they are known as ‘oud geld’, or ‘old money’. Because of the lowering prices of their houses they will lose millions of Euro’s. The Dutch economy basically floats on the real estate market, since the houseowners can deduct the interest they pay for a mortgage from the taxes. Myself and others have expressed our disbelief with the stance of these residents.
The unjust treatment of Ayaan hirshi ali by Verdonk pales in comparison with the suffering caused by the invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan, Abu Graib and Guantanamo bay. Remember, we’re dealing with the wrong doing of one person, Minister Verdonk, in one case. According to http://www.iraqbodycount.net/ , around 40.000 iraqi civilians are killed, and 9000 coalition soldiers, including 2 Dutch soldiers. Afghanistan has an estimated 8000 deaths, unfortunately I’ve been unable to find the numbers on Abu Graib and Guantanamo bay. It’s like comparing apples with pears. When I said that you should ‘stick to your own drama’s’ I did not say that you didn’t have the right to criticize the relatively small drama in the Netherlands. That is your constitutional right, a right the Netherlands endorses.
A recent history of dhimmitude? Well I can’t blame you for never being in a Dutch secondary school, but the Dutch media and government has been highly critical of it’s own role in WW2, which, by the way, ended 60 years ago. The German presence in the Netherlands has been relatively strong because of the important harbour of Rotterdam and its relatively intact industry. A fully equipped Dutch government apparatus was at the disposal of the Germans, with the instructions of a well prepared Dutch government that in case of a German invasion, all measures had to be taken to protect the Dutch people. During those days, with German troops marching through the streets, they made the decision to follow certain German orders in order to protect the Dutch people. They made the wrong decision, the criminals have been executed after the war, and now 2 generations later, we’ve moved on. Also, in the beginning of the war a massive strike was held against the German raids of the Jewish people. The Germans responded with sending 500 young men to concentration camps. This might not seem many, but during that time the Netherlands only had 10 million inhabitants, which means that a great deterrent effect was made. The Dutch no longer play the blame card on the Germans, because it is insane to blame a grandchild something his grandfather did.
Most of the threats made against Ayaan Hirshi Ali were made by muslims, as she called the muslim faith ‘backward’. These threats are made by immigrants who have not, as we call it, ‘integrated’. They have kept their values from the Rif mountains in Morocco, or Eastern Turkey. A lot needs to be done against these dangerous ideas, but progress is made. Only 20% of the 2nd generation visits the mosque on a weekly basis, compared to 80% of the 1st generation.
The Dutch media have not reported this statement made by this American official, and I am grateful for this information. This is the most valuable point you’ve made in your reply.
Islam is a huge faith, with over one billion practicing it every day. Not unlike Christianity, there are several different beliefs in this religion, but when saying that islam is backward offends millions of non extremist believers. That is what Schooneboom meant with ‘islam bashing’. Only the extremists must be criticized, for they are the cause of the problem. Not the peaceful muslims in say, Turkey. Not the Alevites who basically agree with the values of Enlightenment.
Interestingly, you refer to the land of the free and the brave. This is a nationalist statement, the majoritiy of the Dutch would never dare to say something similar. We’ve learned our lesson from colonization and WW2 that nationalism leads to arrogance, hatred and suffering.
The final point you made is not mentioned by the Dutch media, so I thank you for this information.
Yours sincerely,
Koen
Posted by: Koen | Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 10:13 AM
Koen,
As Michael said, you are very wise and arrogant after the fact, giving you that 20/20 vision. When the above post was written Hirsi Ali had a huge amount of uncertainty in her life, starting from being evicted from her home, and culminating in 2 out of 3 Dutch believing that she should be deported. Now as Schwammenthal quite rightly says "she is being put on the run again, this time by the Dutch who have grown tired of protecting such an outspoken critic of Islamic extremism."
For you to say that her planned trip to the US originally constituted emigrating there, is simply ignorant. Circumstances changed, the US reacted quickly and she adapted, knowing her days in Holland were numbered. To fight your adopted homeland and fight the oppression of Islam, is simply one humongous fight too many.
