Dutch celebrity Islamophobe exposed

international | racism & migration related issues | other press

Wednesday May 17, 2006 00:53

by Phuq Hedd

Ayaan Hirsi Ali leaves Holland to join neocon thinktank

One of the most famous celebrity islamophobes has been exposed as a fraud and is fleeing Holland to join the payroll of the American Enterprise Institute. Cited often on Indymedia and other venues as an exemplar of feminist criticism of "islamofascists" it turns out that many details of her ordeal at the hands of Somali islamicists may be false.

The fact that she is so allied to neocons ought to give pause to those that are too enthusiastic in their blanket attacks on Islam. Of course it doesn't discredit /all/ critics of Islam, or even some of her own criticisms, but it does show that such criticisms are happily amplified and exploited by sinister forces.

(c) Irish Independent, Anthony Brown May 16 2006
Critic of Islam to go into US exile after lies

AYAAN HIRSI ALI, a Somali-born Dutch politician who became a world-renowned critic of Islam, is to leave parliament and move to America after admitting she had lied to win asylum in the Netherlands.

Ms Hirsi Ali (36), who, with Theo Van Gogh, the murdered filmmaker, produced a film on domestic violence in Islamic societies, is reported to be taking a job with the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think-tank that has advised the Bush administration on foreign policy.

The articulate and charismatic feminist, who describes herself as a former Muslim, has become popular in the Netherlands by denouncing European governments for not standing up for Western values against Islam.

She has repeatedly attacked multiculturalism, and supported the publication of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that prompted violent protests.

She has lived under constant police protection since an Islamic extremist murdered Van Gogh in 2004, impaling a note on the body that pledged to kill her.

The news of her move to the US emerged after the Dutch government said it would investigate her asylum application following a TV documentary's revelation that she had repeatedly lied to claim asylum in the Netherlands.

She was granted asylum in 1992, claiming that she had to flee war-torn Somalia to escape an arranged marriage. In fact, she had spent the previous 12 years enjoying an affluent lifestyle in Kenya. (©The Times, London)