Ayaan Hirsi Ali

'We Are Making Fools of Ourselves in the Eyes of the World'
by Leon de Winter

Fear of fanatical Islamists prompted Ayaan Hirsi Ali to leave the Netherlands, her adopted home, and now she has been forced to return. Paying for her bodyguards in the United States is too expensive for the Dutch government -- what a disgrace.

Amsterdam - There are exactly five people that the Dutch government has to protect against death threats from radical Islamists.

This sort of protection is expensive. Society bears the costs because freedom of opinion, a cornerstone of our culture, is on the line. The extremists, for their part, are prepared to risk their own lives to kill those under government protection.

The costs of protection are completely disproportionate to the outcome: the continued existence of our values and norms.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the sixth person granted protection by the Dutch government. She began receiving threats when, as a Dutch citizen and member of the parliament, she spoke out critically against political Islam. After the so-called "passport scandal," when the Dutch minister of immigration and integration threatened to confiscate her passport after Ayaan had been accused of lying about her name and birth date when she first arrived in the Netherlands, she moved to the United States, which precipitated a sharp upswing in her career within only a few months. She wrote a bestseller and landed a job at the American Enterprise Institute. But as a Dutch citizen, Ayaan does not qualify for protection in the United States under US laws and regulations.

Contrary to what many in the Netherlands believe about the success of her autobiography, she is not wealthy. She could not pay for the kind of protection she needs out of her own pocket -- no matter how much she would like to do so. Besides, the Dutch government apparently failed to find the right US officials with whom they could have reached an agreement. Under a decision by Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Balin, the protection paid for by the Dutch government expired on Oct. 1. Ayaan returned to the Netherlands, because without protection she doesn't have a day left to live.

How much is her life worth, according to Minister Balin's budget?

When someone in the Justice Ministry leaked classified documents on Ayaan's protection to the newspaper NRC Handelsblad, it set off a media circus. Neither Ayaan nor anyone directly associated with her was behind all the attention she is currently attracting. She would have preferred to go on living quietly in the Netherlands, and she would have liked to quietly work out a solution with Hirsch Balin.

How much is her life worth, according to Minister Balin's budget? How does he calculate this? These are politically sensitive questions, questions that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher never asked when it came to the life of Salman Rushdie, wherever he happened to be.

Dutch society has no choice in this case. Canceling Ayaan's protection would be the equivalent of a death sentence. She can lead a relatively quiet life in the United States, but not in the Netherlands. And because she is so well known in the Netherlands and practically lives the life of a prisoner, not even able to go out on the street, the most humane solution is to continue to provide her with protection in America.

When commenting about the fact that the Netherlands paid for Ayaan's protection in the United States, parliamentarian Sybrand van Haersma Buma of the Christian Democrats can't help but admit that "it was a transitional solution, one that cannot last indefinitely."

How many days will he give Ayaan? Another week to live? A month? And then it would be time for the butchers of fundamentalist Islam to move in?

Whether we think she is nice, kind or opportunist, we cannot afford anything happening to her. The Dutch government is making a problem out of something that shouldn't be one, something that only causes chaos and sorrow.

Both Hirsi Ali and Hirsch Balin can only lose. The winners are the extremists who laugh about our inability to offer this courageous woman quiet and safety. You see, it's too expensive. In fact, though, it makes you want to weep.

Translated from the Dutch by Verena Bardtholdt

Via der Spiegel International.

For the time being, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is living in a safe house.

And the free speech wonks of the Kooky Kult of Koslam/New Democrat Party are . . . silent.

Also at Atlas Shrugs.

Say What???

Put this one in the "no shi*?!?" file.

'Honour' killings linked to terror groups
"Honour" killings in Britain have been linked with extremist groups abroad by a the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The CPS told a BBC investigation that Islamist terror groups were behind the murder five years ago of Heshu Yones, 16, who was stabbed to death by her father, Abdalla Yones.

It discovered that Mr Yones had associations with a Kurdish nationalist organisation which tried to secure his release on bail while he was on remand.

Religion of Peace™

There's more.

Police and Prosecutors Target 'Hotspots'

Special units to crack down on honour killing

Dedicated teams of senior prosecutors are to be deployed in the UK's honour killing hotspots in the wake of the failings exposed this week by the case of a young Kurdish woman murdered by her family.

