By Ian Bickerton in Amsterdam
Published: May 16 2006 09:28 | Last updated: May 16 2006 13:56
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somalia-born Dutch politician whose criticism of Islam triggered death-threats, on Tuesday said that she will resign her parliamentary seat after announcing that she intends to leave the Netherlands for the US amid a scandal over her citizenship and security fears.
The politician said that she was “saddened but relieved” to be leaving.
Ms Hirsi Ali was reported to have been offered a job with the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, a neo-conservative public policy think-tank, in September, having agreed security arrangements with US authorities.
However were she to lose her Dutch citizenship it could complicate her move to the US.
The decision to resign comes after an investigation questioned her right to Dutch citizenship, which she was granted in 1997, because she lied to Dutch immigration officials in her asylum application five years earlier.
Ms Hirsi Ali also faces eviction in August from a safe-house in The Hague where she had taken refuge because of death threats after a court upheld protests from neighbours concerned at the potential security risk.
The affair is a huge embarrassment to the liberal VVD party, which welcomed her with open arms in 2002, and to the Dutch government. It is likely to be seen as further evidence of a hardening of traditionally tolerant Dutch attitudes towards immigration.
Ms Hirsi Ali’s campaign against radical Islam in the face of threats to her life, made her an icon internationally, and earned accolades from presidents, politicians and human rights organisations.
She was forced into hiding in late 2004 following threats from radical Islamists, including the murderer of director Theo van Gogh. She had worked with Van Gogh on the film Submission, which criticised Islam’s treatment of women. Her refusal to halt her campaign against radical Islam won international acclaim.
Ms Hirsi Ali, 36, claimed political colleagues in the Liberal VVD party were aware that she had given a false name and age to secure asylum in 1992, before the party selected her as a candidate in the 2003 general election.
Ms Hirsi Ali was born in 1969 in Somalia as Ayaan Hirsi Magan. Her father was a political opponent of Somali dictator Siad Barre.
A television programme broadcast last week stoked controversy over the politician’s status. She has claimed that she arrived from a Kenyan refugee camp having fled Somalia to avoid an arranged marriage.
The programme, Zembla, claimed she had been granted asylum-status in Kenya where she was living safely, and interviewed relatives who said she had not been forced into an arranged marriage.
The affair is embarrassing for VVD colleague Rita Verdonk, the hard-line Dutch immigration minister who is running for party leadership. She initially told Ms Hirsi Ali she had “nothing to fear”. Then, days later, and under pressure from political opponents to apply her tough asylum policy consistently, she ordered an inquiry. “The law and the rules are for everyone,” said Mrs Verdonk.
Mrs Verdonk has faced media criticism for refusing a fast-track naturalisation procedure for Ivorian footballer Salomon Kalou in time for this summer’s world cup, and for expelling Taida Pasic, a teenage Kosovan refugee months before her final school exams.
Source: FN, May 16, 2006
