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Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Born (1969-11-13) November 13, 1969 (age 55)
Mogadishu, Somalia
Occupation(s)politician, writer
Known forSubmission
The Caged Virgin
Infidel
Political partyPeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (pronunciation; Template:Lang-so; born Ayaan Hirsi Magan 13 November 1969 in Mogadishu, Somalia) is a Dutch feminist and political writer, daughter of the Somali scholar, politician, and revolutionary opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse. She is a prominent and controversial author, film maker, and critic of Islam. She has received numerous awards for her human rights work, and in 2005, was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

When she was eight, her family left Somalia for Saudi Arabia, then Ethiopia, and eventually settled in Kenya. She entered the Netherlands via train from Germany in 1992 and she was granted political asylum there in five weeks. She then proceeded to earn a degree in political science. She joined the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) in 2000 and supported their tough-on-immigration program. They chose to elevate her to the Tweede Kamer (the Lower House of the States-General of the Netherlands) on January 30, 2003. Her provocative writings, especially her screenplay Submission, which she wrote the script for in 2004, helped to lead to the murder of Theo van Gogh, and to death threats against her. She then required security at the cost of millions of euros to the national government. On May 11, 2006, a documentary shown on national TV revealed that her application was asylum was completely fraudulent and she resigned on May 16, 2006. A political crisis surrounding the false information she provided on her application triggered the fall of the second Balkenende cabinet.

She left the Netherlands and became a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. The Dutch government decided to stop paying for protection while she is living abroad, and as a result, Hirsi Ali returned to the Netherlands until security arrangements are in place for her in the United States. She returned to the Netherlands in October of 2007. As of the start of 2008, she has been working from an undisclosed location in the Netherlands.

Biography

Youth

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia into the Osman Mahamud subclan of the Darod clan. Her first name, Ayaan, means "lucky person" or "luck" in Somali. Her father, Hirsi Magan Isse, was a prominent member of the Somali Salvation Democratic Front and a leading figure in the Somalian Revolution. From 1972 to October of 1975, her father was imprisoned as a political prisoner due to his opposition to Somalia's Siad Barré government. In 1975, her father escaped from prison and her family subsequently fled the country as political refugees. Initially they moved to Saudi Arabia, but after three years the Saudis expelled them, again due to her father's political activities. They then moved to Ethiopia, which, as the center of opposition to Siad Barre, welcomed them. They later immigrated to Kenya, where they obtained political asylum. At no time did Ali live through any war, nor was she a war refugee.

Ali's father, Magan, had studied abroad and was opposed to female genital cutting. In 1975, while he was still in prison, Ali claimed that her grandmother had a mild form of the traditional procedure performed on her. She indicates that a man performed the procedure, but if a woman had performed it, then much more of her erectile tissue would have been removed.

In 1980, they settled in the capital, Nairobi as UNCHR-sponsored asylum seekers. In 1981, Ali's mother divorced Magan. Hirsi Ali attended the prestigious English-language Muslim Girls' Secondary School. Her schooling was subsidized by UNCHR. There, and for many years, they rented a two-floor house on a guarded street of a well-to-do neighborhood, all the while receiving ample financial support from Magan. There, they learned to speak English. While Ayaan went to a prestigious Muslim Girls school (starting in 1984), her mother sent her brother Mahad when to a Christian school because of the quality of the education it offered. By the time she reached her teens, Saudi-funded religious education was becoming more influential among Muslims in other countries, and a charismatic religious teacher who had been trained under this aegis joined Hirsi Ali's school. She inspired the teenaged Ayaan, as well as some fellow students, to adopt the more rigorous Saudi Arabian interpretations of Islam, as opposed to the more relaxed versions then current in Somalia and Kenya. Hirsi Ali had been impressed by the Qur'an before she could even read, and had lived "by the Book, for the Book" throughout her childhood. She sympathized with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and wore a hijab together with her school uniform, which was unusual at the time but gradually became more common. She agreed with the fatwa against British writer Salman Rushdie that was declared in reaction to the publication of his controversial novel The Satanic Verses. After completing secondary school, she attended a secretarial course at Valley Secretarial College in Nairobi for one year. Throughout their teenage years, she and her sister turned to reading as a pastime, as every weekend and evening they were kept at home by their mother.

Early career

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In 1992 she traveled from Kenya to Germany on her way to Canada. Rather than continuing on to Canada to join her husband, she took a train to the Netherlands in 1992. She applied for political asylum, and, with the help of her relatives, she obtained it within five weeks, thus receiving a residence permit. She would later become a Dutch citizen.

Ali married by her own choice. She married a man that she knew and she attended her own wedding. She received ample financial support from her husband. Upon arriving in the Netherlands, Ali later assumed the name "Ali" as an alias. Even after assuming the alias, she maintained contact with both of her divorced parents. In the Netherlands, she amicably divorced her husband at a customary proceeding called a "tolka" (a gathering of relatives). He wanted his wife to come and join him in Canada, but she simply declared "I don't want him" and he returned alone to Canada.

Only many years later did investigative reporters from Zembla determined the truth about Ali's past. They aired their findings on KRO on 11 May 2006. She was at this later time confronted with these discrepancies and admitted to making false statements in her application for asylum. She assumed the name, Hirsi Ali, discarding her original name, Hirsi Magan. She deliberately gave a false date of birth of 1967 rather than 1969, thus making her nearly untraceable. Hirsi Ali maintained that in 1992 her father arranged to marry her to a distant cousin. She had lied by devising a false story about having to flee Mogadishu and spending time in refugee camps on the border between Somalia and Kenya. She did spend time in those camps, but in order to help relatives who were trapped there; she was already safely settled in Kenya at the time open warfare erupted in the Somali capital. By international agreement, the Netherlands was rejecting applications from Somalis who had settled in Kenya. She told the immigration authorities that she had come straight from Somalia, instead of Kenya, where she had been living for the past twelve years.

