We wrote some time ago about the Somali-born activist and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Now the Centre for Social Cohesion reports that she is in hiding again ...
"The Dutch Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali is in a safe-house at an undisclosed location in Holland tonight after the Dutch government said that they would remove her security-detail from her from the 1st October unless she was in the Netherlands.
The former Dutch MP and colleague of the murdered Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh, has been protected by the Dutch government during her time working at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. But they have apparently now decided that they owe the former MP nothing at all unless she stays in Holland.
Considering that Hirsi Ali was effectively forced to leave Holland after disgracefully having her citizenship withdrawn (and then reinstated), and that her neighbours sued to have her forced out of her house, the Dutch government's ignominious decision heaps insult onto injury.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's new home, her work and her living are in America. Her life was made un-liveable in the Netherlands, but that country is now forcing her to stay there. The American government meanwhile seems to have decided that it is not its business that one of the most endangered and heroic people in its land is being grotesquely forced into a situation of such danger.
Hirsi Ali is being forced to choose between living unguarded where she wants to be or being guarded where she does not want to be: between being allowed her 'right to life' and her 'right to a life.' It is an intolerable situation, and shameful that both the Dutch and American governments have allowed this to happen."
Melanie Phillips, author of the explosive book "Londonistan", comments …
"One sure sign of whether or not a society is serious about defeating tyranny is the support it gives to dissidents who brave their lives by resisting it. By this standard the latest twist in the saga of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born former Dutch politician, bodes ill for the west. Hirsi Ali's life has been threatened by Islamist fanatics ever since she collaborated on a film about the persecution of women in Islam, as a result of which her collaborator, Theo Van Gogh, was murdered. Hirsi Ali, who from that time on has been forced to live either in hiding or under police protection, was disgracefully forced to leave Holland for America after the Dutch government played games with her citizenship and her Dutch neighbours turned against her. Now she has been forced into hiding again after the Dutch government said that they would remove her security-detail from her unless she returned to the Netherlands from the US-where she had gone only because the Netherlands had effectively forced her out. The Americans have not volunteered to fill the gap and protect her. So much for the 'war on terror'. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a heroine of our times. The behaviour of both the Dutch and the Americans towards her is a disgrace."
The GOS says: I suppose there's a crumb of comfort to be drawn from this disgraceful tale. When Salman Rushdie was threatened by Islamic fanatics, the British government made no bones about providing him with protection, and presumably is still doing so. Nice to know we can do something right for once, and show our Dutch and American friends that a civilised country can and should take a stand against these bullying lunatics.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's books are both intensely readable and provide a valuable insight into the thinking behind so much of modern Islamic extremism. They are A Caged Virgin
, and Infidel.
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