Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a member of parliament in the Netherlands. You might remember her as the woman who worked with Theo van Gogh on a short film depicting the abuse of Muslim women. van Gogh was assassinated by a Muslim militant for that work in 2004. Ms. Hirsi Ali continues to receive police protection because of death threats aimed at her.
The immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, has decided to revoke Ms. Hirsi Ali's citizenship after a television program focused on lies she told when she sought political asylum in 1992 and citizenship in 1997.
"Clearly taken aback by Ms. Verdonk's actions, Ms. Hirsi Ali noted that she had long since admitted that she changed her birth date and her last name when she arrived in the Netherlands because she was fleeing an arranged marriage. She said Dutch social workers had recommended that to gain refugee status she claim to be fleeing Somalia, her homeland, where a civil war raged, rather than say that she had been living with relatives, who were refugees in Kenya.
In an interview on Monday she insisted that she had discussed all this with the leaders of her party — to which the immigration minister also belongs — when she was invited to run for a seat in Parliament."
Ms. Verdonk is following the rules, she says, but her critics say that she has the option to exercise discretion in applying the rules.
It looks like this is a case of the Netherlands bowing to pressure from the Muslim fanatics. Ms. Hirsi Ali will be coming to the United States, where I hope we will welcome her with open arms and she will not have to live in fear for her life.
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---Katie
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