After receiving asylum, she held various short-term jobs, ranging from cleaning to mail sorting. She had been an avid reader from childhood, and now access to new books and ways of thought stretched her imagination and frightened her at the same time; Freud's work, for example, placed her in contact with an alternative moral system, one that was not based on religion. During this time, she took courses in Dutch and a one-year course in social work. She studied political science at the Leiden University until 2000. Between 1995 and 2001, she also worked as an independent Somali-Dutch interpreter and translator, and the National Migration Service (NMS). While working for the NMS, she observed the workings of the Dutch immigration system and became critical of the way it handled asylum seekers. . Ali speaks six languages: English, Somali, Arabic, Swahili, Amharic and Dutch.

Political career

After earning a master's degree in political science from Leiden University, Hirsi Ali became a fellow at the Wiardi Beckman Foundation, a scientific institute linked to the centre-left Labour Party (PvdA), of which Leiden University Professor Ruud Koole was steward.

Her opted to de-emphasize her identification as a Muslim after 9/11. On that day she re-read Osama bin Laden's "words of justification" in the Qu'ran. She read The Atheist Manifesto (Atheistisch Manifest) of Leiden philosopher Herman Philipse. She renounced Islam and became an atheist in 2002. She published many news articles as a critique of Islam and Islamic culture, and became a frequent speaker on television news programs and public debate forums. She wrote up her ideas in a book entitled De Zoontjesfabriek (The Son Factory).

At some point, she began to receive death threats. In November 2002, after some disagreements with the PvdA about her security measures, she sought advice from Cisca Dresselhuys, the editor of the feminist magazine Opzij how to raise funds from the government for additional protection Her party having recently lost the election, Hirsi Ali would soon be unable to receive government-funded protection. Dresselhuis introduced Hirsi Ali to Gerrit Zalm, the parliamentary leader of the centre-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and party member Neelie-Smit Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition. At their urging, Hirsi Ali agreed to switch to the VVD and stood for election to Parliament. Between November 2002 and January 2003, she lived abroad and was put on the payroll as an assistant of the VVD Parliamentary Party.

During her tenure in Parliament, Hirsi Ali made a number of controversial statements about Islam. In a Trouw interview, she said that by Western standards, Muhammad would be considered a paedophile. A discrimination complaint was filed against her on April 24, 2003. The Prosecutor's office decided not to initiate a case, because her critique did "not put forth any conclusions in respect to Muslims and their worth as a group is not denied".

Following a TV news program exposé on her that revealed she had lied about her family name, birthyear, and reason for asylum when she sought political asylum, Rita Verdonk (also VVD) announced that her Dutch nationality had to be considered invalid. She was therefore forced to step down as MP.

Going into hiding

Hirsi Ali wrote the script and provided the voice-over for Submission, a film directed by Theo van Gogh, which criticized the treatment of women in Islamic society. Juxtaposed with passages from the Qur'an were scenes of scantily clad actresses that portray Muslim women who are suffering abuse. The film also features an actress that is provocatively dressed in a semi-transparent burqa and has texts from the Qur'an written on her skin. These texts are often interpreted as justifying the subjugation of women. Other actresses in the film were shown as victims of physical abuse. The film's release sparked much controversy, which became violent when Mohammed Bouyeri, a member of the Hofstad Group, murdered Van Gogh in an Amsterdam street on November 2, 2004. A letter pinned to Van Gogh's body with a knife was primarily a death threat to Hirsi Ali. After this incident, the Dutch secret service raised the level of security that they provided to her. In an interview to journalist David Cohen, Hirsi Ali has said that although she deeply regrets the murder of van Gogh, she is proud of the film and does not regret having made it. "To feel otherwise would be to deny everything I stand for."

Earlier that year, the group The Hague Connection produced a rap song, "Hirsi Ali Dis", and distributed it on the Internet. The lyrics included violent threats against her life. The rappers were prosecuted under Article 121 of the Dutch criminal code, because they hindered the execution of her tasks as politician. In 2005, they were sentenced to community service and a suspended prison sentence.

After the murder of van Gogh, Hirsi Ali went into hiding in the Netherlands, and even spent some time in New York, until January 18, 2005, when she returned to parliament. On February 18, 2005, she revealed the location of herself and her colleague Geert Wilders, who had also been in hiding. She demanded a normal, secured house, which she was granted one week later.

In January 2006, Hirsi Ali used her acceptance speech for the Reader's Digest "European of the Year" award to urge action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and to say that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must be taken at his word in wanting to organize a conference to investigate objective evidence of the Holocaust. "Before I came to Europe, I'd never heard of the Holocaust. That is the case with millions of people in the Middle East. Such a conference should be able to convince many people away from their denial of the genocide against the Jews." She also said that "so-called Western values" of freedom and justice are universal; that Europe has done far better than most areas of the world at providing justice, because it has guaranteed the freedom of thought and debate that are required for critical self-examination; and that communities cannot reform themselves unless "scrupulous investigation of every former and current doctrine is possible."

