Holland Has No Use For Heroes
The concerted effort to terminate Ayaan Hirsi Ali's relationship with her adopted motherland by removing her security detail succeeded yesterday in Dutch parliament, writes Pieter Dorsman. The relentless critic of Islam is a refugee once more - this time from western Europe.
Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers
Over the past week, commentators have reacted in shock and utter amazement over the Dutch government’s decision to stop funding the protection of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Many pinned their hopes on a debate in Dutch parliament, an institution which over time has become used to gathering for emergency debates over its fraught relationship with its adopted Somali daughter. The last time was in the summer of 2006 where the less than apt treatment meted out to Hirsi Ali by the then right-of-center coalition led by Jan-Peter Balkenende resulted in a loss of parliamentary confidence and the subsequent elections in the fall of 2006.
The said election not only returned a center-left coalition (again led by Balkenende) it somehow heralded an era of restoration. The Dutch instinctively veer towards stability and consensus and the political turmoil created by the now late Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh as well as the expelled Hirsi Ali had for some run its course. It was as some of the political establishment hoped ‘time to put the genie back in the bottle’, a sentiment not unheard of on this side of the ocean where many still believe that a return to that peaceful and careless pre-9/11 world is still a viable option. And although there does not seem to be a clear agenda with motivated political agents, there appears to be a mood that the pendulum can swing the other way and in that spirit Dutch parliament gathered yesterday to once more discuss Hirsi Ali.
The outcome of the debate was therefore not all that surprising as most parties appeared to be lining up behind the current administration and its assessment that the time had come to end the nation’s involvement with Hirsi Ali. And that assessment was brutal in its candor as Justice Minister Hirsch Ballin informed parliament that Hirsi Ali had not taken sufficient steps to arrange alternative, privately funded, security and that she ‘lacked the willingness to assume her own responsibility in this matter’. It was only the Green Left that appeared to be unsatisfied with this explanation and to their credit tabled a motion that seeks to extend Dutch security efforts. A symbolic gesture only as it is likely to fail in a vote later this week.
Hirsi Ali must have sensed that the mechanics of the debate were not working in her favor and her lawyer released a series of confidential documents right before the debate, much to the annoyance of the government. They make for good reading as they lend support to the fact that Dutch authorities were less than motivated to provide effective security to her. In fact from the moment she arrived in Washington DC last year a series of incident took place were Hirsi Ali felt unsafe, notably when her security detail chose to follow her in a separate taxi often leaving her with cabdrivers of Somali and Ethiopian descent one of whom Hirsi Ali claimed recognized her. Dutch authorities according to these documents were also no longer prepared to pick up the cost for securing her new apartment in Washington. Yet, the most astounding piece to come out of these documents is the fact that during one of these security-evaluation meetings Hirsi Ali was advised to seek psychiatric counseling. Hirsi Ali declined this offer - something which the government apparently was willing to fund - by replying that in case her mental condition would require ‘counseling’ she would just as well contact a good friend.
While Salman Rushdie and Christopher Hitchens stepped up to support Hirsi Ali yesterday, many will wonder what has prompted this drastic approach, apparently at odds with that notion of Dutch tolerance and freedom. It left one terse commenter in a Canadian newspaper yesterday wondering why on earth they had bothered to liberate the Dutch some sixty years ago.
There is not one reason for this. Firstly, on a cultural level the Dutch dislike heroes and outspoken success stories, more than once have I explained to foreigners that famous national mantra “act normal, that is strange enough’. Even at the height of her popularity Hirsi Ali was disliked by most Dutchmen. She was too outspoken, disrupted the existing order even though many felt she had a valid point. Hirsi Ali herself never grasped this and took her newfound freedom literally, never finding the right note that would allow her to really fit into the ‘Dutch debate’. Secondly, on a practical level the entire approach to her - her eviction from her apartment, the questions over her passport and her security - were all dealt with in purely administrative and legal terms. Not once did moral considerations or feelings enter a string of bizarre decisions that on its surface appear to be defensible yet upon closer examination lacked any reasonable basis and merely provided an easy justification for many to expedite Hirsi Ali’s exit. Thirdly, and that is something I have more than once addressed on my own blog, the Dutch are not tolerant by nature: at best they are pragmatic, at worst indifferent.
