The Guardian — get up off the floor; yes, it's the Guardian — runs a story on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a 32-year-old Somali-born Muslim immigrant to the Netherlands, who's been run out of the country in fear for her life by the mullahs.Calling Islam a 'backward' religion, she claimed that orthodox Muslim men frequently indulge in domestic violence against women as well as incest and child abuse. To make matters worse, she added, such unacceptable behaviour is routinely covered up and never spoken about. And she launched a strong attack on the Netherlands' programme of multicultualism, which she said encouraged the isolation of Muslim women...
Within days she had received several serious death threats - apparently from extremist Muslims - and was forced to go into hiding. Now she has fled the Netherlands, a refugee once again, hounded out of her adopted home by a torrent of messages of hate.
The messages - which were anonymous and delivered over the phone - called her a traitor to Islam and a slut. Hate mail also appeared on the internet claiming she deserved to be knifed and shot. The police advised her to change address and questions were asked in parliament about whether or not she warranted bodyguards.
At a time when the Netherlands' almost one-million-strong Muslim community (out of a total population of 16 million) felt itself vulnerable and subject to attack, her words seemed to some to play into the hands of those demanding a clampdown on immigration, and anti-Muslim sentiment. See? I told you it was The Guardian. The Netherlands' Muslims feel themselves vulnerable and subject to attack, so they threatened to kill her. That's logic at work...The views of Ali Eddaudi, a Moroccan writer and cleric living in the Netherlands, were typical of many. He dismissed 'all the fuss' over a Muslim woman who 'pandered to the Dutch' and wanted, he said, to be a model immigrant. That's certainly nothing a good Muslim would do...The solution, she believes, is to use Dutch law to pursue more vigorously Muslim men who beat their wives and daughters, to stop teaching immigrants in their own language and to stop paying for the 700 Islamic clubs, most of which, she says, 'are run by deeply conservative men and perpetuate the segregation of women'. But as we all know, those are just cultural differences, and one culture's as valid as another, so we shouldn't get involved. We can and should crack down on Western wife beaters and child diddlers, but if they're Muslims we should best keep out of it — they're not responsible for their actions, after all. I think I'll go take a shower now. |