In March 2006 she co-signed a letter entitled "MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism". The most notable of the eleven other signatories was British writer Salman Rushdie, whose fatwa Hirsi Ali had supported as a teen. The letter was published in response to protests in the Islamic world surrounding the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.

On April 27, a Dutch judge ruled that Hirsi Ali had to abandon her house—a highly secured secret address in the Netherlands. Her neighbours had complained that living next to her was an unacceptable security risk to them, although the police had testified in court that it was one of the safest places in the country due to the many personnel they had assigned there. In early 2007, she stated that the Dutch state spent about 3.5 million euros providing armed guards for her, and the threats made her live "in fear and looking over my shoulder", but she was willing to endure this for the sake of speaking her mind.

The citizenship controversy

On 11 May 2006, the television program Zembla reported on KRO that Hirsi Ali had given false information about her real name, her age and the country she arrived from when originally applying for asylum. The program also presented evidence that she was untruthful about the main reason for her asylum application being forced marriage. Hirsi Ali admitted that she had lied about her full name, her date of birth and the manner in which she had come to the Netherlands. However, several sources, including her first book The Son Factory, which had been published in 2002, stated her real name and date of birth, and she had also publicly stated these in a September 2002 interview published in the political magazine HP/De Tijd. and in an interview in the VARA gids (2002). Accordingly, these details were considered by many to be public knowledge. Furthermore, Hirsi Ali has asserted that she made full disclosure of the matter to VVD officials when she was invited to run for parliament in 2002.

Media speculation arose that she could lose her Dutch citizenship because of this "identity fraud", rendering her ineligible for parliament. At first, Minister Rita Verdonk said she would not look into the matter, but after Member of Parliament Hilbrand Nawijn officially asked her for her position, she declared that she would investigate Hirsi Ali's naturalisation process. This investigation took three days. The findings were that Hirsi Ali had not legitimately received Dutch citizenship, because she had lied about her name and date of birth. Rita Verdonk moved to outlaw Hirsi Ali by annulling her citizenship, a move that was later overridden on the urging of Parliament.

On May 15, 2006, after the broadcast of the Zembla documentary, news stories erupted saying that Hirsi Ali was likely to move to the United States in September, and was expected to write a book entitled Shortcut to Enlightenment and work for a conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute.

On May 16, Hirsi Ali resigned from Parliament after admitting that she had lied on her asylum application. On that day, she gave a press conference, in which she restated that, although she felt it was wrong to be granted asylum under false pretences, the facts had been publicly known since 2002 when they had been reported in the media and in one of her publications. In the press conference, she also restated that she had spoken the truth about the reason for seeking asylum, which had been the threat of a forced marriage, despite a claim to the contrary on the Zembla program by some of her relatives. Her stated reason for resigning immediately was not the continuous threats, making her job as a parliamentarian "difficult" but "not impossible", but the news that the Minister would strip her of her Dutch citizenship.

After a long and emotional debate in the Dutch Parliament, all major parties supported a motion, requesting the Minister to explore the possibility of special circumstances in Hirsi Ali's case. Although Verdonk remained convinced that the applicable law did not leave her any room to consider such circumstances, she decided to accept the motion. During the debate, she astonished MPs by claiming that Hirsi Ali still had Dutch citizenship during the period of reexamination. Apparently the "decision" she had made public had been merely a report of the current position of the Dutch government. Hirsi Ali at that point had six weeks to react to the report before any final decision about her citizenship was taken. Verdonk was heavily criticized for not acting more prudently in a case that had so many political implications.

Apart from a Dutch passport, Hirsi Ali retained a Dutch residency permit (similar to a Permanent Resident Card) on the grounds that she was a political refugee. According to the Minister, this permit could not be taken away from her since it was granted more than 12 years ago, in 1992.

In a reaction to the announced move, former VVD leader Hans Wiegel stated that her departure "would not be a loss to the VVD and not be a loss to the Tweede Kamer". He said that Hirsi Ali was a brave woman, but that her opinions were polarizing. Former parliamentary leader of the VVD, Jozias van Aartsen, was more positive about Hirsi Ali, saying that it is "painful for Dutch society and politics that she is leaving the Tweede Kamer". Another VVD MP, Bibi de Vries, claimed that if something were to happen to Hirsi Ali, some people in her party would have "blood on their hands."

Christopher DeMuth, President of the AEI, confirmed that this controversy would not affect the appointment. On May 16, he stated that he was still looking forward to "welcoming her to AEI, and to America." United States Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick later stated that "we recognise that she is a very courageous and impressive woman and she is welcome in the US."

On May 23, 2006, Ayaan Hirsi made available to the The New York Times some letters she believed would provide insight into her 1992 asylum application. In one letter, her sister, Haweya, warned her that the entire extended family was searching for her (after she had fled to the Netherlands), and in another letter her father denounced her.

File:RVerdonk.jpg
Rita Verdonk

On June 27, 2006, the Dutch government announced that Hirsi Ali would keep her Dutch citizenship. On the same day a letter was disclosed in which Hirsi Ali expressed regret that she had misinformed Minister Verdonk. Hirsi Ali was allowed to retain her name because the Dutch government believes that Somalis are allowed to carry the name of their grandfather according to Somali family law, and her grandfather had used the last name Ali until his thirties and only then switched to Magan. The fact that this grandfather was born in 1845 complicated the investigation (her grandfather was a powerful warlord, and Hirsi Ali's father was the youngest of his children, born when he was close to 70). Also, the issue of the false date of birth was not that important, according to the Minister.