But above all the political dynamics in The Netherlands have changed. In a week where the government allowed and possibly encouraged the immensely popular crown princess Maxima - herself an immigrant - to give a speech in which she denied the existence of a ‘Dutch Identity’ there was no clearer evidence that the tide has turned. The debate and changes of what I would term the ‘Fortuyn-interregnum’ are decisively channeled back into a format where a top-down Dutch consensus originated in the nation’s capital is once more the norm for political discourse. There is no more room for unconventional freethinkers, only the drab conformity from the center devoid of any ideas. In that spirit Dutch parliament yesterday once more turned Hirsi Ali into an orphaned refugee. It is now up to her new American and Canadian friends to adopt her and I have no doubt that they will succeed in doing so.
Pieter Dorsman writes on his own blog Peaktalk and The Van Der Galiën Gazette. He still is a proud Dutchman and after a career in finance in London and Hong Kong he now resides in Vancouver where advises early stage technology firms.
| Comment |  Digg This |
 del.icio.us |
 |
 |
 PJM Home |
30 Comments
1. ex-democrat:Disgusting, but all too predictable.
We in the US should grant Hirsi Ali citizenship and pay for her protection - and then recoup the cost from Holland by informally boycotting dutch goods.
Hey, I’ve already started.
Oct 10, 2007 - 5:05 am 2. Peg C.:Who will mourn the loss of the Netherlands to Islam? Not I.
Oct 10, 2007 - 7:02 am 3. ShannonLove:Its very sad. The Dutch were once such a great people. They invented most of the institutions of the modern world. They explored the planet. Now…
Perhaps, centuries of being trapped between colliding superpowers broke their spirit, They learned to survive by keep their heads down and not attracting attention.
All withers, I suppose but still.
Oct 10, 2007 - 7:02 am 4. MarkJ:In the wake of the Dutch “profile in cowardice,” dare we remember the Dutch experience in World War II?
In 1939, there were approximately 150,000 Jews in Holland (1.5% of the total Dutch population). At least 20% of this number alone were asylum seekers from Germany.
By 1945, 3/4 of them were dead thanks, in large part, to the active, even eager, participation of Dutch authorities with their German occupiers.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Oct 10, 2007 - 7:07 am 5. Infidel753:It left one terse commenter in a Canadian newspaper yesterday wondering why on earth they had bothered to liberate the Dutch some sixty years ago.
An excellent question. The Dutch certainly had a demonstration of the value of heroes in 1945.
Oct 10, 2007 - 7:41 am 6. ShannonLove:Who will mourn the loss of the Netherlands to Islam?
I don’t think that will happen. Instead we will end up with a Fascist Europe once again.
Liberal orders collapsed into authoritarians ones due to a ineffectiveness in maintaining basic social and economic order. The current groveling to the Isalmist will lead to escalating violence and disruption which will eventually cause Europeans to reject liberal ideas and embrace authoritarian ones.
The Islamist will fall to the monster they created just as the Red Socialist fell to Fascist they created.
Then we will have to clean up the mess again.
Oct 10, 2007 - 7:41 am 7. plutosdad:Is there any sort of donation people can make for her security? I suppose it costs a lot but people might be able to at least pay for a month or so until she can get permanent arrangements.
Oct 10, 2007 - 7:45 am 8. Mike Perry:I suspect you’re right about the Dutch. Their history of providing refuge for the persecuted “up and out,” most notably Kaiser Wilhelm after World War One, has a hint of profitability about it. The former German Emperor brought a steady flow of money into their economy. It mattered little to them that the twit who liked to talk big bore more than a little rhetorical responsibility for a war that killed millions of non-Dutch.
Hirsch Ali, it may be noted, decided to take her money from a successful book and the cost of protecting her life to the U.S. That, in Dutch eyes, is one of the “crimes” that makes her unworthy of refugee status. Her crime is against the almighty Dutch economy, as well as making the outlandish claim that ethics might matter more than money. Ditto Europe’s policy toward the Middle East. Tyrants are OK as long as the oil flows.
And the Canadian editorial you mentioned seems to also be hitting on something important. The Europeans in general don’t seem to be willing to carry their share of the load in first the struggle against totalitarian communism and now that against a rather terrifying perversion of religion. In WWII, they (particularly the French) left all the hard work to the British, Canadians, and Americans. Now they seem content to let the U.S. bear the brunt of the load.
