Category: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Since the political earthquake one year ago, when the voters of France and the Netherlands voted No to the European Union’s constitutional treaty, most of the headlines have focused on the chaotic state of French politics. Yesterday was a reminder the Dutch are also undergoing an extraordinary period of national soul-searching in which attitudes to the EU, to immigration, and to religious tolerance and fundamentalism are all called into question. The revelation that Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born Dutch member of parliament, and an outspoken campaigner for Muslim women’s rights, had lied in her original application for asylum in the

AMSTERDAM — Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk was compelled in the early hours of Wednesday morning to reconsider whether Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Dutch citizen. A majority of the political parties in parliament backed two motions on the issue. One calls on Verdonk to reconsider within six weeks whether Hirsi Ali is a Dutch citizen. The second instructs the Minister to grant Hirsi Ali accelerated naturalisation if she finds she is not a citizen of the Netherlands. During eleven hours of debate on Tuesday, Verdonk parried criticism from parties on both the left and right of the political

The following is a statement made by Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali upon her resignation from the House of Representatives. I came to Holland in the summer of 1992 because I wanted to be able to determine my own future. I didn’t want to be forced into a destiny that other people had chosen for me, so I opted for the protection of the rule of law. Here in Holland, I found freedom and opportunities, and I took those opportunities to speak out against religious terror. In January 2003, at the invitation of the VVD party, I became a member

PARIS, May 15 — The Dutch government on Monday abruptly threatened to revoke the citizenship of one of the country’s most prominent members of Parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born woman who arrived as a refugee 14 years ago. The minister of immigration, Rita Verdonk, said Ms. Hirsi Ali had provided inaccurate information when applying for political asylum in 1992 and seeking Dutch citizenship in 1997. As a result, the minister said, both applications were invalid. Ms. Hirsi Ali has been given six weeks to respond. The move is likely to provoke a widespread reaction because Ms. Hirsi Ali, 36,

AMSTERDAM — Liberal party MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is leaving the Dutch parliament in September and moving to the United States. Insiders confirmed a report on the website of Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ on Monday about the move. Hirsi Ali has been on a speaking tour in the US and is due to make an official announcement on Tuesday. She is going to work for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative Washington think tank. The institute was founded in 1943 and is seen as one of the most important advisors to the government of George Bush. Somali-born Hirsi Ali

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch legislator who has championed the rights of Muslim women, is returning from a book tour to a firestorm for lying on her asylum application when she fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage. Hirsi Ali, 36, said Saturday she was puzzled by the uproar since she publicly acknowledged the false refugee application when she stood for parliament in 2002. “Have they all gone mad?” she said, accusing her rivals of a political vendetta. “Yes, I did lie to get asylum in Holland. This is public knowledge since

The Somali-born Dutch MP who describes herself as a “dissident of Islam” has backed the Danish newspaper that first printed the Prophet Muhammad cartoons. Ayaan Hirsi Ali said it was “correct to publish the cartoons” in Jyllands Posten and “right to republish them”. Her film-maker colleague Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim extremist in a case that shocked the Netherlands. Ms Hirsi Ali, speaking in Berlin, said that “today the open society is challenged by Islamism“. She added: “Within Islam exists a hardline Islamist movement that rejects democratic freedoms and wants to destroy them.” Ms Hirsi Ali criticised