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:
Matrix, the reactionary form of Islam that is practiced in some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, can be blamed on a culture. When the states of Georgia or Alabama segregated their schools or allowed lynchings would you not take aim at the culture of the entire state?
Hi, RC.
I'm not convinced that the "cultural" approach is rational. After all, at any given time there are many people who accept and many who reject certain cultural values.
Whites were in the majority for a long time in the South, but not every white accepted the separate but equal thesis.
The same is true with Muslims, particularly those who live in Europe. I'm told (but I cannot yet corroborate) that a majority European Muslims hardly go to church. Since most Muslims in Europe are Turkish -- and Turkey is a secular society -- this may not be surprising.
In the Netherlands I see little evidence of any "radicalization" within the Muslim community. A recent poll in Britain also showed that most Muslims do not support terrorism or radical groups such as Al Qaida.
In fact, since Serbrenica, one could argue that the Muslims in Europe are more often "victims" of terror than the cause of it.
The only countries where radical Muslims dare show their faces in public are those like Saudi Arabia, Iran and splinter groups like Hezbolla.
Cultures change, as we witnessed in America and as we are witnessing in Europe. Evolutionary biology tells us that humans are pretty much the same in their basic needs and wants -- family, friends, a reasonably secure life and prospects for the future -- all in the name of passing on their genes.
Suicide bombers do not pass on their genes. I think that most people, regardless of their cultural or religious affiliations, understand this very basic principle of life.
There is a movement in the States and Europe (which includes Hirshi Ali) that is bent on demonizing Muslims as such, rather than irrational religious practices in particular.
I think that is wrong -- and dangerous. If anything can persuade rational people to become terrorists, it is being treated like second-class citizens.
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