C L O S E R – Land of Confusion
It is remarkable how many references there are to Hirsi Ali as a beautiful woman. I agree with these men (?), don’t get me wrong but why is that important? It’s very rare to see such a comment for a man. Does it contribute to her authority? If it does, it’s no wonder I have less authority :).
Meanwhile, several conspiracy theories have emerged. For example ZachtEi (which has an excellent overview of the events by the way)
The VVD party knew AHA had to be sacrificed to fend off a left-wing takeover of the country during the 2007 elections. Rita Verdonk added insult to injury because it increases her own chances of winning the party leadership, and the VVD honchos stand by idly because they know the hugely popular Verdonk may be the only thing standing between Labour Party leader Wouter Bos and four years of social-democratic misery.
So, a set up to lose two people who are standing between Labour and their victory in the election. According to Peaktalk:
The tone of the documentary called “Saint Ayaan” made by the VARA – which is a left-of-center public broadcaster affiliated with both the Labour Party and organized labour – clearly underlines its intent: to take down Hirsi Ali. Leon de Winter points out in his blog that the left may have been down but hardly out, and is now in full swing to restore the Dutch age of politically correct consensus by publicly executing Hirsi Ali.
That is a correct assumption. But what has not been discussed in detail is that the Dutch right, and notably Hirsi Ali’s own liberal party (VVD) may have decided that it is time to get shot of her. Ayaan’s lies will now be the subject of a formal investigation by Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, who as it happens is also part of the VVD and is in the middle of hotly contested leadership struggle (to be concluded later this month) in which she faces a more moderate and centrist candidate. So, if Verdonk’s aim is to gain control over the VVD she will have to not only make sure that by investigating Hirsi Ali she is living up to her ‘going by the book’ reputation, but she will have to placate her party’s more centrist members. As such, Hirsi Ali is of no real use to her, and it is Verdonk herself who has grabbed the “less-government, tough on immigration” mantle that has been vacant following Fortuyn’s and Van Gogh’s respective murders. Hirsi Ali has served her purpose by formulating a number of highly controversial positions, something that no one previously dared saying, and now that the word is out it is up to others to take the message forward.
The other aspect that should be underlined here is the deep resentment that success and ambition usually generate in The Netherlands. Dynamic careers, success, outspokenness, standing out in the crowd are things that have always been frowned upon, although that has changed a bit in recent years I guess. Still, the Dutch coined the phrase “act normal, that is strange enough†and a very ambitious black Muslim woman who built up a spectacular political career with international allure by holding a mirror in front of the complacent and politically lethargic Dutch was of course not something that would be rewarded with eternal gratitude.
For other it is just an ‘islamist‘ victory; something that keeps puzzling me: how did they end up here? The Muslim Contrarian has a different opinion, taking issue with Hirsi Ali’s lack of credibility:
It is clear that the credibility of Ayaan has taken a serious hit from these revelations. How easy could it be for her to falsely accuse Islam, a religion and a people she obviously hates, if it was so easy for her to lie on her refugee claims? To the neoconservative Christians who jump up to defend her, is it not said “thou shalt not bear false witness?”
Not only is she untruthful, but seemingly hypocritical. Herself an immigrant, she became a vocal critic of immigration as a member of the right wing Dutch VVD party. It was, in fact, her own party member, hardline immigration minister Rita Verdonk that called for her passport to be revoked. I suppose principle rarely gets in the way of politics and ambition.
In a way, I feel sorry to see her go out this way, used and betrayed. It is, however, understandable considering that western world, despite claims of freedom, justice, and equality, have a history of systemically exploiting and lynching Africans (Dutch apartheid, European colonialism, American slavery).
And not to forget others such as, Umar Lee:
The favorite Muslim of the West, that is an apostate who has become wealthy and famous scapegoating Muslims, Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has admitted that she lied in order to get her Dutch Citizenship and will now be kicked out of the parliament and will likely be stripped of her Dutch Citizenship. Who says good things never happen?
Yesterday, a writer I really enjoy, Steve Dunleavy (a real guy), apparently was smitten by the lying Ali, who now that she is being kicked out of the Netherlands is going to try and take her fraudulent act to America with the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Maybe she can handicap the battle going on in the streets of Mogadishu right now between an Islamist group, with local support, and a group of criminal gangs being funded by the West.