Later the same day, Hirsi Ali, through her lawyer and in television interviews, made a statement declaring that she had signed the letter that was drafted by the Justice Department under duress. She felt she was pressured into signing the statement in exchange for the passport, but that she agreed to do it, swallowing her pride, in order not to complicate her pending visa application for the U.S. Currently, she still carries her Dutch passport. A close friend of Hirsi Ali, Leon de Winter, presented in his weblog a detailed account of events taking place on June 27 leading to Hirsi Ali signing the statement confirming, in his view, the involuntary nature of her action.

In a special parliamentary session on June 28, questions were raised concerning the alleged coercion of the Hirsi Ali statement by minister Verdonk, the dismissal by the minister of the false date of birth as a relevant issue, and whether Somali law prevails over Dutch law. The ensuing political upheaval on June 29 ultimately led to the fall of the Second Balkenende cabinet.

American Enterprise Institute

Hirsi Ali subsequently took up a position at the American Enterprise Institute, published her autobiography, Infidel, and is currently working on another book, Shortcut to Enlightenment, a philosophical fantasy about a visit by Muhammad to the New York Public Library, in which he examines the ideas of various Enlightenment philosophers, compares them to the state of Islam today, and then comes to a number of important conclusions. Since her arrival in Washington, D.C., her security had to be upgraded once again.

On September 25, 2007, she received her green card (Alien Registration Card).

Since October 2007, she has continued her work for AEI from a secret address in the Netherlands. Her move back to the Netherlands is a result of the ruling of the Dutch minister of Justice, Hirsch Ballin; as of October 1, 2007, the Dutch government will no longer pay for her security while she is abroad.

Recent activities

On April 17, 2007, a lecture held by Hirsi Ali at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown took place under tight security, due to a protest by the local Muslim community. One of the protesters, Pittsburgh imam Fouad El Bayly, stated that Hirsi Ali deserves the death sentence, but that she should be tried and judged in a Muslim country.

Lorraine Ali wrote: "Hirsi Ali is more a hero among Islamophobes than Islamic women."

Sam Harris has started a Ayaan Hirsi Ali Security Trust to help to cover her security expenses.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali attended the 2007 Sydney Writers' Festival, giving an interview on June 2, and the closing address the following day, an extract of which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of June 4. Hirsi Ali described her intellectual and religious journey as one in which she "lost respect not for Muslims but for what they fear." Stating she was accused of hating Muslims, and vilifying the Qur'an and Muhammad, she clarified that she did not hate Muslims, but rather the submission of free will.

In September it was announced that she would take part in the New Yorker Festival in an event with Martin Amis. The event had originally paired Norman Mailer and Amis, but Mailer could not attend. However, it turned out that Hirsi Ali also could not attend, so she was replaced by Ian Buruma.

Social and political views

Hirsi Ali is a member of the VVD, a Dutch political party that combines conservative views on the economy, foreign policy, crime and immigration with a liberal stance on drugs, abortion and homosexuality. She states that she is a great admirer of one of the party's ideological leaders, Frits Bolkestein, a former Euro-commissioner. Ali received substantial criticism as a result of her defection from the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) to the VVD. By way of response she asserted that she would show greater loyalty to the VVD.

She claims that her personal views are for the most part inspired by her change from Islam to atheism. Hirsi Ali is very critical of Islam, especially of its prophet Muhammad and the position of women.

Islam

Hirsi Ali is very critical of the position of women in Islamic societies and the punishments demanded by Islamic scholars for homosexuality and adultery. She considered herself a Muslim until 28 May 2002, when she became an atheist. In an interview with the Swiss magazine Das Magazin in September 2006, she said she lost her faith while sitting in an Italian restaurant in May 2002, drinking a glass of wine: "...I asked myself: Why should I burn in hell just because I'm drinking this? But what prompted me even more was the fact that the killers of 9/11 all believed in the same God I believed in." Despite that, in the television program Rondom Tien of 12 September 2002 she called it "my religion". She has described Islam as a "backward religion", incompatible with democracy.

In a "no-holds-barred polemic" interview in the London Evening Standard, Hirsi Ali characterises Islam as "the new fascism". "Just like Nazism started with Hitler's vision, the Islamic vision is a caliphate—a society ruled by Sharia law—in which women who have sex before marriage are stoned to death, homosexuals are beaten, and "apostates like me are killed." Sharia law is as inimical to liberal democracy as Nazism." In this interview, she also made it clear that in her opinion it is not "a fringe group of radical Muslims who've hijacked Islam and that the majority of Muslims are moderate. Violence is inherent in Islam—it's a destructive, nihilistic cult of death. It legitimates murder."

At the Sydney Writers' Festival in June 2007, she balanced her arguments, saying "I am a Muslim" because she understood why Muslims were silent when the Qur'an was "invoked to behead captured aid workers, journalists and other Western wanderers," as silence is "better than an argument with the author of the Holy Book who has given the command to behead infidels." Hirsi Ali stated that she was also "not a Muslim" as she had lost the fear of the Qur'an and of Hell and lost respect for "its author" and messenger; and that she felt a "common humanity" with those she once "shunned", such as Jews, Christians, atheists, gays, and sinners "of all stripes and colours." In the period 2005-2007, Hirsi made many media appearances.

Muhammad

Hirsi Ali criticises the central Islamic prophet on the grounds of both his morality and personality. In January 2003 she told the Dutch paper Trouw, "Muhammad is, seen by our Western standards, a pervert", as he married, at the age of 52, Aisha, who was six years old, and the time of consummation, nine. These and other statements led to a lawsuit by a number of Muslims in 2005. The civil court in The Hague acquitted Hirsi Ali of any charges, but mentioned that she "could have made a better choice of words".