We all know and read the updated stories, so you can stop shouting and falling about knocking furniture around the room.
As it happens the best article about her you have not included, which was published the other day in the Wall Street Journal:
Since you know so much about Hirsi Ali, you may also wish to know that she came to Holland directly from Kenya where she had been living for 10 years, one of the reasons that Somalia had not been in the picture for some time, and the basis of her original application for refugee status was put into question. Although she may have been granted "stay", if deported it would have been to the country she entered from.
Posted by: Alexandra | Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 07:45 AM
Koen, I always enjoy idiots who think they know anything about the law trying to explain it to others.
That is your legal interpretation, but it is not as easy as you try to put it. As you might have learned from the debate in Parliament, it is not that simple. There are extraordinary circumstances, you don't even pay attention to that.
Somehow you seem to be unable to grasp the difference between forced to resign permanently on the one hand and forced to take a break due to threats on the other.
.Yes smartass. Thanks for the caps.
And how would you expect her to take that job, if she didn't have a nationality, or if she was Somali? Don't you know that it is very difficult to enter the US normally (legally hehe), let alone in such circumstances?
We didn't know by then that the US government would welcome her anyway, now did we?
And I think you should learn to post your comments in 1 post, instead of 3.
Furthermore; I always enjoy hypocrites like yourself, who probably constantly criticize the US (that bad, bad Bush), but when Americans criticize the Dutch, you seem to think they are crossing the line.
The comparison with Anne Frank is rightfully made in so far, that the Dutch have a great recent history of dhimmitude. Did you know that the Dutch were among the most obedient people ruled by Nazi Germany during WW2?
What Eamonof means to say with that comparison is that the Dutch, still, choose comfortableness instead of unrest. The Dutch still choose to 'protect themselves', instead of supporting those who struggle for freedom (kicking Ayaan out of her home because the neighboors feel threatened).
Maybe you should think before you post.
Better yet. Please don't post at all.
Oh and everybody hates people who are smart asses with vision after the fact.
Posted by: Michael Galien | Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 07:08 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1777115,00.html
http://story.chinanationalnews.com/p.x/ct/9/id/3740fbbc1bcf0562/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060518/API/605180591
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0506/328262.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/world/europe/18dutch.html?ex=1148529600&en=54a1c558942f4895&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERNEWS
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/16/ap/world/mainD8HL37RO0.shtml
Posted by: Koen | Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 06:34 AM
the comparison with anne frank and ayaan is outrageous. Anne frank was a victim of one of the most murdrous regimes the world has ever seen, planning 6 million deaths of so called 'inferior' people. Anne frank was admitted to the Netherlands along with tens of thousands of others as refugees. One million Dutch people died during WW2, defending the freedom of the Netherlands, in concentration camps, or by starvation.
Ayaan is not being 'deported', she's going to the US to work in a comfortable new job with a right wing think tank. Discussions are held whether the Dutch government will pay for her security, which it probably will. I'm sorry, but i think you should stick to your own humanitarian drama's, like, i don't know, abu graib, Iraq, Afghanistan, guantanamo bay, to name a few.
Posted by: Koen | Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 06:26 AM
Oh please, you have no idea what you're talking about. The Dutch are going to throw ayaan to the 'islamic wolves?' Oh sure, the Dutch government are gonna wrap her up, put her in a gift box and send her to osama bin laden! It's crazy talk.
Quote: "She has the Dutch nationality. She lied in order to get it, but she is, since 1997 officially Dutch. She is not just 'allowed' to stay here. She is Dutch. In other words: if the government does what some people want, the government will take someone's nationality from that person. They will take her passport.
European conservatives are not very fond of giving the government the power to take someone's nationality from them."
This is absolutely false, because she LIED she never got her nationality on legal grounds! Therefore, she never was Dutch.
Now, the other 'comments': Sure... Now we have one of the most important former leaders from the VVD (Ayaan's party) saying that Ayaan should resign. It is getting more and more crazy.