There is something to be said, for all these accounts. Problem is that in all of them facts and fiction seems to be blurred. This is no wonder, since to documentary with which it all begun, also mixed facts and fiction. Let’s try to deconstruct it and see what we know and don’t know:
- We know Hirsi Ali lied about her history
- We know if you lie about your credentials, your citizenship will be annulled.
- We know that television program Zembla, for the first time questioned several facts of her past in one program
- We know Hirsi Ali several times has mentioned that she lied.
- She is leaving parlaiment because of this affair.
- She is not leaving the country because of this. She already planned to go to the US and in case of losing her Dutch nationality, she still could stay because she is a refugee.
We do not know:
- If she was forced to marry a man she did not want: it is her word against that of her relatives and her ex-fiancee
- We do not know if there was a conspiracy within the VVD or by the left wing VARA (broadcaster of Zembla), labour party and ‘het journaal’ (Dutch news bulletin).
So what is left? Not much actually. Luckily there is Sunny on Pickled Politics, where there is always an attempt to look at things from a distant perspective.
I think it is important to take the Ayaan Hirsi Ali saga as a way to examine internal change.
Ali has always been presented as a ‘fearless woman’ who said ‘the truth’ about Muslims and would stop the Netherlands ’sliding into dhimmitude;’ etc. Certainly her choice of friends were suspect sometimes.
Whatever her detractors say, society certainly needs people who stick their neck out and say what they feel at the risk of antagonising relations. We need the BNP as much as we need the likes Harold Pinter. We also need the likes of Ali because she stopped Netherlands from bending over backwards excessively in the name of political correctness.
Let’s not gloss over the fact that there is still widespread instances of female genital mutilation and wife-beating in the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America. Domestic abuse is a serious problem in this country too. Ali may have lied about her personal circumstances but she did not make up the death threats.
But what Ali did was take advantage of the anti-Muslim climate, conjure up a story that would play well with them, and exploit them for her own agenda. It says more about those ‘anti-dhimmis’ because they want to hang on to what she said, rather than accept she simply lied to get in. If her political leanings went the other way they would be up in arms. they are the ones being taken for a ride.
The bigger question is how do you deal with such hardline ‘reformers’.
[…]
The problem for us who refuse to take a hardline against anyone is this. We know that if you want to reform a system, to attack it without knowing anything about it and demonising the people involved doesn’t work. It is a tactic that rapidly pushes you into the arms of people with ulterior motives and produces an ‘us and them’ barrier that becomes stronger than get broken down.
We know that change has to come, but it must do so on a platform of empowerment, not demonising. Ali did nothing to help the Muslim women who need power to reform their communities. She made it harder for them to stand up and take the middle ground.
If we all stood on a podium and waxed lyrically about how rubbish Asian values and culture was – nothing would change. And we can’t do that anyway, we still belong to that world.
Maybe it was the right time. Netherlands stopped letting in the religious fanatics who simply wanted to get on social security, but relations between Christian and Muslim Dutch people could never improve with a person so hell-bent on demonising all of them.
Finally, as someone at Pickled Politics says, a voice of reason. Some questions however (when we look back at the facts) are still unanswered.
- Since it was well known that Hirsi Ali lied, why did it took so long for journalists to dive into the matter?
- Was there a particular reason to it now?
- There was nothing substantial new in the program, so why did they air it?
- Because there was nothing new in it, and most of it was well known, why did the Hirsi Ali ‘supporters’ conceive it as a dirty personal attack? What I mean is if someone tells you over and over in that for example he has been cheating his wife, and there comes a tv program in which this is presented as a new fact and dozens of women are interviewed stating that they have been his mistress…you would laugh at the journalists probably. Old news! So why such a fuss?
- Why did her opponents make such a problem of it, since they also knew?
A voice of reason? Is the following issued by a voice of reason:
“But what Ali did was take advantage of the anti-Muslim climate, conjure up a story that would play well with them, and exploit them for her own agenda.”?