She also has stated her opinions about his personality. When Trouw asked her about him, she answered, "Measured by our western standards, Muhammad is... a tyrant. He is against freedom of expression. If you don't do as he says, you will be punished. It makes me think of all those megalomaniacs in the Middle East: Bin Laden, Khomeini, Saddam. Do you think it strange that there is a Saddam Hussein? Muhammad is his example. Muhammad is an example for all Muslim men. Do you think it strange that so many Muslim men are violent?" In a 2003 interview with the Danish magazine Sappho, she explains parallels she sees between the personality of Yasser Arafat and that of Muhammad.

Circumcision

Hirsi Ali opposes not just the genital cutting of girls, but also the practice of circumcision of boys as practiced by Jews and Muslims, as well as the routine infant circumcision practiced in the United States. In her autobiography, Infidel, she writes: "Excision doesn't remove your desire or ability to enjoy sexual pleasure. The excision of women is cruel on many levels. It is physically cruel and painful; it sets girls up for a lifetime of suffering. And it is not even effective in its intent to remove their desire."

A quotation from her on the subject: "girls dying in child birth because they are too young The rise of radical Islam is an important part of this. I feel I have the moral obligation to discuss the source. I think if I think you are enriching the debate if you question it, you are not the enemy of Islam. We can look elsewhere using reason to discover answer to these problems, and we do not have to abolish religion. But we must do it by finding a balance."

On debate

On August 31, 2006, while addressing the Dutch press on the occasion of her departure for the United States to work for the think tank the American Enterprise Institute, Hirsi Ali said: "...with like-minded people one cannot discuss. With like-minded people one can only participate in a church service, and, as is widely known, I do not like church services."

Freedom of speech

Hirsi Ali is a proponent of free speech. In a 2006 lecture in Berlin, she defended the right to offend, following the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons 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 'responsibility' and 'sensitivity'." She praised publishers all over Europe for showing the cartoons and not being afraid of what she labeled the intolerance of many Muslims worldwide.

In a speech given in Berlin in February 2006, she said, "I do not seek to offend religious sentiment, but I will not submit to tyranny. Demanding that people who do not accept Muhammad’s teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission."

Political opponents

Hirsi Ali supported the move by the Dutch courts to abrogate the party subsidy to a conservative Protestant Christian political party, the Political Reformed Party (SGP), which did not grant full membership rights to women and still withholds passive voting rights from female members. She stated that "any political party discriminating against women or homosexuals should be deprived of funding."

Hirsi Ali has also stated that she wants the Belgian authorities to ban the Vlaams Belang party, claiming that "it hardly differs from the Hofstad Group. Though the VB members have not committed any violent crimes yet, they are just postponing them and waiting until they have an absolute majority. On many issues they have exactly the same opinions as the Muslim extremists: on the position of women, on the suppression of gays, on abortion. This way of thinking will lead straight to genocide."

Vlaams Belang leaders and press statements reacted to her allegations by denying the party rejects in any way the rights of women or in any way promotes genocidal policies, instead pointing out Vlaams Belang's support for Shoah and Armenian genocide commemorations. Vlaams Belang party leader Frank Vanhecke responded to Hirsi Ali's allegations by writing an open letter to Hirsi Ali, stating that she is "closer to the Vlaams Belang with her viewpoints than to the Flemish Liberals." He also rejected the likeness with the Hofstad Group, saying that his party "has never and nowhere called for violence." The Vlaams Belang reacted to the retirement of Hirsi Ali from Dutch politics by stating that the party has "respect for the way she has conducted and promoted the debate in the Netherlands with respect to Islam, female oppression and failed integration."

Opposition to denominational or faith schools

In the Netherlands about half of all education is provided by sponsored religious schools, most of them Catholic or Protestant, for historical reasons. Ayaan Hirsi Ali stated in November 2003 that no religious school should receive government financing. This brought her into conflict with Hans Wiegel, a prominent former VVD leader.

She went further in an interview with the London newspaper the Evening Standard in 2007, saying "Close the Islamic faith schools today. Britain is sleepwalking into a society that could be ruled by Sharia law within decades unless Islamic schools are shut down and young Muslims are instead made to integrate and accept Western liberal values. We have to show the next generation of Muslims, the children, that they have a choice, and to do that — to have any hope whatsoever — we have to close down the Islamic faith schools." However, she argued, ‘I haven’t seen anybody coming out of a Catholic or Jewish school advocating violence against women or homosexuals, or wanting to murder innocent people in the name of their religion.’

Development aid

The Netherlands has always been one of the most prominent countries that support aiding developing countries. As the spokesperson of the VVD in the parliament on this matter, Hirsi Ali said that the current development aid policy did not work to increase prosperity, peace and stability in the developing countries: "The VVD believes that Dutch international aid has failed until now, as measured by poverty reduction, famine reduction, life expectancy and the promotion of peace."

Terrorism

In the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant of April 8, 2006 she proposed the special screening of any Muslim applying for any job for possible links with terrorist groups.

Immigration

In 2003 Hirsi Ali worked together with fellow VVD MP Geert Wilders for several months. They questioned the government about immigration policy. In reaction to the UNDP Arab Human Development Report Hirsi Ali asked the following question of Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the Minister without Portfolio for Development Cooperation Agnes van Ardenne. Together with parliamentarian Geert Wilders she asked the government to pay attention to the consequences for Dutch policy concerning the limitation of immigration from the Arab world to Europe, and in particular The Netherlands.