My take on it was that she would probably not be send back to Somalia (or Kenya?) - she is, among other reasons, too famous. However; the threat I concidered to be most likely is that they would force her to resign. It seems that this is indeed the course Dutch politicians are taking.
Well, she wasn't in the Dutch parliament for a year or so, for security reasons. After the murder of Van Gogh she never entered the parliament, or conducted her work. It's not like this is a 'new' development. Remember that the liberal party only has 20% of the votes of the people, it's not like the entire population supports this party, on the contrary. They are also likely to loose a significant amount of seats in parliament in the upcoming election.
As for the 'reaction' of kim hartveld is concerned: THERE IS NO EUROPE! It's a collection of COUNTRIES, SOVEREIGN NATIONS! it would be exactly the same if i were to say 'oh, i think mexico should take over the US, the US produces so much pollution!
What i'm completely missing in your 'outrage' is that the Dutch parliament has had a debate on this, and that Verdonk has been forced to stand back. She will probably be given the Dutch nationality, and the labour party made sure that those in similar circumstances will be treated the same as Ayaan.
SHE IS NOT GOING TO BE DEPORTED TO KENYA! SHE ISN'T FROM KENYA, SHE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH KENYA, I DON"t UNDERSTAND WHY KENYA COMES UP IN THE FIRST PLACE! SHE HAS ACCEPTED A HIGH PAYING JOB IN WASHINGTON BEFORE ALL THIS COMMOTION CAME UP
Posted by: Koen | Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 06:14 AM
What was the reason for Verdonk's unseemly haste. Ali had announced the day before she was leaving Parliament and Holland. In fact that had been annouced quietly as much as two weeks earlier. So Verdonk knew. Why couldn't she have extended professional courtesy to a colleague and allowed Ali to tie up lose ends and leave. Why the sudden revocation within 24 hours of her citizenship? Smacks of a little pique there. Maybe some professional jealousy and settling of old scores? Because by not just merely revoking her citizenship BUT BY SPECIFY SHE BE DEPORTED TO KENYA, VERDONK PRACTICALLY GUARANTEES HER DEATH AND VERDONK KNOWS THAT. This was essentially an attempt at judicial murder by proxy. Nothing less!
Posted by: foreign devil | Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 01:22 AM
I presume that Rita Verdoonk would also be able to justify deporting Anne Frank for lying about her residency status.
Posted by: Eamonof | Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at 11:32 AM
To read about Ayaan's press conference of today, including her statement; click here.
You will notice that I received a comment from a Dutch person attacking Ayaan fiercely and that I react to that quite strongly.
Posted by: Michael Galien | Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at 09:45 AM
Let's hope that the U.S. political establishment will grant her access and heed her words.
Sad to say, but I expect it is more likely that the Director of CAIR will get a place of honor at the Department of State.
From Jihadwatch (http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008720.php),
'October 26, 2005
CAIR Director Attends State Department Ramadan Iftar
"She also spoke about the need to promote universal human rights..." I wonder how this squares with the words of CAIR's former Board Chairman Omar Ahmad: "Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam ... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."
A CAIR press release (thanks to Diana West):
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (OfficialWire) -- 10/26/05 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Tuesday night hosted the State Department's seventh annual "Iftar," or Ramadan fast-breaking dinner, in Washington, D.C.
The dinner took place after sunset, in accordance with Islamic practices. Muslim participants broke the fast with water and dates before performing their sunset prayers. (Ramadan is the month on the Islamic lunar calendar during which Muslims abstain from food, drink and sensual pleasures from break of dawn to sunset.)
Those in attendance at the dinner included Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as well as representatives of other local and national Muslim organizations, Muslim students, diplomats from Islamic countries, and State Department officials …”.'
Posted by: MarcH | Monday, May 15, 2006 at 03:56 PM
The Update reminds me of waves of German and German-Jewish refugee intellectuals that came here in the 30s. Gave us Einstein, Peter Lorre, Hannah Arendt, among others. Bad for Germany, good for the rest of the West. As for Europe, his is yet another moment when a line from Victor Hanson comes to mind: "Cry the beloved continent."
