Goodbye, Hirshi Ali
So, Hirshi Ali is leaving the Netherlands to join a right-wing think tank in America. She has been ushered out of the Netherlands by a series of events that do little credit to that country (the one in which I currently live). First, she received death threats from radical Muslim groups, which took on a measure of seriousness following the murder of Theo van Gogh. Secondly, she recently lost a court battle to stay in her secure flat in The Hague, because her neighbors were afraid the building was not safe with Hirshi Ali living there. And finally -- the icing on the cake --, her fellow Liberal Democrat, Minister of Immigration Rita Verdonk, decided that Ms Ali no longer had a right to Dutch citizenship.
Hirshi Ali, it seems, lied on her citizenship application about her real surname and her date of birth. This was enough, according to Ms Verdonk, to strip Ms Hirshi Ali of her Dutch citizenship. One wonders whether it would have made any difference to her citizenship application if Hirshi Ali had stated her real surname and her real date of birth. After all, she did not conceal a criminal past or try to persuade Dutch immigration authorities that she was something she wasn't. She simply concealed her family name (apparently) for fear of reprisals and her age (to enhance her attractiveness to the opposite sex, presumably). What she did not do was commit any offence, one might assume, to warrant loss of her Dutch passport.
Be that as it may, Hirshi Ali has resigned her seat in Parliament and will emmigrate to the USA to work for the American Enterprise Institute. This, in itself, may be sufficient punishment. Presumably, given her undeniably right-wing views in many areas, particularly with regard to immigration and Islam, she will not have to suffer the fate of those whose views do not coincide with the current right-wing government of the USA: Uncle Sam Does Not Want You!
Her political activities in Holland have ranged from co-authoring the scenario of a film with Theo van Gogh about Islamic oppression of women to a constant barrage of epithets targeted not at individual fanatics but at Islamic culture in general. That this is borderline racism, even U.S. bloggers do not admit. Many see Hirshi Ali as a heroine, not as a rabble-rouser. The Belgium Flemish Block (or Flemish Interest, as they're currently known)has adopted her cause to promote their own quasi-racist politics.
Even moderate Andrew Sullivan has been quoting sources that lead back to the Flemish Block via the Brussels Journal. It is unfortunate that Hirshi Ali's cause has been tainted by such openly racist groups. Unfortunately, her own approach to this issue has been muddled by inferences that Islam -- not individual believers -- is to blame for the horrors that many women endure in some Islamic cultures, particularly in the Middle East.
By targeting Islam and not individuals within Islam, Hirshi Ali moves close to the racist line. Like many, she seems to believe that anyone who accepts Islam as a religious belief must also accept the darker side of that religion -- much like accusing Christians in America of approving of the pronouncements of Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. After all, one might argue, aren't Chistian fanatics who attack and kill abortion doctors first and foremost "Christians" and only secondly "fanatical individuals"?
Suffice it so say that I disagree with Hirshi Ali's politics, her approach to the problem of certain medieval Islamic practices and her confrontational approach to an entire civilization -- one that does not generally practice the cruder aspects of Islam (just as most Christians no longer believe in slavery or the obligation to kill homosexuals).
I think she is wrong in many respects. But, in one respect at least, she is right. She should not be stripped of her citizenship and sent packing from the Netherlands on a technical detail. She has earned a reputation as a strident and passionate warrior for a cause in which she believes passionately.
To deny her right to live peaceably in the Netherlands and to promote her view of Islamic practices is to deny the very essence of civil rights. Ironically, the fault lies not with the Dutch, but with a right-wing minister who cannot see the forest for the trees.
File+UnderHirshi+Ali The+Netherlands; Freedom+of+Speech
Hirshi Ali, it seems, lied on her citizenship application about her real surname and her date of birth. This was enough, according to Ms Verdonk, to strip Ms Hirshi Ali of her Dutch citizenship. One wonders whether it would have made any difference to her citizenship application if Hirshi Ali had stated her real surname and her real date of birth. After all, she did not conceal a criminal past or try to persuade Dutch immigration authorities that she was something she wasn't. She simply concealed her family name (apparently) for fear of reprisals and her age (to enhance her attractiveness to the opposite sex, presumably). What she did not do was commit any offence, one might assume, to warrant loss of her Dutch passport.
Be that as it may, Hirshi Ali has resigned her seat in Parliament and will emmigrate to the USA to work for the American Enterprise Institute. This, in itself, may be sufficient punishment. Presumably, given her undeniably right-wing views in many areas, particularly with regard to immigration and Islam, she will not have to suffer the fate of those whose views do not coincide with the current right-wing government of the USA: Uncle Sam Does Not Want You!
Her political activities in Holland have ranged from co-authoring the scenario of a film with Theo van Gogh about Islamic oppression of women to a constant barrage of epithets targeted not at individual fanatics but at Islamic culture in general. That this is borderline racism, even U.S. bloggers do not admit. Many see Hirshi Ali as a heroine, not as a rabble-rouser. The Belgium Flemish Block (or Flemish Interest, as they're currently known)has adopted her cause to promote their own quasi-racist politics.
Even moderate Andrew Sullivan has been quoting sources that lead back to the Flemish Block via the Brussels Journal. It is unfortunate that Hirshi Ali's cause has been tainted by such openly racist groups. Unfortunately, her own approach to this issue has been muddled by inferences that Islam -- not individual believers -- is to blame for the horrors that many women endure in some Islamic cultures, particularly in the Middle East.
By targeting Islam and not individuals within Islam, Hirshi Ali moves close to the racist line. Like many, she seems to believe that anyone who accepts Islam as a religious belief must also accept the darker side of that religion -- much like accusing Christians in America of approving of the pronouncements of Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. After all, one might argue, aren't Chistian fanatics who attack and kill abortion doctors first and foremost "Christians" and only secondly "fanatical individuals"?
Suffice it so say that I disagree with Hirshi Ali's politics, her approach to the problem of certain medieval Islamic practices and her confrontational approach to an entire civilization -- one that does not generally practice the cruder aspects of Islam (just as most Christians no longer believe in slavery or the obligation to kill homosexuals).
I think she is wrong in many respects. But, in one respect at least, she is right. She should not be stripped of her citizenship and sent packing from the Netherlands on a technical detail. She has earned a reputation as a strident and passionate warrior for a cause in which she believes passionately.
To deny her right to live peaceably in the Netherlands and to promote her view of Islamic practices is to deny the very essence of civil rights. Ironically, the fault lies not with the Dutch, but with a right-wing minister who cannot see the forest for the trees.
File+UnderHirshi+Ali The+Netherlands; Freedom+of+Speech
posted by J. DeVincent at 11:57 AM
2 comments