For the latter, I recently had a USAF C-17 pilot tell me that during the Cold War the Danes, perhaps the best of Western Europeans, insisted that the small force we kept Iceland had to be supplied by eggs and milk products flown in from Denmark rather than the (much less expensive) U.S. Money, money, money. For all too many Western Europeans money matters more than freedom. With the US bearing the cost of maintaining their freedom and serving as a sort of “baker to the world,” they can have their cake and eat it too.
The new anti-missile systems coming online offer a chance to reverse this unhealthy policy. We should by all means assist our friends, the Eastern European countries still recovering from sixty years of Nazism and Communism. But we should insist that countries such as France and Germany pay and pay well if they want to be protected from Iranian missiles. It’s time the US quit planning nanny, cleaning up after spoiled Europeans when have one of their temper tantrums.
More and more, the present fuss between the US and Europe is resembling the fights that take place between a mature parent and a spoiled teen who won’t keep his room clean or pick up a job to cover at least part of the cost of maintaining him.
Oct 10, 2007 - 7:53 am 9. bianchi_roadie:I work with several Dutch people, and they talk about how exceptionalism is discouraged and “average” is rewarded. One told me the story about how he did poorly on the school enterance tests and had to fight to be allowed to go on to university rather than a technical school. He said the educational system teaches you one thing: The tall blade of grass is the first cut.
Unfortunately “not making waves” was seen as the best way to maintain the tolerance that the Dutch were famous for.
Oct 10, 2007 - 7:55 am 10. LSD:Hmm, I guess that that common characteristic between Pim, Theo and Hirsi is a quality more appreciated by us here in the United States. I hope she finds substantial security to keep speaking her piece. Her story has value.
The Dutch government ought to be ashamed. One wonders if this sort of sentiment is afforded them by the security of knowing that our kids are confronting the jihadis, (and if it is fueled by a resentment of our economic and cultural shadow.)
Oct 10, 2007 - 8:31 am 11. uhuh:I actually don’t get it. Why exactly should the Dutch citizens pay for her security, especially while she lives in the United States?
Anyway I am not boycotting Heineken. Or Bavaria. And certainly not Grolsch.
Oct 10, 2007 - 9:40 am 12. Mark K. Benenson:And these are the decayed descendants of the people who burned the British fleet in the Thames in the 17th Century.
Oct 10, 2007 - 10:27 am 13. one of many:Two reasons Uhuh.
First, she is a Dutch citizen and by long standing international precedent (and US law in the US) hosting nations do not pay for extraordinary security for foreign citizens. If this were the sole point it would reasonable (if it were Dutch policy elsewhere, which it isn’t) to require her to pay for her own extraordinary security.
Second, the Dutch agreed to pay for her security. She may very well have faded into obscurity and not currently need security if the Dutch had not agreed to provide her with security. It was touch and go whether she would remain a public figure even with security after the whole appartment fiasco.
Oct 10, 2007 - 11:37 am 14. Infidel753:We should by all means assist our friends, the Eastern European countries still recovering from sixty years of Nazism and Communism.
When we talk about “the Europeans”, we should always remember that the eastern countries which used to be behind the Iron Curtain have a far more realistic world-view than the western Europeans do. After all, they have recent historical experience of tyranny.
If the now-despised Americans and British had not heroically intervened in Europe during World War II, it’s likely that the Red Army would just have bulldozed all the way to the Atlantic, and western European countries such as the Netherlands would also have spent the next 44 years as part of the Soviet Empire. But at least they wouldn’t be living in a dream world today.
Oct 10, 2007 - 12:40 pm 15. Looking Glass:What’s been lost in all this is the effectiveness of assassination and death threats as a political and social tool. Pym Fortuyn’s death put politicians everywhere on notice.
Theo van Gogh’s death showed filmmakers around the world that criticizing Islam could be a death warrant. Imagine the bombing of a single movie theater, which has already happened in Iran. Is it any wonder Hollywood won’t treat the subject honestly?
People have publicly wondered why the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan isn’t covered in contemporary science fiction.
The fiction of the desecrated Koran in Newsweek caused the death of 16 people and untold property damage.
Again, simple fiction reacted to with fatal violence. Publishers fear for themselves, their distributors and their employees.
Ditto for the Mohammed cartoons. Bookstores in the USA refused to carry the sole periodical that published the images. The Washington Post recently refused to carry a mild Opus cartoon simply for mentioning Islam. They published photos of their Muslim employees in an attempt to divert fatal Islamic attention.
