Former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali no longer lives in the Netherlands – having been constructively exiled after the country’s immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, revoked her citizenship. Yet, so much political controversy attended her exile that the national row and (soul searching) she left behind finally caused the Dutch government to fall last week.
Regular readers of this weblog are well-acquainted with Hirsi Ali’s compelling personal story and her crusade (spearheaded by her documentary film Submission) to “modernise” Islam, liberate Muslim women and guarantee immigrant rights – especially for North Africans. (Please click here and here to read a couple background articles). I was dismayed, however, by the number of you who expressed strident disagreement with my criticism of Verdonk for revoking her citizenship.
But the good news is that the fall of the government vindicates not only Hirsi Ali’s crusade but also my unqualified support of her. After all, Verdonk’s decision marked a triumph of bureaucratic form (and submission to political fear) over Hirsi Ali’s remarkable profile in courage. Moreover, it demonstrated egregious misjudgment for Verdonk to have besmirched the character of a fellow MP based solely on a few white lies Hirsi Ali told on her asylum application to avoid having to return to he native, war-ravaged Somalia. Of course, it turned out to be an inconvenient truth that Hirsi Ali confessed her scheme many years ago. And this alone betrayed the fact that Verdonk would never have revoked her citizenship but for threats from Islamic fundamentalists.
(Recall that these fanatics considered Hirsi Ali’s crusade a Satanic Verses-order of blasphemy. And that they had already assassinated Theo Van Gogh, the director of Submission, and vowed to kill Hirsi, which, evidently, unnerved Verdonk more than it did Hirsi Ali.)
Therefore, it augurs well for the national character of the Netherlands that, after their demands for her resignation were not met, honourable and courageous members of the ruling coalition finally decided to bring the government down rather than let Verdonk’s decision stand. Indeed, she effectively conceded that her decision was ignorant, myopic, unprincipled and arbitrary by trying to reverse it to prevent the fall. Alas, by then, not only was Verdonk devoid of pride and principle; but the die had been cast.
NOTE: The historical inferiority complex many European countries suffer was only exacerbated after they were all sucked into the vortex of the EU. Therefore, it must be particularly dispiriting for these fighting Dutchmen to have their government fall and no one (beyond their borders) seems to care….
ENDNOTE: Click here to check out my shameless praise of my little sister over at CNN, complete with photo this time.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.