Although she always publicly supported the policy of VVD minister Rita Verdonk regarding limited immigration, privately she was not supportive, as she explained in an interview for Opzij. In parliament, she supported the way Verdonk handled the Pasic case, although privately she felt that Pasic should have been allowed to stay. On the night before the debate, she phoned Verdonk to tell her that she herself had lied when she fled to the Netherlands, just like Pasic. Verdonk responded that if she had been minister at that time, she would have deported Hirsi Ali. Subsequent actions of Verdonk led to the possibility of revoking Hirsi Ali's Dutch citizenship. The ensuing political upheaval ultimately led to the fall of the second Balkenende cabinet.

In the Opzij interview, Hirsi Ali also said she supported a general pardon and the granting of Dutch citizenship for a group of 26,000 refugees, who had spent more than five years in the Netherlands without hearing about the status of their asylum. The VVD forbade her to speak her mind on this issue.

Since leaving the Dutch parliament, Hirsi Ali has made further statements in support of restrictive immigration policies. She made her statements on this subject on 1 November 2006 in the television program Aspekte on the German TV station ZDF. She said that she feared that Muslim immigrants, once in the majority, would introduce Sharia legislation.

Israel and the Palestinians

"I visited Israel a few years ago, primarily to understand how it dealt so well with so many immigrants from different origins", Hirsi Ali says. "My main impression was that Israel is a liberal democracy. In the places I visited, including Jerusalem as well as Tel Aviv and its beaches, I saw that men and women are equal. One never knows what happens behind the scenes, but that is how it appears to the visitor. The many women in the army are also very visible."

"I understood that a crucial element of success is the unifying factor among immigrants to Israel. Whether one arrives from Ethiopia or Russia, or one's grandparents immigrated from Europe, what binds them is being Jewish. Such a bond is lacking in the Netherlands. Our immigrants' background is diverse and also differs greatly from that of the Netherlands, including religion."

As for Israel's problems, Hirsi Ali says, "From my superficial impression, the country also has a problem with fundamentalists. The ultra-Orthodox will cause a demographic problem because these fanatics have more children than the secular and the regular Orthodox."

On Palestinians: "I have visited the Palestinian quarters in Jerusalem as well. Their side is dilapidated, for which they blame the Israelis. In private, however, I met a young Palestinian who spoke excellent English. There were no cameras and no notebooks. He said the situation was partly their own fault, with much of the money sent from abroad to build Palestine being stolen by corrupt leaders".

"When I start to speak in the Netherlands about the corruption of the Palestinian Authority and the role of Arafat in the tragedy of Palestine, I do not get a large audience. Often one is talking to a wall. Many people reply that Israel first has to withdraw from the territories, and then all will be well with Palestine."

On the way Israel is perceived in the Netherlands: "The crisis of Dutch socialism can be sized up in its attitudes toward both Islam and Israel. It holds Israel to exceptionally high moral standards. The Israelis, however, will always do well, because they themselves set high standards for their actions.

"The standards for judging the Palestinians, however, are very low. Most outsiders remain silent on all the problems in their territories. That helps the Palestinians become even more corrupt than they already are. Those who live in the territories are not allowed to say anything about this because they risk being murdered by their own people."

Awards

Publications

  • The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam (2004) ISBN 0743288335 . Translated from the original Dutch version De Maagdenkooi. A collection of essays and lectures from 2003–2004, combined with her personal experiences as a translator working for the NMS. The book focuses on the position of women in Islam.
  • Infidel (2007) ISBN 0743289684 . Translated from the Dutch version Mijn Vrijheid. An autobiography published in Dutch in September 2006 by publisher Augustus, Amsterdam and Antwerp, 447 pages, ISBN-10 90 457 0112x/ISBN-13 978 90 457, and in English in February 2007. It was edited by Richard Miniter. Like The Caged Virgin, this work has had respectful but unenthusiastic reviews in the Times Literary Supplement.
  • forthcoming: Short Cuts to Enlightenment, a philosophical fantasy in which Muhammad wakes up in the New York Public Library and is "challenged by John Stuart Mill, Frederick Hayek and Karl Popper, [Hirsi Ali's] favourite liberal thinkers".
Selected articles