It’s a very biased, unreasonable view, absolutely in conflict with the facts. No reason here, Martijn.
And then again: it’s not that people perceive islam and muslims because Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells us certain things about them. Islam has itself to thank for it’s negative image. We perceive it BY OURSELVES to be an intolerant religion and the root of quite some evils of this world.
Well her authority was/is partly based upon her story as a refugee, she could become big in an anti-Muslim climate, and she used all kinds of issues for her own agenda. Is that really shocking or biased and unreasonable? Hello, she is a politician and a very good one. Doesn’t mean that she is not genuine or not really worried about all kinds of issues, but of course she has to use it. If she didn’t she would never have been able to get things done.
I think her role is much bigger then you think. Perhaps you should leave your ivory tower once in a while and talk with the people on the streets. Then you will hear and see what kind of authority she has.
Of course the bad image of Muslims is not all a figment of our imagination; that is clearly stated in Sunny’s article. Next time I will warn Sunny, that a critical, slightly off balanced comment about Hirsi Ali, is not allowed because it makes the whole article immediately unreasonable.
My ivory tower? MY ivory tower?
I do nothing BUT talk to people in the streets. I don’t see what that has to do with the false accusation that Hirsi Ali ‘took advantage of the anti-Muslim climate’, like a cunning politician looking for a scapegoat to mobilise the people against.
Everybody is allowed or should be allowed to write any damn bullshit they want. I just get very sad when a scientist calls this ‘a voice of reason’.
Now, now don’t get too excited over this comment. Why is it a false accusation? Hirsi Ali Ãs a cunning politician. I do not doubt that she is sincere as well, but to able to dominate the agenda of the islamdebate you have to be cunning and you have to able to mobilise people. For my part, I truly admire her for that. My criticism towards her, has also nothing to do with that, nor with her telling lies and her position as a Dutch citizen. In my opinion, she is Dutch, full stop.
By the way it is a little hypocritical for you to attack that sentence only, as unreasonable. It is hypocritical from someone who labels ordinary muslim citizens as ‘Allah-Jugend’, from someones who cites with approvement someone else who wishes 2/3 of the Dutch population dead, or cites with approvement someones else who uses the comparison with Anne Frank and Auschwitz in this case.
By the way, I actually think you have a very very derogatory stance towards Hirsi Ali. You portray yourself as the avant garde of Dutch society, the saved sect of Dutch society, the last of the mohicans of freedom of speech. Meanwhile you celebrate Hirsi Ali’s fate as a poor, defenseless victim of some ‘NSB’-hyena’s. Somewhat the same as many of her opponents also do. They view her as someone who is driven by uncontrolable demons from her past that have damaged her psychologically, so that she cannot do something else then she does. You all seem to forget that Hirsi Ali is a very capable and responsible agent, someone who is able to produce her own statements (that are certainly not victim like) and has her own agenda. By doing that, you can see yourself as moral superior to the Dutch NSB-ers (that is most of the rest of the population), but you silence one of the most remarkable politicians we ever had.
So yes, again get out of your ‘ivory tower’ of like minded people and try to really find out why so many people are not supporting her at this moment, like any good journalist should do now instead of falling back at easy slogans relating to WW II, that will only confirm your ideas. And don’t get too excited, it really doesn’t suit you because I think deep down you are a nice person, just as I am 🙂
I portray myself as the avant garde of Dutch society? Where did you get thát idea? I portray myself as an ordinary, simple Joe who is fed up with the suffocating political correctness that still has my country in it’s grip. I take a firm stance AGAINST the avant garde of Dutch society. The avant garde of Dutch society makes me nauseous.
“It is hypocritical from someone who labels ordinary muslim citizens as ‘Allah-Jugend’”
Ordinary muslim-citizens who issue threats, tell dirty lies about people who they don’t agree with, twist words, demonise, spout hate, say they’d rather live under a dictatorship that in a country where you may mock islam (but they stay here all the same – I guess they are really counting on laws against criticising and mocking islam). You call these people ordinary citizens, that means it’s very common for muslims to say and write and do these things.
You speak to a lot of muslims on a daily basis, so you must be right. You just confirmed my worst fears.