Posted by: Jeremayakovka | Monday, May 15, 2006 at 02:22 PM
It's getting harder and harder to take Europe seriously. It would appear that you're welcome there only if you kill film makers, put out death threats on people you don't like and threaten violence anytime you don't get your way.
Last week I saw Putin's state of nation address to the Duma. Russia may be messed up, but can you see him taking any crap from the islamobots? I wonder if he'd be interested in taking over Europe; obviously the locals aren't up to the job of protecting it.
Posted by: igout | Monday, May 15, 2006 at 01:21 PM
AHA will announce tomorrow that she will relocate to the US.
(link in Dutch)
http://www.volkskrant.nl/den_haag/article316789.ece/Hirsi_Ali_per_1%A0september_naar_Washington
Posted by: Kim Hartveld | Monday, May 15, 2006 at 08:41 AM
Ayaan Hirsi Ali pronunciation (help·info) (born Ayaan Hirsi Magan 13 November 1969 in Mogadishu, Somalia) is a Dutch feminist and a member of the Tweede Kamer (the Lower House of the Netherlands) for the VVD. She is a prominent and often controversial author, film maker and critic of Islam.
Hirsi Ali has had to maintain a high level of security due to Muslim threats against her life for voicing views that challenge Islamic hegemony and dogma.
Interestingly, when she was six, her family left the country for Saudi Arabia, later moving to Ethiopia and then to Kenya, where the family obtained political asylum. In Kenya she attended the English-language Muslim Girls' Secondary School in Nairobi under sponsership of the UNCHR, where, for a brief period she received guest lessons from a fundamentalist teacher called Aziza.
During the war between the secular nation of Iraq and the Islamic republic of Iran, she sympathised with Iran, and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and wore a head-scarve together with her school uniform. After secondary school she attended a secretarial course at the Valley College in Nairobi (near Yaya center) for one year.
However,
After earning her masters in political science, Hirsi Ali became a fellow at the Wiardi Beckman Foundation, a scientific institute linked to the social-democratic PvdA, of which Leiden University Professor Ruud Koole was steward. Inspired by the Atheist Manifesto of Leiden philosopher Herman Philipse, she renounced Islam and became an atheist. During this period she began to formulate her critique on Islamic culture, which she put to words in a book De Zoontjesfabriek ("The Son Factory"). After the publication of this book, she received the first threats on her life.
In May 2006 the Dutch television program "Zembla" [8] rekindled interest in the fact that in her asylum request, Hirsi Ali lied about her background. Media speculations arose that she could lose her Dutch Citizenship because of this 'identity fraud', rendering her ineligible for Parliament. In a first reaction Minister Rita Verdonk [9] said she would not look into the matter, but later declared she would investigate Hirsi Ali's naturalisation process.
In parliament, Hirsi Ali has shown particular interest in the position of women within Islam.
I hardly know her, but I think I like her...I'm not an atheist, however I do have a certain sensitivity to fascist ideology when I hear it, even it it is proffered under the guise of religion.
Holland should do the right thing...she is probably a gem.
Hirsi Ali is a proponent of free speech. In a 2006 lecture in Berlin, she defended the right to offend, following the 2005 Jyllands Posten controversy. She condemned the journalists of those papers and TV channels that did not show their readers the cartoons as being "mediocre of mind" and of trying to hide behind those "noble sounding terms such as 'responsivity' and 'sensitivity'." She praised publishers all over Europe for showing the cartoons and not being afraid of what she interpreted as the intolerance of some Muslims.
Posted by: Ghost Dansing | Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 09:17 PM
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a hero...I grew up in Somalia, I have a vague notion of how oppressive that society can be. She is unquestionably a hero, nobody would ever have the courage to question the status quo in such a tight knit, clan based society as she did, especially a woman. She broke the mold, and went further...All this nonsense is fuelled by cynical political wranglings that want to use her as a pawn. The decent thing would be to forgeive her trespasses...God only knows how many people who have not deserved asylum have been granted it, then given citizenship, so they can spew violence and hatred against the same communities that welcomed them in the first place.
