FOCUS: Somalian-born Dutch MP faces threats due to views on Islam+ BRUSSELS, March 31 (Kyodo) _ (EDS: ONE PHOTO ACCOMPANYING THIS STORY IS AVAILABLE VIA E-MAIL. THE PHOTO ADVISORY IS TO FOLLOW)
Dutch MPs Geert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali top the list of most threatened politicians in 2005, said an annual report released by the Dutch Public Prosecutor this week. "I am living in constant hiding since film producer Theo van Gogh was killed in November 2004," Hirsi Ali, a member of the Liberal Party, told Kyodo in an exclusive interview. "Right after the murder I was moved to the United States, later I came back and changed from hotel to hotel every night. I even stayed in a marine casern for a while as well as in a house close to the Israeli embassy, one of the most protected buildings of Holland," the member of parliament said. Van Gogh was stabbed in broad daylight for making "Submission,' a short film showing a naked woman with verses from the Koran written on her body. Hirsi Ali wrote the script, and has now finished the script for a sequel, and even thinks about remaking the first one. Before showing the film on Dutch state television, Hirsi Ali recognized that the film would provoke a strong reaction. "The complete Muslim world will tumble over me," she told the Dutch media in July 2004, a month before the actual showing and three months before the brutal killing. The consequences for Van Gogh and herself turned out to be much more devastating than she could ever imagine. Her life today is one where is she on high alert at all times. She is always surrounded by bodyguards and security cameras. "When people tried to come in via the roof of the house close to the embassy, even there I was not safe anymore." Thirty-six-year old Hirsi Ali, of Somalian descent, became a target of Islamic extremists years ago, when she first publicly criticized Muslim extremism. "I get the threats through e-mail or ordinary post. The safety team tells me which supermarket to go to, never two times to the same one...my face has become too familiar with the people, it has become too dangerous." The daughter of an opponent of the Somalian dictator Siad Barre, Hirsi Ali left her country in 1992 when she was forced to marry a cousin living in Canada. On her way to Canada, she decided to change her travel destination when she was in Germany and took the train to the Netherlands. In three weeks time she received political asylum and changed her name from Ayaan Hirsi Magan to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She quickly learned Dutch and took up a study of social assistant. She later studied political science at the Leiden University. For five years she translated the stories about women refugees and abortion clinics in the Netherlands. Her knowledge and experiences in her youth -- fleeing her country because of her father's political activities and living in Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and Kenya -- made her think as she does today, Hirsi Ali has often said when asked how she developed her views. Growing up in an orthodox Islamic family, her grandmother forced her to undergo a female circumcision against the wishes of her father. Much later, Hirsi Ali became one of the fierce opponents of the tradition, often applied in African families. In one of her first books "De Zoontjesfabriek (The Sons'Factory)," she wrote about how her personal life shaped her political views. "When my grandmother was asked how many children she had, she answered: 'One,' she writes. She had nine daughters and a son. She said the same about our family, that there was only one child. "What about us?" my sister and I asked. "You will bring forth sons for us," she replied. "I had to become a sons' factory. I was nine then." Around the same time of the book's publication in October 2002 Hirsi Ali changed switched from the Dutch Labour Party to Liberal party. She felt that Labour Party, which was always defending a multicultural society, did not know enough about the Islamic community. "I like the fact that the liberals watch the individual rather than a community. In this country, in this democracy, everyone has the right to be a free and responsible civilian," she said. Despite the increasing number of death threats, Ali said she must speak out. "In the West people lost their instinct for fear. Having lived in Africa I immediately feel real danger, my instinct to detect it is very well developed. And believe me, it is urgently needed to act." The danger Ali speaks about is that of growing extremism among radical Muslims in the West -- a process which, specifically in the Netherlands, seems to pose many difficulties, as has been recognized in different official reports. These changes have been recognized by members of the Moroccan community as well. "People such as Mohammed Ajouaou were initially very critical about my ideas. Now he is standing around me to give support," she said. Ajouaou is a theologist living in the Netherlands of Moroccan descent, who regularly warned for growing extremism among young Muslims. "As my family does not want to have contact with me at this moment in time, I need support from other people. Fortunately I have group of close friends to sustain me," she said. Another way to be kept informed about what is happening in the Muslim world is the meetings Ali holds every six weeks with a small circle of Moroccan women. "They tell me what is going on in their community. Besides, it is essential to keep on working for the liberalization of the rights of Muslim women," she said. "Sometimes in the supermarket women give me flowers or they hug me saying 'I voted for you'. Such encounters strengthen me to continue my fight," Ali stated deliberately. "As long as I have protection my task is to help people with similar ideas." Despite the encouragement here and there, at home in her apartment in surroundings of The Hague, Hirsi Ali is engaged in a dispute with the neighbors who fear their safety with her living nearby. The also claim the apartment, bought by the Ministry of Finance last year to provide a safe home to people being threatened, decreases the price of their own properties. Ali won the initial court case at the end of the year. "I actually have one wish, and that is to meet my parents again. I love them very much. I am willing to meet them as soon as they are ready to," Hirsi Ali said, as she glanced away. 060331 024347 Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 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