Ayan Hirsi Ali is a member of the Dutch Parliament. More importantly she is a fierce critic of Islam and supporter of women’s rights. Last week Rita Verdonk, the Immigration Minister of Netherlands threatened to strip Hirsi of her Dutch citizenship for falsifying her name and date of birth on an asylum application when she arrived in 1992, fearing reprisals from her family after she fled an arranged marriage. She was granted a passport in 1997 and acknowledged the falsification in 2002 during vetting as a candidate for parliament. There were no objections then.

When the European governments instead of confronting Islamic movement and political Islam take a step back, it is not surprising that the Dutch Immigration Minister allows herself to revoke the citizenship of one of the activists of women’s rights. Ayan Hirsi has been threatened to death by Islamic groups. As though this threat has not been enough, now the Dutch minister is holding another threat on Hirsi’s head. What is her reason? Falsified name? This is just an empty and inhumane excuse.

The truth is somewhere else. At a time when the ruling right wing Party in Netherlands was using Ayan for its own right wing policies, there was no mention of falsification. However, now, when Ayan is appearing in international conferences defending women’s progressive rights things are different.

By intensifying the reactionary policy of cultural relativism, the European governments not only strengthened the Islamists, they also showed the green light for other religious right wing and racist currents to attack human rights even further.

These governments have long been the cause of strengthening of religious and racist currents. The decision of the Dutch Immigration Ministry is an attack on refugees and gives service to the criminal political Islam.

The question is not the geography of where Ayan can live. She is a well known figure and can emigrate to any country. It shows the tip of the ice berg of the policy adopted by the European governments to attack refugees. It serves Islamic terrorism. We must not allow them to use such actions and excuses to curb refugee rights and their citizenship. The Dutch government’s decision should be revoked.

We urge all women’s organizations, refugee organizations and all secularists to stand against this decision. We shout aloud, No one is illegal!

19/05/06