Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali back in Netherlands

dpa German Press Agency Published: Monday October 1, 2007

Amsterdam- Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali returned to the
Netherlands, Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad reported on Monday.
In August 2006, Somali born-Hirsi Ali, one of the Netherland's
most outspoken critics of Islam, accepted a position as researcher at
the Washington-based Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank.

The former legislator for the Liberal VVD party was allegedly
forced to leave the US as American authorities had refused to finance
the expenses of her personal security measures.

So far, the Dutch government has paid all those expenses, but
after more than a year of residency in the US, the Dutch allegedly
said they were no longer willing to continue this arrangement.

The 37-year-old Ayaan Hirsi Ali, born Hirsi Magan, is a feminist
and political writer. Her family left Somalia for Saudi Arabia when
she was six years old. They then continued to Ethiopia, and
eventually settled in Kenya.

She sought and obtained political asylum in the Netherlands in
1992, under circumstances that later became the centre of a political
controversy.

Hirsi Ali is a controversial critic of Islam. In 2004, she wrote
the script of the film Submission, about the repression of women in
Muslim culture.

In November 2004, a Muslim fundamentalist Mohammed Bouyeri
assassinated Submission's film maker Theo Van Gogh, threatening to
kill Hirsi Ali as well.

Hirsi Ali is one of a handful of Dutch nationals living under
strict personal security measures ever since.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency

Comment Here