If THESE people are ordinary muslims, I have to say I don’t really want to live in a society with people like that. I consider them a grave threat to my freedom and the freedom of my children.
About Hirsi Ali, it’s clear her sole purpose to enter the dirty world of politics is her conviction that something should be done about the political islam and the paralizing political correctness around islam. It’s pure, genuine idealism. She happens to be intelligent, charismatic and she happens to be the right woman on the right place at the right time. That’s not cunning, that’s just our luck. Or may be our luck anyway. Or should have been recognised by us as our luck. Which we didn’t. We chased her out of her house and out of our country. We would rather accomodate people who hate us and want to destroy us than someone who is sacrificing herself to help save ourselves.
That cock and bull story about me believing her to be controlled by demons is just stupid. Never did I write or say anything to justify it. It’s outrageous to state I silence Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I voted for her, I supported her, I still support her. But the sheer overwhelming negativity with which she was treated, the blunt refusal to talk about what she was actually saying, to discuss that, to quit whining about the tone, and how she offended muslims, that’s more than any normal human can bear.
For God’s sake, one of her best friends was slaughtered in the street by a muslim nutcracker, and the first reaction of our government was to bring up an archaic law against mocking religion. In other words: the victim had it coming, because he mocked islam and muslims. In the months that followed, you could hear people say all the time that O yes, it was a horrible murder, but Van Gogh DID go too far.
Hirsi Ali has been chased away from Holland, by treacherous, cowardice hyenas indeed. Puny people who want to pretend there’s nothing wrong, that everything will be alright, and who will not allow people to say otherwise.
And YES, I feel morally superior that those hyenas. I am a better human being than those ‘ordinary muslim citizens’. I allow people there freedoms, I don’t threaten, I abhor violence, I will defend the right of people to speak their mind even if I find their ideas abject. I would never try to have a threatened woman evicted out of her house. I can not IMAGINE what kind of person you would have to be to do something like that.
If people like that call me uncivilised, that I consider that to be a compliment.
And of all the people in the world I think I am the one best qualified to decide what does and does not suit me.
About the NSB-mentality: it’s not necessarily a reference to WWII, although the NSB wás of course at it’s height in those days. But the NSB existed long befóre WWII, and the mentality, of turning in one’s neighbors to the authorities, of standing by and do nothing when people are threatened, that mentality has always existed and was always a characteristic of the Dutch. The Dutch are an opportunistic, cowardice, treacherous, slippery people. I am Dutch myself, so I am not enjoying saying this, but unfortunately, it’s the cold hard truth.
About me wishing two thirds of the Dutch population dead: I guess you just missed the irony of me emphatically posing as a hypocrite.
You mean just like you do here?
That ordinary Muslims are excercizing freedom of speech and the political incorrect ‘community’ cannot handle that?
In many cases you show a remarkable sense of being rational, in the case of Hirsi Ali, you completely loose that? How come? I agree with you, concerning driving her out of her house. It is ridiculous that we cannot a suitable place for her and others to stay.
Perhaps you should read….the demon part I attributed to her opponents….
But you do silence her. In fact this is the perfect proof. Hirsi Ali has been, remarkably, strong the last week. You keep wining, but she continues as the strong woman she is.
Yes, the government tried that. Did they succeed? No!
No, you just create straw demon’s, call people NSB, Allah Jugend, without contributing anything to solutions we need.
I don’t know…just people who are scared that they and their loved ones, will be among the victims of an attack?
No they are not…they are just small bourgeois type of people, who want a nice family, nice career and a little bit of sunshine every now and then.
As for the relationship between beauty and authority: yes, this is valid for men as well, but to a lesser extent. I agree that women get judged more harshly on their appearance than is the case with men, however, men get judged more harshly on certain character aspects than is the case with women. Nature is reasonably ‘fair’ in its distribution of cruelty, but that doesn’t mean she distributes everything symmetrically. 😉
May I suggest Matt Ridley’s ‘The Red Queen’ as an excellent survey of (human) sexuality.
Of course, biologists hold vastly different views on these issues than psychologists or sociologists. The adage ‘if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail’ is very much applicable to scientists as well :-).