Ayaan Hirsi Ali - standing up to the crimes of islam

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is working on a follow-up project to "Submission", the controversial film made with murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

Hirsi Ali said the theme for Submission - Part II will be how the Islamic faith oppresses individuals, with a focus on the position of women. She also said that she wants to abolish or phase out Islamic education, rather than "burn it down" immediately.

But Hirsi Ali said she is also writing a book called "Shortcut to Enlightenment", asserting that she hopes to point out a short cut for Muslims to gain enlightenment, evening newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported Monday.

The first Submission was document.write('');
broadcast in August and portrayed women in see-through clothing describing physical abuse within the Islamic community. Anti-women texts from the Koran were daubed on the performers' bodies.

Besides vowing to produce a follow-up to the film, Hirsi Ali also spoke with the NRC about her personal situation, political future and her ideas about the current social climate in the Netherlands. It was her first interview since the 2 November murder of Van Gogh in Amsterdam.

A letter left with Van Gogh's body warned that Hirsi Ali was next, prompting her to go into hiding. She agreed to the interview with the paper only on condition the whereabouts and time of the interview would be kept secret.

The Somali-born MP has several times in the past gone into hiding due to death threats made against her.

An outspoken critic of Islam, she has previously described the prophet Mohammed as a "perverted tyrant" by modern standards for taking a 12-year-old girl as a wife. She is also strongly opposed to the status accorded to women in the Islamic faith.
A 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan, Mohammed B., has been arrested for the murder of Van Gogh. He is allegedly linked to a group of Islamic militants accused of planning the murder of Hirsi Ali and conservative independent MP Geert Wilders.