The fourth plane on September 11, 2001 was aimed at politicians.
The anthrax attacks immediately after were directed at journalists.
Journalist Daniel Perl’s beheading was filmed and publicized.
This goes back to the deaths of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, killed by a radical leftist and a Palestinian, respectively.
These public attacks on politicians and influence makers stand out clearly in retrospect.
The deaths of filmmakers, politicians, and journalists have shaped American body politic for takeover from within.
Oct 10, 2007 - 1:23 pm 16. Tom W.:If you want an insight into Dutch thinking, go to YouTube and search “Dutch Commandos Afghanistan.” You’ll find a multipart documentary with English subtitles, about Dutch special forces trying to fight the Taliban.
Basically, they can’t. These muscular, bearded, heavily armed professional warriors had to take civilian lawyers with them to vet the operations, and they can’t launch offensive missions. They can only fire if fired upon.
When they located an IED maker, they had to ask the Dutch government for permission to raid the compound. The government dickering for weeks, during which time the bomber escaped with his weapons.
Many commandos want to come home because they’re projecting such an image of weakness that the locals are turning back to the Taliban.
You can clearly see that these men are a lethal fighting force, with their Mad Max gun trucks, but their government simply won’t let them do their job.
Socialists are all about empty gestures. Send a group of commandos to Afghanistan but don’t let them fight, because engaging the Taliban will offend Muslims, and we certainly can’t have that.
After all, Muslims are the most well-behaved, considerate, civilized group of people on earth.
Oct 10, 2007 - 1:54 pm 17. Little Much:Peg C.
“Who will mourn the loss of the Netherlands to Islam? Not I.”
The writing is on the wall and no, I can’t see anyone mourning the loss of the Netherlands, except pimps, dope dealers, sex traffickers and the American kids who rush there during spring break to drool over the hookers after buying their nickel bag.
I mean what has the Netherlands done lately? Here was a chance for their gov’t to grow a set and they failed, yet again.
Oct 10, 2007 - 2:38 pm 18. David Frost:In my view, she’s welcome here any time. Congress should make Ali a US citizen tomorrow. Her behavior is more American than European in any case.
Oct 10, 2007 - 4:49 pm 19. cbi:“Who will mourn the loss of the Netherlands to Islam? Not I.”
I certainly will. Amsterdam is, hands down, my favorite city in Europe. Some of my favorite childhood memories are visiting with my parents (dad was US military)and doing nothing but wandering around the city. How sad that one day that may not be an option for my children.
Oct 10, 2007 - 7:26 pm 20. Anthony Ragan:The Dutch should be ashamed of themselves and their government. This shabby treatment of Hirsi Ali is disgraceful. We should offer her citizenship; I’d be honored to call her a “fellow American.”
Oct 10, 2007 - 9:54 pm 21. ThirstyJon:If we don’t stand up against Radical Islam, if in the name of “tolerance” or avoidance we do not defend those who speak out against it, we will regret it in the long run.
ThirstyJon
Oct 11, 2007 - 3:31 am 22. M:freedomthirst.com
So where can we put some money into the kitty to help pay for this incredible woman’s safety? I’m willing to chip in from my personal pocket if need be.
Surely someone has started a fund somewhere?
Oct 11, 2007 - 8:20 am 23. alwyr:Why do we even BOTHER with failed states such as the Netherlands?
Oct 11, 2007 - 12:32 pm 24. blinachka:The Dutch suck. I mean, they SERIOUSLY suck.
I know from experience as I lived there for almost a year in 1996 and let me tell you: I literally kissed the ground when I returned home to NYC, USA.
Never have I met people more full of themsleves yet at the same time more insecure and self-loathing with major inferiority complexes to boot than when I lived over there. It was nauseating and frankly pathetic.
May God help Hirsi Ali. She is a true heroine and deserves respect and protection. She speaks the TRUTH awhen it comes to the threat the world faces from islam and ought to be listened to.
Oct 11, 2007 - 5:15 pm 25. marwan's daughter:“Who will mourn the loss of the Netherlands to Islam?
I don’t think that will happen. Instead we will end up with a Fascist Europe once again.
