In Hollands Defence

Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She’d lied on her asylum application apparently. But I learned in quick succession that - it wasn’t new news, Hirsi Ali was ‘surprised’, its all Hollands fault, Ritas fault, Europes fault, ‘Europe’ doesn’t deserve her and that finally the US is the only all embracing nation on earth that could give her the safe secure welcoming platform she deserves according to the blogosphere.

Well, umm, wrong. I think we all forget that this was a unique political experiment in unique times. It is Holland that gave her a chance and propelled Hirsi Ali into superstar status. And on that last bit *superstar status* therein lies the problem in politics. When theres a lot at stake ‘Et tu’ and all that. I thought the whole Clinton affair stuff was a load of baffling old bull but that didn’t stop him being hounded out.

In an age that has brought us the Theo van Gogh assassination, deadly riots over a series of Danish newspaper cartoons, the Pym Fortune assassination, the death threats against Salman Rushdie, Hirsi herself, Dr. Sultan, Ibn Warraq, among many others - , it requires truly remarkable courage to stand your ground and speak your mind - which these incredibly brave individuals have all done.. But doing that from within a political circle, full of all those ruthless self motivated and self serving agendas in election run up - you need to be superhuman and have your wits about you. The higher up you go the harder you will fall if you lose a strangle hold on whats going on around you. And that’s where I cant make up my mind anymore. Did she lose her grip or did she decide that cutting edge politics was not the platform to fight such far reaching ideological battles.


Rita Verdonk is well known for her strict immigration policy. She had become a very popular right wing minister. Her - and Ayaan's - party were gaining in the polls having been trounced by a strong muslim Labour vote earlier this year. The right were gaining ground. Indeed those Dutch friends of mine charted Ritas career with enthusiasm “Shes what this country needs”.

Just a couple of weeks ago she'd sent a young girl Taida Pasic - who lied to get into the Netherlands - back to her own country. Clearly she doesn’t mess about.

The documentary, essentially showed nothing new, [everyone knew Ayaan had lied]. But it was made by the tv station Zembla, owned by the Labour party. And its sole focus was her background and entry to Holland tracking all the way back to Somalia. They called it Saint Ayaan, i believe. Alarm bells.

In the dorg eat dorg world of politics why didn’t Hirsi anticipate this rather thorough sounding investigation highlighting -if not entirely focusing- on those awkward issues about her entry to Holland. Especially when her brother had accompanied the film makers to Somalia? It must have taken at least a few weeks if not months to pull that together. And coming on the back of the Pasic case, rise in the polls for the right and ‘Iron Ritas’ popularity, it all seems highly suspect timing that would have forced a stand by position discussed and agreed with the party in advance. Im amazed the calls Hirsi made to her party, where she was clearly concerned after seeing the final piece and with a warning of what might follow, came so late.

If Iron Rita was unflinching and too quick to react then the criticism I would level at Hirsi Ali is that she was somewhat cavalier. Given who she works for. Rita the minister who has vowed to take an incredibly hard line on immigrants, deportees, asylum seekers. Rita who wants to have the burqa banned. They are close friends. Women talk. You would think that they would have had this nailed well in advance had it been taken seriously.

As Theo van Gogh's Mother said: 'Labour laid a mouse-trap for Rita Verdonk, with Ayaan Hirsi Ali as bait.' All too easily.

Regards protection and her accommodation which led her to feel hounded out, she was afforded round the clock protection. The government had fought hard to find her alternative premises. There were a number of people in the building who opposed the eviction order mounted by some residents (who had feared for their lives) . And since her address had been made public I cant blame them for that. But surely even Hirsi Ali was aware of what was at stake now and how hard a battle this would be - and could take some comfort in the support she did have in the building. What was it Machiavelli said 'be feared but dont be hated'?

I don’t think things will be that much more reassuring in the US.

Dr. Sultan a Syrian American secular psychologist who lives in LA, has been very outspoken about Islam. She took on Al Jazeera TV and argued with the host and Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khoulisaid on the battle between what she called ‘modernity and barbarism’ which she summised Islam would lose. ‘Dr’ Ibrahim accused her of being a heretic (like Hirsi Ali). Sultan said she took those words [the "heretic" accusation by Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli] as a formal fatwa, a religious condemnation. Since then, she said, she has received numerous death threats on her answering machine and by e-mail.

One message said: "Oh, you are still alive? Wait and see." She received an e-mail message in Arabic, that said, "If someone were to kill you, it would be me."

Dr. Sultan said her mother, who still lives in Syria, is afraid to contact her directly, speaking only through a sister who lives in Qatar. She said she worried more about the safety of family members here and in Syria than she did for her own.

The polls showed after the affair that the public were split – 50:50 on supporting Verdonk and Hirsi over the who debacle. You could consider that many of those who supported Verdonk probably also think Hirsi’s views are worthy but that immigration is the key issue (which it is in the Holland of now). Parliament rounded on Verdonk and ripped her to shreds.

I don’t think you can therefore say in broadstroke terms that Holland simply hounded her out.

The problem with politics, its inclined towards scandal and has its limitations when your cause is as far and wide reaching as Hirsi Ali’s - and when you reach superstar status, all the knives come out. That’s as old as time. Hers was never ever going to be an easy task.

Hirsi Ali has bettered her life, and has bravely championed causes that NEED determined champions like her HERE. So I’ll admit it. Since the AyaanGate story broke ive been somewhat disappointed. In Hirsi Ali. She’s tougher than that. Stand your ground against the bitter blind twisted lefties! The very people who should be your champion.

Get out of politics since its run its course (and was always going to) but start your own think tank here! Easy for me to say. I know.

I don’t know what conclusion to draw other than that the experiment didn’t pay off. But taking everything into account above Im not blaming Holland for that. What concerns me is that perception is everything in the propaganda war and im none too thrilled to see how this is running its course in the blogosphere right now.

I refuse to give in to the idea that ‘the lights are turning out in Europe’. On that note I took heart when I read that where the Wall Street Journal cited the fleeing “Hans-Peter Raddatz” to support this lights out idea, ‘an Islamic-studies expert under police protection, recently moved to the U.S.”. One commenter over at the Brussels Journal, whose author is facing his own battles at the moment, set the record straight (hat tip anonymous at Pub Philosopher)

"That’s definitively wrong (re Raddatz), we met last week in Munich. He is living under police protection, that’s correct, after receiving a so called “prayer” via the Internet saying that Allah should destroy him and all those who follow him in what he is writing; he is author of five Islam-related books, among them “Von Gott zu Allah?” and “Von Allah zum Terror?”. Raddatz announced today, that he will stay in Germany”.