Civitas

To say this is not to indulge in special pleading on behalf of Hirsi Ali. Nor is it to deny the need for the Dutch immigration minister to play by the rules when it comes to deciding which asylum seekers to admit.

In any case, perhaps, it was mere posturing on Verdonk’s part to assert that since a Dutch passport had been issued to the fictitious person with the fictitious name of Hirsi Ali whom the 22 year old asylum seeker named Hirsi Magan was purporting to be when she claimed asylum, it is the fictitious person not the Dutch MP to whom asylum had been given and hence strictly Ms Ali no longer enjoys it and must leave Holland six weeks after the period lapses during which she has time to appeal against the decision, should she wish to do so.

Doubtless were Hirsi Ali to appeal against the decision or reapply for Dutch citizenship during this period, she would be granted it and the niceties of procedure would have been met.

However, there was no need for such alacrity or lack of consideration for the feelings of her former parliamentary colleague in the manner by which Verdont summarily stripped Hirsi Ali of her citizenship. Her decision might play well in certain quarters, but it clearly wounded Hirsi Ali who immediately brought forward her resignation from parliament and who announced she will shortly be leaving Holland to take up a position at the American Enterprise Institute that she was offered last week when on a visit to the USA, among other things, ironically, to receive a European of the Year Award from the Reader’s Digest.

By the time she will be obliged to leave Holland if she does not appeal or reapply for Dutch citizenship, she will be ensconced in Washington to start a new life, without constant fear for her life as she has been in Holland since the killing of Theo van Gogh with whom she made the film that led to his killing.

Why in earth should she stay in Holland that refused to allow her to remain in her apartment after neighbours complained her presence there made them unsafe?

Some wag suggested on the internet that Ms Ali could star in a re-make of a film a about Anne Frank the German Jewish refugee finally betrayed to the Nazis by the Dutch hiding her.

To read her own account of the matter and get some idea of the enormity of what has befallen her, click on here to read Ms Ali’s letter of resignation from parliament and weep: http://www.trouw.nl/hetnieuws/nederland/article318849.ece/Tweede-Kamerfractie+/+Persverklaring+Ayaan+Hirsi+Ali+(Engels.