AYAAN HIRSI ALI COMES BACK TO THE US

The brave critic of Islam is now back in the US again, and this time, she's thankfully got security funding to back her (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin). But is Holland retreating on their image as a free country that they'd seemed to cultivate in the years gone by?

Last week, the Dutch government abruptly cut off her security funding, forcing her to return briefly to Holland.

The reasons given were financial, but there was clearly more to it. To put it bluntly, many in Holland find her too loud, too public in her condemnation of radical Islam. She doesn’t sound conciliatory, in the modern continental fashion. Compare her description of Islam as “brutal, bigoted, fixated on controlling women” with the German judge who, citing the Koran, in January told a Muslim woman trying to obtain a divorce from her violent husband that she should have “expected” her husband to deploy the corporal punishment his religion approves. Hirsi Ali herself says she is often told, in so many words, that she’s “brought her problems on herself.” Now the Dutch prime minister openly says he wants her to deal with them alone.

Fortunately, Hirsi Ali is already back in the United States, under professional, full-time, well-resourced and for the moment privately organized protection. But this week, the Dutch parliament is due to debate her status once again. And once again, the Dutch will be confronted with the facts that Hirsi Ali remains a Dutch citizen; that the threat to her life comes at least in part from groups based in Holland; that she lives abroad because the Dutch political situation forced her to; and that when she speaks out, she does so in defense of what she believes to be Dutch values.

Whether or not the Dutch like it — and I’m sure most of them don’t — revoking her police protection will send a clear message to the world: that the Dutch are no longer willing to protect their own traditions of free speech. Resources will be found, and she will recover. But will Holland?

If the Dutch are in any ways taking a similar path to that of Britain, by living in a bubble and acting as if the victim/target is the one to blame, then how can they expect to recover?

Christopher Hitchens has come out in defense of Hirsi Ali (via Hot Air), and says that America should stand behind her.

Here's Hirsi Ali's AEI page with info for anyone who'd like to know how to contribute to funding her security needs.

REAL STORY BEHIND HIRSI ALI'S RETURN TO HOLLAND

Little Green Footballs finds that the Expatica article from earlier was inaccurate - it wasn't that the US authorities had actually refused to pay for Ayaan Hirsi Ali's protection, but that she didn't have the proper legal status to receive it, and the Dutch government was the one refusing to pay for her security:

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.

I think the subject for debate now is to provide Hirsi Ali with proper legal status within the US that can enable her to get protection from US security sources, if she wants to continue to work and live in America. She should be given legal status, even if she does want to return to work in Holland.

US AUTHORITIES REFUSED TO FUND HIRSI ALI'S SECURITY; SHE HAD TO RETURN TO HOLLAND

Astounding but true (via Hot Air):

Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali returned to the Netherlands, Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad reported on Monday.

[...]

The former legislator for the Liberal VVD party was allegedly forced to leave the US as American authorities had refused to finance the expenses of her personal security measures.

So far, the Dutch government has paid all those expenses, but after more than a year of residency in the US, the Dutch allegedly said they were no longer willing to continue this arrangement.

While Europe does need this fine lady very much, the authorities in the US were wrong not to provide her with any security funding themselves. No protection for critics of Islam? Clearly, there is something rotten in the state of Denmark, or here, the way US authorities are being managed, and I think that in the next US election, this should be an issue.

MOVE OVER KEITH OLBERMANN

I've seen some bad interviews in my time...Dan Rather interviewing President Bush 41 on Iran-Contra comes to mind, or Harry Smith interviewing Tony Snow in recent months, but neither can compare to the utter rudeness and churlish behavior of Canadian "interviewer" (the quotes foreshadow things to come) Avi Lewis (not to be confused with Avi Green). This guy makes Keith Olbermann really look like Edward R. Murrow. Lewis recently interviewed Ayaan Hirsi Ali in a segment that has to be seen to be believed. Talk Radio host Dennis Prager has some pithy analysis of how Lewis is the perfect example of the mind-set of the Left. It also shows off the brilliance of Ali who handled the interview with grace and dignity. Listen and learn.