The prosecutors, who have all had experience of complex organised crime cases, will start work this month as part of an overhaul of how cases are handled. The move is designed to boost conviction rates and improve protection for victims.

The Crown Prosecution Service has revealed the changes after the justice system was criticised for doing too little to protect vulnerable women. Senior police officers told the Guardian that there are systemic failures in how cases are handled - measures proposed years ago have been shelved, delayed or ignored, they warn.

Chief constables and the Home Office are also working together with other agencies to ensure that women in danger are identified early and dealt with properly to improve protection for victims. Plans to be published soon by the Association of Chief Police Officers will tell forces to follow new risk assessment models to ensure women are taken seriously if they complain of family violence.

The changes come after Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year-old Kurd, was murdered by her father and uncle because they disapproved of her boyfriend who was not a strict Muslim and was not of their tribe.

Don't tell the Progressives but it's merely traditional family values of the Religion of Peace.

Little Joy In Hamastan

They wanted it.

They got it.

And it damned sure ain't no Toyota.

Hamas flags flying in triumph over the Gaza Strip represent a historic blow to Palestinian national unity as well as an end to already slim hopes for any sort of meaningful peace process with Israel.

Barring some dramatic reversal after the latest fighting - such as the improbable survival of the Hamas-Fatah coalition government - 1.4 million Palestinians in what is now being dubbed "Hamastan" will not only be physically cut off from their compatriots in the West Bank but will also be ruled by a movement that advocates armed resistance and is boycotted by Israel and the international community.

Neither side will be in a position to conduct negotiations with Israel or anyone else, killing off any hopes of urgently needed momentum to the current stalemate. "It leaves the Palestinians fragmented and very weak," said a senior Arab diplomat. Iran and Syria, which support Hamas, have boosted their influence.

Our friend Carl in Jerusalem has more.

Members of the Congressional Democratic leadership were unavailable for comment.

Continuing to Deny the Obvious

Ah, the Caribbean, where there's an endless supply of sand to bury your head in.

Caribbean has greater dangers than radical Islam

Keep dismissing the threat, then demand answers when a plot does come to fruition.

An alleged plot to blow up New York's main airport has sparked fears about militant Islam in the Caribbean but experts say the region's main security risks remain drug gangs and smuggling rackets.

U.S. authorities said on Saturday they had charged four men of Guyanese and Trinidadian origin of plotting to blow up fuel installations at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

U.S. officials and commentators have pondered whether the Caribbean, more commonly associated with fine rums and cricket on the beach, was now an overlooked Afghanistan, teeming with Islamic radicals plotting attacks against U.S. interests.

Muslim leaders and analysts in the region insist the New York plot, if ultimately proved, would be nothing more than an isolated scheme planned by highly unprofessional conspirators.

"The main cross border concerns continue to be drug running, financial crime and people trafficking," said Chris Zambelis, Caribbean expert at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington.

"There is still no evidence of anything emerging that requires more forceful action," he said when asked about the growth of radical Islam.

It never seems to occur to the experts that part of the plotting is to appear disorganized or hapless.

Swiss Tolerance Dissipates

Even the Swiss are tiring of the Islamists.

Swiss reputation for tolerance under threat

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's reputation as a haven of tolerance for immigrants has been undermined in recent weeks by calls for a ban on new minarets, a mysterious synagogue blaze and neo-Nazi threats to disrupt national day celebrations.

Switzerland is known for public order and efficiency. Its neutral status and high living standards, as well as its need for lower cost workers, have historically attracted refugees from conflicts around Europe and the world.

But with rising immigration -- and lack of integration caused partly by tight laws on handing out Swiss passports -- religious and ethnic tension has been on the rise, particularly focusing on Muslims.

"There is always this feeling that Switzerland is a little island and you daren't let anything in because it will destabilize it," said Clive Church, an expert on Swiss politics, recently retired from the University of Kent.

By the end of 2005, more than a fifth of Switzerland's 7.5 million residents were foreigners, a higher proportion than in any other European country except Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, according to the Federal Statistics Office.

Most of those are from Europe, with large communities from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia, many of those Muslims who fled the conflicts there.

"Radical Islam is a huge foreign political factor," said Swiss culture and politics expert Jonathan Steinberg of the University of Pennsylvania. "None of the immigration before constituted an international threat. Now they do."

Oooh. Seething to follow.