Posted on 06/27/2006 7:52:52 AM PDT by sergey1973
Somali-born former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is to be allowed to keep her Dutch citizenship despite lying in her asylum application in 1992. Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk was forced to make a U-turn after her calls for Ms Hirsi Ali to lose her citizenship met with criticism.
Ms Hirsi Ali resigned from parliament in May after Ms Verdonk's comments.
She came to prominence in 2004 after a Muslim extremist killed her film-maker colleague Theo van Gogh.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
PING !
Despite her other Lefty beliefs, I'd take her as a citizen here in a heartbeat. The war on fascist Islamic groups is the most important thing right now, and she gets that.
I heard a rumor that Ms. Hirsi Ali is headed for the United States and will join the American Enterprise Institute. Can anyone verify this story?
BTW, there's an outstanding new book called Menace in Europe, by Claire Berlinsky, that I warmly recommend. Among other things, Berlinsky tells the tale of Theo van Gogh and his friend Ms. Hirsi Ali -- and the extraordinary denial of the Dutch that they have an unassimilable immigrant problem (i.e., bloody-minded Islamists) that bodes ill for the survival of what remains of Dutch order.
She also does an absolutely masterful critique of the (seemingly pathological) German rock band "Rammstein." Berlinsky's main thesis is that the problems in Europe today (e.g., anti-Americanism, antisemitism, neo-Nazism, nihilism, denial, loss of faith with its attendant loss of reason, etc.) are directly and profoundly dangerous to America.
It's just a great book!
Yes, I've heard about this book--didn't read it, but I think I will. I heard too that Ayaan Hirsi Ali was offered to work for American Enterprise Institute. However, I didn't hear any more news on that. I'll be following the news and I'm sure AEI will let everyone know if Hirsi Ali will formally accept a job at AEI. She's a remarkable woman and real freedom fighter who deserves a strong and respectable public outlet such as American Enterprise Institute to express her views.
Agreed, sergey1973. She's also very courageous.
That certainly sounds like a compelling book! Thank you so much for the recommendation!
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, meanwhile, has said she is pleased with the decision by the minister and the Dutch cabinet. She will not, however, be returning to her parliamentary seat. She's still expected to leave the Netherlands later this summer to accept a job with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C.
RNW Internet translation (tpf)
Thanks, I'll be looking for it...
I understand her lying to the Dutch government when she applied for asylum there mainly had to do with the fact that she was fleeing a Somalian arranged marriage to a man twice her age, and also the dire threat of female circumcision. Under similar circumstances, I would have fled -- and probably would have lied -- too! :^)
She's an amazing woman. If AEI has recruited her, that might mean they are beefing up their capabilities in the Islamic/cultural departments. And we sure need capabilities in those departments these days.
Ms. Hirsi Ali stands athwart both worlds, Islam and the West. This is what makes her so fascinating to me. (I understand she has renounced Islam, which fact paints her a tempting target for your typical Islamofascist madman....)
I pray she may live long and prosper.
Again, thank you so much for writing BurbankKarl!
Berlinsky is an American (a rather fetching looking one, too, I might add -- quite beautiful) who has spent a great deal of her time out of country. Now she is said to divide her time between Paris and Turkey. She is a keen observer, and extraordinarily fair-minded and forthright. She goes over Europe country-by-country; finds signs of hope in Marseilles, and reason for despair in Hamburg. She concludes that European unity is an illusion....
Berlinsky picks up on a theme that you know I follow, from Voegelin: the impact of gnostic movements in human history, and the "second realities" they establish. Check out especially what she has to say about the various incarnations of "Jose Bove" -- an established historical "type" by now it would seem. The current holder of the "Jose Bove" chair is a crafty French sheep farmer who claims to be a non-political anti-globalist (now there's an oxymoron!), and so has been sainted by Green parties everywhere. I gather he put on a really big show at the WTO meeting in Seattle not too long ago....
An extraordinarily interesting, far-ranging, and perceptive book, IMHO. Berlinsky makes a great case for attentiveness to developments in Europe, seeing what's happening there as the American future, if we're not careful. Indeed, the progressive left of our own country is already a fifth column whose entire purpose is to recreate America in the European mold.
But if one looks soberly at developments in Europe and their implications, one might conclude this is a future most desperately to be avoided.
Enjoy!!!
You would love this book. Alamo-Girl. It's first-rate stuff....
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