Liberal orders collapsed into authoritarians ones due to a ineffectiveness in maintaining basic social and economic order. The current groveling to the Isalmist will lead to escalating violence and disruption which will eventually cause Europeans to reject liberal ideas and embrace authoritarian ones.
The Islamist will fall to the monster they created just as the Red Socialist fell to Fascist they created.
Then we will have to clean up the mess again.”
It’s already happing in the Netherlands.
Oct 11, 2007 - 5:36 pm 26. Robohobo:Heh. How true.
“…the Dutch are not tolerant by nature: at best they are pragmatic, at worst indifferent.”
So pragmatic that they sacrificed their Jews in WWII to save their Catholics. The Netherlands is largely a Catholic nation or at least was then. The Nazis had the same fate for Catholics as they did Jews, Gypsies and others.
“Currently Roman Catholicism is the single largest religion of the Netherlands, forming the religious home of some 27,0 % of the Dutch people.” - from Wikipedia post on Religion in the Netherlands
When they fall to shari’a, I for one will not grieve. They deserve their fate.
We must mobilize in the US to protect Hirsi Ali and adopt her as one of our own.
Oct 13, 2007 - 11:42 pm 27. merlin:The Dutch were at one time one of the great sefaring commercial nations of the world, and they are still one of the great commercial nations of the world. Among other things, the second largest holder of property in the USA is the Dutch. (England is first). Unfortunately, all large commercial entities become bureaucratic, and the first rule of bureaucracy is keep your head down, so now you see what others have posted here. Still, the loss of the Netherlands to Islam would be a great economic catastrophe to the West, and that ought to be considered before you just write them off.
Oct 15, 2007 - 8:31 am 28. wanderer:Robohobo
You need a real history lesson. The Dutch were historically Calvinist Protestants. In fact the Netherlands was formed as a nation by the rebellion of its Protestant majority against their Spanish Hapsburg Catholic rulers.
Oct 15, 2007 - 12:55 pm 29. Rowy:The malaise in today’s Netherlands revealed in their inaction to the threat of Islamofascism is the product of the once staunchly Protestant masses abandoning their heritage for post WW II moral relativism, hedonism, and the welfare state.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a liar and a cheat. This article is complete nonsense. I’m Dutch, I live in the Netherlands and the reason why the Dutch don’t want to pay for her security anymore, is because she didn’t keep her part of a deal with the Dutch government. Although the Dutch never pay for the protection of a citizen who emigrated (she left the Netherlands to become an American citizen), she still was protected and we paid for it. However, the government asked her to take care of the funds herself after some time. She promised she would, but she didn’t. Yet, we kept paying the bills and asked her again to finally take up the tab. She said she would, but again she didn’t, although she was making enough money. Then we got fed up with her. She lied when she came to the Netherlands years ago, to get a Dutch passport, but she was allowed to keep the passport. We even welcomed her in our parliament. Ali however, wanted to move on, so she left for America (her voters were not amused). That’s okay now. We educated her, we gave her all she wanted, but if she thinks she will be happier in the USA, that’s fine with us and we hope you’ll enjoy her presence as much as we did. Just one question. If Ali leaves the USA to go and live in, let’s say, Sweden, is the American government going to pay for her security in Sweden, even if she wants to become Swedish? No, certainly not. By the way, Ali can get all the protection she needs. The Dutch government told her that if she stays in our country, she will be protected and she doesn’t have to pay for it, ever. Even if it would cost us millions per year, we will take care of her. Ayaan Hirsi Ali however, doesn’t want to stay here. She wants to live in the country that DOESN’T protect her, the USA. She’s just a golddigger. And thanks for all the insults. We’re Dutch, we drive a hard but honest bargain. And no, we will not become an Islamic country. We can take millions of muslims and still be Dutch. We will survive and we will stay one of the richest countries in the World. Perhaps we’ll buy some more of your property in the USA and become the numer one holder. Just joking
We don’t trust your Mickey Mouse money anymore.
Oct 16, 2007 - 1:31 pm 30. democracynow:Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a shrewd player. She claimed refugee status when she first arrived in the Netherlands from her native country Somalia. She lied her way into refugee status as she should have applied in Germany where she was before moving to the Netherlands.
Therefore, when this eventually was revealed years later when she already had become a member of parliament thanks to people who saw political advantage in helping her achieve this, her acquired Dutch citizenship should have been revoked and she should have sent back where she came from period.
Sep 6, 2008 - 4:20 am