See also

Notes and references

  1. "Ayaan Hirsi Ali terug in Nederland". NRC Handelsblad. 2007-10-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. "A Bitter Dutch Treat". TCS Daily. 2007-11-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. Why We Don't Hear About the Conflict in the Ogaden: When an American reporter started digging, he was forced out of Ethiopia Sept. 5, 2007
  4. ^ 40-minute investigative Dutch documentry on Ayaan Hirsi Ali with English subtitles. part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 by Zembla. Broadcast on KRO on 11 May 2006. See also transcript.
  5. ^ Linklater, Alexander (2005-05-17). "Danger woman". Guardian Unlimited. The Guardian. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Text "Retrieved January 7 2007" ignored (help)
  6. "To submit to the Book is to submit to their Hell", extract of speech in Sydney Morning Herald 4 June 2007
  7. ^ Cohen, David (2 February 2007). "Violence is inherent in Islam - it is a cult of death". Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, Islamophobia Watch. Retrieved 2008-01-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. Hirsi Ali, Ayaan, Infidel,2007, page 188.
  9. VVDAyaan Hirsi Ali's statement to the press
  10. Hirsi Ali weblog, "Lancering kritische website over Zembla", June 27, 2006
  11. Ali dispute brings down Dutch government, Financial Times, June 30, 2006
  12. "To submit to the Book is to submit to their Hell", extract of speech in Sydney Morning Herald 4 June 2007
  13. The Islamic Challenge: Politics and Religion in Western Europe, Klausen, J., New York: Oxford University Press, 2005; "She wasn't forced into a marriage. She had an amicable relationship with her husband, as well as with the rest of her family. It was not true that she had to hide from her family for years."
  17. Ayaan Hirsi Ali niet vervolgd, Volkskrant, April 24, 2003
  18. Hirsi Ali, Ayaan (2007). Infidel. Free Press. pp. 337–343. ISBN 978-0-7432-8968-9. Infidel (book)
  19. Submission, on Google Video 2005-04-29
  20. Klausen, J Battling the racists, Expatica, May 12, 2006 Retrieved March 24 2007.
  21. Slaughter And 'Submission' March 13, 2005
  22. Danger woman May 17, 2005
  23. Dutch MP defies Muslim pressure - 24 January 2006
  24. Werkstraf voor 'Hirsi Ali-rappers', nu.nl, 27 January 2005
  25. Geen Iraanse atoombom toelaten, De Standaard. (Dutch)
  26. Ayaan Hirsi Ali betreurt zelfcensuur Europa, De Standaard. (Dutch)
  27. The Caged Virgin—Holland's shameful treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Christopher Hitchens, May 8, 2006. Retrieved March 24 2007.
  28. De heilige Ayaan, Zembla, May 11, 2006
  29. Liberals don't care Hirsi Ali lied to get asylum in 1992, Expatica, May 12, 2006 Retrieved March 24, 2007.
  30. Hirsi Ali verlässt die Niederlande, Der Spiegel, May 15, 2006
  31. Hirsi Ali will die Niederlande verlassen, Tagesschau, May 15 2006
  32. Astrid ontmoet Ayaan (PDF), VARA TV Magazine, December 7, 2002
  33. Hirsi Ali, Ayaan (2007). Infidel. Free Press. pp. 298, 338. ISBN 978-0-7432-8968-9. Infidel (book)
  34. Onderzoek bepleit naar Hirsi Ali, NOS, May 13
  35. Hirsi Ali, Ayaan (2007). Infidel. Free Press. p. 343. ISBN 978-0-7432-8968-9. Infidel (book)
  36. Hirsi Ali to leave Netherlands for job with US think tank, Expatica, May 15
  37. Press conference Ayaan Hirsi Ali, VVD Website, May 16, 2006
  38. Announcement of resignation as MP (Tweede-Kamerfractie / Persverklaring), in English Trouw, 16 May 2006
  39. Khaled Diab, "Out but not down", Al-Ahram Weekly, 25 May 2006
  40. Haroon Siddiqui,"Why the jig is up for Hirsi Ali in Holland", The Toronto Star, 21 May 2006
  41. Laila Lalami," The Missionary Position", The Nation, 1 June 2006
  42. Rebecca Seal,"A good case, a bad argument", The Observer, 25 June 2006
  43. Salafi Manhaj, "The Travesty of 'Ayaan Hirsi 'Ali', on page 17 of this article", 20 August 2006
  44. Moslims blij met vertrek Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Elsevier, May 15
  45. Van Aartsen: Vertrek pijnlijk voor Nederland, Telegraaf
  46. America to welcome Hirsi Ali with open arms, Expatica, May 18 2006
  47. Somali in The Hague Faces a More Personal Attack, New York Times, May 23, 2006
  48. Brieven bevestigen risico's Hirsi Ali, nu.nl, May 30
  49. Brief minister Verdonk over naturalisatie mevrouw Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Rita Verdonk, June 27, 2006
  50. Hirsi Ali, Ayaan (2007). Infidel. Free Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-7432-8968-9. Infidel (book)
  51. a translation of the letter
  52. Israël is de frontstaat in de oorlog tegen het islamitische fascisme, Leon de Winter, August 8, 2006
  53. "AEI - Scholars & Fellows". American Enterprise Institute for Policy Research. Retrieved 2007-01-07.
  54. "Der Spiegel Online International". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 2006-05-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  55. "Hirsi Ali under threat in US". Expatica. Retrieved 2007-03-27. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  56. "Noted Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali Receives Her Green Card" (PDF). U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  57. Pittsburgh Tribune April 22, 2007
  58. Only One Side Of The Story Feb 26, 2007
  59. Ayaan Hirsi Ali Security Trust
  60. To submit to the book is to exist in their hell June 4, 2007
  61. New Yorker Festival website
  62. Dutch article link: 'Ik geloof niet meer'
  64. "Ayaan Hirsi Ali". PEN American Center. Retrieved 2007-01-07. Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia on November 13, 1969.
  65. Moving stories: Ayaan Hirsi Ali - 23 December 2003
  66. Khaled Shawkat, "Dutch MP Creates Seismic Waves by Insulting Prophet Muhammad", Islam Online, 27 January 2006
  67. 'Everyone Is Afraid to Criticize Islam' February 6, 2006
  68. Profile: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, The Blanket, 12 March 2006
