Going Dutch, part one

The renegades are rearing their heads in the Netherlands, and they’re getting plenty of attention. Couple of stories caught mine…

The Dutch government deciding to cancel the security they provided for Ayaan Hirsi Ali, for one.

Ms. Hirsi Ali, who had been working in Washington, learned of the Dutch move only in recent days and flew to The Hague to meet security officials. Friends said she was staying at a secret address under Dutch police protection.

Who is she?

Ms. Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born refugee who rose to become a writer, politician and, until 2006, a member of the Dutch Parliament, was assigned protection seven years ago after Islamist extremists called her an infidel who must be killed. Threats to her life increased after 2004 when Theo van Gogh, the film director with whom she had made a short film critical of Islam, was knifed to death on an Amsterdam street. A note pinned on his body said she would be next.

That act was brutal, and this woman needs protection, not the inevitable silencing she’ll receive if left on her own. It’s probably a courageous move to even return to the Netherlands to plead her case.

Ms. Hirsi Ali’s return has received much attention in the media of the Netherlands, where the question of how the country can protect its citizens from extremists while safeguarding its tradition of critical debate has again come to the forefront. Some politicians have called for an urgent session of Parliament.

Her case should raise awareness far beyond the Netherlands.

Her autobiography, “Infidel,” has become an international best seller, drawing new attention to her critical views of Islam, her former religion.

(The one that was equated with Judaism and Christianity for ‘having its extremists’ by “CNN’s God’s Warriors.”)

The Theo Van Gogh assassination focused public attention more sharply on the differences.

“Dutch society has no choice in this case,” the Dutch novelist Leon de Winter, a supporter of Ms. Hirsi Ali, wrote in a commentary posted on the Internet. “Canceling Ayaan’s protection would be the equivalent of a death sentence,” he wrote, adding: “Because she is so well known in the Netherlands and practically lives the life of a prisoner, not even able to go out on the street, the most humane solution is to continue to provide her with protection in America.”

Tolerance dictates the free inter-religious dialogue and cross-cultural debate that allows disagreement and fosters classical argument. Cases like this show how far we have strayed from that. And it strains the credibility of those who claim they stand for peace, and those who claim they stand for the common good.