Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Christopher Hitchens has a good piece about this woman, a collaborator on the film that got Theo Van Gogh butchered in the street, and of course the subject of death-threats by adherents of the Religion of Peace (TM) herelf.

This is shameful:

She has had to live under police protection ever since, and when I saw her again last week in Washington, I had to notice that there were several lofty and burly Dutchmen acting in an unaffected but determined way somewhere off to the side....

But here is the grave and sad news. After being forced into hiding by fascist killers, Ayaan Hirsi Ali found that the Dutch government and people were slightly embarrassed to have such a prominent "Third World" spokeswoman in their midst. She was first kept as a virtual prisoner, which made it almost impossible for her to do her job as an elected representative. When she complained in the press, she was eventually found an apartment in a protected building. Then the other residents of the block filed suit and complained that her presence exposed them to risk. In spite of testimony from the Dutch police, who assured the court that the building was now one of the safest in all Holland, a court has upheld the demand from her neighbors and fellow citizens that she be evicted from her home. In these circumstances, she is considering resigning from parliament and perhaps leaving her adopted country altogether. This is not the only example that I know of a supposedly liberal society collaborating in its own destruction, but I hope at least that it will shame us all into making The Caged Virgin a best seller.

Well, the Dutch have certainly "progressed" since the days of Anne Frank, huh?

There is of course the old "When they came for the Jews..." poem. And Churchill's (I think) warning that appeasers feed others to the crocodile in hopes that the crocodile will eat them last. And of course the old joke about two hunters being pursued by an angry bear.

One hunter begins running. The other says, "You're crazy! You can't outrun a bear!"

The first hunter says, "I don't have to outrun the bear; I only have to outrun you."

Europe is a continent of cowards and accomplices to murder who are all desperately running from bears.

Trouble is, the bear population is increasing, partly because Europeans are keeping them so well fed.

PetiteDov attended Hirsi Ali's book-signing in Cambridge yesterday, and has pictures and impressions from the event.

Recent Cambridge immigrant John Malkovich was on hand (and PetiteDov has a picture, of course).

True enough, Malkovich moved from Paris to Cambridge, suggesting he's soft-headed and just another dopey leftist actor, but then again, anyone who threatens to kill terrorist-apologist Robert Fisk can't be all stupid. Fisk whined:

And last week, the Hollywood actor John Malkovich did just that, telling the Cambridge Union that he would like to shoot me.

"How, I ask myself, did it come to this? Slowly but surely, the hate has turned to incitement, the incitement into death threats, the walls of propriety and legality gradually pulled down so that a reporter can be abused, his family defamed, his beating at the hands of an angry crowd greeted with laughter and insults in the pages of an American newspaper, his life cheapened and made vulnerable by an actor who – without even saying why – says he wants to kill me."

Actually, Malkovich named Fisk when asked for a list of people he'd like to "fight to the death," not necessarily murder.

I suppose Malkovich might have just named Fisk because Fisk has expressed a great deal of sympathy and understanding for those who have beaten the holy hell out of him:

The Middle East correspondent was attacked when his car overheated and broke down close to a village housing refugees from Afghanistan.

...

"At first they were reasonably friendly but then a little kid threw a stone at me. More stones followed and then I find myself being punched and beaten in the face.

"My glasses were smashed and my spare glasses were ripped away from me. I was covered in blood and couldn't see anything. I was obviously frightened."
...

But Mr Fisk said he could understand the refugees' anger, as many had relatives who had been killed by the US bombing of Afghan city Kandahar last week.

"It doesn't excuse them for beating me up so badly but there was a real reason why they should hate Westerners so much.

"I don't want this to be seen as a Muslim mob attacking a Westerner for no reason. They had every reason to be angry - I've been an outspoken critic of the US actions myself. If I had been them, I would have attacked me."

So, you know, Malkovich might not be expressing his political views here so much as he's figuring Fisk is the sort of super-pussy he can not only beat the crap out of, but then have the snivelling worm actually apologize to him afterwards for scuffing his knuckles with his jawbone.

As the kids say-- I'd hit it. Oh yeah: I'd hit it hard.

posted by Ace at 02:22 PM

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