  69. Brendan Bernhard (May 3, 2006). "An Enlightenment Fundamentalist". New York Sun Newspaper. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  70. "Dutch Activist Discusses Islam" (Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Harvard), The Harvard Crimson, May 10, 2006
  71. Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jan 4, 2007
  72. Infidel: An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, February 2007
  73. Taking the fight to Islam 4 February 2007
  74. The Infidel Speaks February 12 2007
  75. Ian Buruma: Sacred freedom, Financial Times, 5 August 2005
  76. Profile: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, BBC News, May 16, 2006
  77. Fareena Alam,"Enemy of the Faith", New Statesman, 19 July 2006
  78. Dr. Hesham A. Hassaballa,"Ayaan Hirsi Ali: A One-Note Islam Critic", The American Muslim, 2 March 2007
  79. Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks with Rachael Kohn at a Sydney Writers Festival event - The Spirit of Things ABC Radio National June 2007
  80. Book review of Infidel, 14 February 2007, New York Times
  81. Christopher Hitchens "She's No Fundamentalist", Slate 5 March 2007
  82. Rogier van Bakel 'The Trouble Is the West' (interview w. Ayaan Hirsi Ali), Reason online, November 2007
  83. LJN: AT0303, Rechtbank 's-Gravenhage, KG 05/123: "Daarmee is zij in het kader van de haar toegestane overdrijving binnen de grenzen van het toelaatbare gebleven. Het is echter de vraag of een veelvuldig gebruik van deze of soortgelijke woorden nog wel zal vallen binnen de grenzen van de proportionaliteit en subsidiariteit. Hoewel gedaagde heeft aangevoerd dat het gebruik van deze termen precies illustreert dat de Koran géén praktische handleiding is voor het dagelijkse leven, wordt geoordeeld dat zij deze zienswijze ook op andere (doeltreffender) wijze en met betere bewoordingen kan illustreren."
  84. De Verdieping - Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Trouw, January 25, 2003: "Mohammed is, gemeten naar onze westerse maatstaven, een perverse man. Een tiran. Hij is tegen vrije meningsuiting. Als je niet doet wat hij zegt, loopt het verkeerd met je af. Dat doet mij denken aan al die megalomane machthebbers uit het Midden-Oosten: Bin Laden, Khomeini, Saddam. Vind je het vreemd dat Saddam Hoessein er is? Mohammed is zijn voorbeeld. Mohammed is een voorbeeld voor alle moslimmannen. Vind je het vreemd dat zoveel moslimmannen gewelddadig zijn?"
  85. Interview - It's Your Life or Your Thoughts, Sappho November 23, 2003
  86. RTL"Make circumcision for boys an offense", October 4, 2004
  87. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel (New York: Free Press, 2007): page 140
  88. Journal of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's lecture at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
  89. NOS Journaal, official Dutch newsrail, 8 pm, August 30, 2006. "Met gelijkgezinden kun je alleen maar een kerkdienst* houden, en zoals bekend, houd ik niet van kerkdiensten." "Kerkdienst" means church service of a Christian denomination, such as Mass (liturgy) and cannot be used in Dutch to describe a Muslim prayer service.
  90. The freedom of speech – transcript of a speech given in Berlin on February 9, 2006
  91. Paul Belien "What Can This 'European of the Year' Teach Us?" Brussels Journal, 5 January 2006 Retrieved March 25 2007.
  92. Gazet van Antwerpen (1 February 2006)
  93. Hirsi Ali gaat, Bouyeri blijft, Vlaams Belang, May 17, 2006
  94. Snijden in bilaterale ontwikkelingshulp, Wereldomroep, November 19, 2003: "De VVD is van mening dat het Nederlands ontwikkelingsbeleid tot op heden is mislukt, gemeten aan armoedebestrijding, bestrijding van honger, aan levensverwachting en het bevorderen van vrede."
  95. Confrontatie, geen verzoening, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, De Volkskrant, April 8, 2006
  96. ^ Het Nieuwe Leven van Ayaan, Opzij, June 2006
  97. Hirsi Ali stoort zich aan ophef Taïda, Elsevier, March 3, 2006
  98. ^ "'Ik was een linkse vrouw in een rechtse partij'; Ayaan Hirsi Ali kijkt terug en vooruit". Opzij. 2006-07-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); line feed character in |title= at position 49 (help)
  99. Manfred Gerstenfeld (August 3, 2006). "Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Israel". Jerusalem Post. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  100. Larsen, Jesper (2004-11-21). "Venstre gav frihedspris til van Goghs inspirator" (in Danish). Berlingske Tidende. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  101. "Hirsi Ali i Odense er urealistisk" (in Danish). TV 2. 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  102. ^ "Stormende bifald til hemmelig gæst" (in Danish). Venstre party magazine, Liberalt Overblik. December 2006. p. 13. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  103. Jørgensen, Liv Arnth (2005-11-19). "Ayaan Hirsi Ali takkede for frihedspris" (in Danish). Berlingske Tidende. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  104. Manji, Irshad. "The 2005 TIME 100: Ayaan Hirsi Ali". TIME. Retrieved 2007-01-07.
  105. madrid.orgPhoto that show the moment when the president of the Region of Madrid gives the award to Hirsi Ali
  106. Diplom fra HRS til Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Human Rights Service Diplom fra HRS til Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Human Rights Service, June 23, 2005
  107. Template:Sv icon Demokratipriset till Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Liberal People's Party
  108. RD European of the Year 2006 Reader's Digest, 2006
  109. Moral Courage Award to Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Shoaib Choudhury American Jewish Committee, May 4, 2006
  110. Goldwater Award Dinner 2007
  111. Mijn vrijheid, Official book website
  112. The Infidel: The Story of My Enlightenment, Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved March 24, 2007.
  113. TLS 6 April 2007 page 33, review by David Morgan

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