The Economist's description of her as Right Wing, disheartens me. I expect a certain level of objectivity from them.
Posted by: Raimondo | Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 04:13 PM
I will get into the article at Riehl World's View (who send Alexandra a trackback) a bit ánd there has been quite a important (negative) development (I will comment on that as well):
Riehl wrote:
If Ali wasn't under specific threat and was just like millions of others who didn't qualify for asylum at the time, she manipulated the system by breaking the law. Aren't conservatives supposed to be against that, particularly when it comes to immigration? Or, in this case, should principle be relative and inconsistent, ending up merely a haphazardly applied thing because someone is saying things we like to hear?
I understand this sentiment to a degree, but I will add that it is somewhat off base.
He calls her an illegal immigrant.
She has the Dutch nationality. She lied in order to get it, but she is, since 1997 officially Dutch. She is not just 'allowed' to stay here. She is Dutch. In other words: if the government does what some people want, the government will take someone's nationality from that person. They will take her passport.
European conservatives are not very fond of giving the government the power to take someone's nationality from them.
The new development:
RTL Nieuws reports:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali should concider to resign from Parliament. Thus said former VVD leader Hans Dijkstal in the tv show Buitenhof.
[...]
The VVD found out about these lies already when Hirsi Ali switched from the PVDA to that party. But Minister of foreignersaffairs and immigration Verdonk is going to conduct an investigation about her fellow partymember nonetheless.
Sure... Now we have one of the most important former leaders from the VVD (Ayaan's party) saying that Ayaan should resign. It is getting more and more crazy.
My take on it was that she would probably not be send back to Somalia (or Kenya?) - she is, among other reasons, too famous. However; the threat I concidered to be most likely is that they would force her to resign. It seems that this is indeed the course Dutch politicians are taking.
I am getting embarrassed more and more. It is unbelievable.
Note how the VVD already knew that she lied when she switched to that party several years ago. They, seemingly, decided to not say anything about it. Of course they did not say anything about it: she was famous and quite popular by quite some people. Nowadays, she is being criticized more, especially by Dutch socialists, who concider every word of criticism about Islam, racist. So, now she might be somewhat unuseful, thus some prominent members turn against her right-a-way.
Posted by: Michael Galien | Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 02:34 PM
I'm certain America's Third World County would welcome her. "Don't Tread On Me" seems to be a third world countian unofficial motto. With so many political poltroons willing to give way for masses of illegal alien invaders, you'd think welcomeing one woman who has the backbone to stand up for what's right would be an easy choice... except...
She'd show up all our quisling politicians.
*sigh*
(I still believe in a two-party political system; I just wish we had two OTHER viable political parties to choose from... )
Posted by: David | Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 01:28 PM
I'm certain America's Third World County would welcome her. "Don't Tread On Me" seems to be a third world countian unofficial motto. With so many political poltroons willing to give way for masses of illegal alien invaders, you'd think welcomeing one woman who has the backbone to stand up for what's right would be an easy choice... except...
She'd show up all our quisling politicians.
*sigh*
(I still believe in a two-party political system; I just wish we had two OTHER viable political parties to choose from... )
Posted by: David | Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 01:27 PM
This outrage could be a measure of American resolve, and of whether we really recognize the size of the world crisis.
If we're genuinely cognizant of the significance and dimensions of the clash with Islam, President Bush will extend an offer of asylum and permanent American residence to Hirsi Ali. It's vital that the offer be made; whether or not she accepts it is less relevant.
If we're determined to remain asleep until the Islamists swarm over our walls and force us to fight them on our own soil, we'll treat this as having nothing whatosever to do with us, with our War on Terror, or with the ideals we're supposedly committed to upholding. By our inaction, we'll allow the Dutch to throw Hirsi Ali to the Islamic wolves.
We shall see.
Posted by: Francis W. Porretto | Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 12:05 PM