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May 16, 2006
Ayaan Ali Hirsi's Dutch Citizenship Revoked
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk’s ruled that Hirsi Ali was never a legal citizen of the Netherlands in the first place and revoked her citizenship.
Outspoken Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali has reacted with shock to the news she was never a citizen of the Netherlands. If true, she was not entitled to be a member of parliament since 2002.Apparently, not everyone is thrilled by Minister Verdonk's preemptory move. Not even everyone in Verdonk's liberal party."I am speechless," the native of Somalia told the New York Times. Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk informed her by telephone on Monday evening that a preliminary investigation has found she probably never attained the status of a naturalised Dutch citizen. This is because she lied to get asylum five years earlier. She has six weeks to reply to the Minister's ruling.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's fellow members of the VVD free-market party are in an uproar. The normally hugely loyal Dutch VVD MP Bibi de Vries has said that 'if anything happens to AHA, her blood will be on the hands of members of my party'. Former party leader Van Aartsen appeared on television with his face looking like a freshly boiled lobster. European VVD MP's as well as Geert Dales, the VVD mayor of Leeuwarden, have condemned secretary Rita Verdonk's preliminary decision to revoke AHA's citizenship.This has now led to a firestorm within the Dutch government, as various parties split into pro-AHA and pro-Verdonk positions and the Dutch Prime Minister keeps out of the firefight, in order to salvage his government.
It would be ironic, indeed, if Verdonk ends up having to resign as a result of her belligerent actions.
UPDATE (from Judith): Here is Hirsi Ali's resignation speech. And some background on the Dutch politics underlying this controversy, via the Corner:
(1) Verdonk is running for the leadership of the VVD [the free market liberal party] party (against a much more moderate candidate); if she wins she will turn the VVD right-ward, into a Fortuyn-like direction.(2) Recently, she threw a young high school student from Kosovo out of the country, a certain Taida Pasic. Very bright girl, very good grades, speaks fluent Dutch after having been here only five years, because she lied in her asylum application. There was a national uproar about this for weeks, with the country divided in pro- and contra-Taida factions. Verdonk leading the latter faction. The Left was in uproar, the VVD supported Verdonk.
(3). Ayaan was originally a member of the Labour party and worked for its think tank. She left the Labour party unexpectedly to stand for parliament as a VVD-member. That's unheard of in the Dutch political context: it's very much like switching from Labour to Tory. Obviously, the Left has felt betrayed by her ever since. The TV-station that aired the anti-Ayaan documentary is essentially the Labour-station. This way, they destroyed both Ayaan who betrayed them and the VVD which blocked their desire to keep Taida in the country. This was pay-back.
Alcibiades | 05/16/06 at 02:10 PM | Categories: - Across the Pond
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