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Nermin Aydemir
JTW
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Friday, 9 January 2009
When talking about the murder of the controversial director-writer Theo van Gogh, Ayaan Ali Hirsi has been largely left out of account. Indeed, Hirsi Ali is one of the two main actors of the case. His last film, “Submission”, in which van Gogh strongly criticized Islam, is seen as the major reason of his murder. Van Gogh made the film with his close friend Hirsi Ali. The scenario was written by her and she was the leading actress. Namely, Hirsi Ali played not a less significant role than that of van Gogh in the film. And Hirsi Ali attracted strong negative reaction from the Muslim society, in the Netherlands, not less than that of van Gogh.
The Submission is a short documentary, made with the intention of giving messages to the public. The main idea of this film rests on the argument that Islam discriminates against women. Van Gogh and Hirsi Ali together strongly argued that Islam accepted the violence against female. Consequently; the Submission fuelled the already present tension in the Dutch society. Meanwhile, this documentary was not the first case, annoying the Muslim community of the Netherlands. Hirsi Ali also used to give speeches insulting Islam before the film Submission. The murderer of van Gogh had pinned the name of Hirsi Ali on the body of van Gogh and mentioned her name, who was the next to be killed. After the film was shown on TV and as the tension rose in the Netherlands considerably, Hirsi Ali accepted protection of the Dutch police. On the other side, van Gogh had refused such kind of protection.
The Profile: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Hirsi Ali was born in 1969, in Somalia. She had to leave her country after the age of six because her father was an opposition figure against the Somalia dictator Mohammed Said Barre. Hirsi Ali lived in Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kenya. (1) Sure enough, she encountered serious pressure in these countries such as female circumcision and arranged marriage (to be forced to marry a man without her consent). In her way to Canada, where, her arranged spouse was waiting her, she took refuge with the Netherlands in 1992. After graduating from university, from the department of politics, Hirsi Ali joined to the PvdA (Partij van de Arbeit, the Labor Party) in 1997. In 2002 she changed his hearth to the VVD (Volks Partij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) as she found the policies of the PvdA on immigration too moderate. Hirsi Ali then became a member of the Dutch parliament in 2003, and currently deals especially with integration and woman rights in her post. (2)
Hirsi Ali is an ex-Muslim and prominent with her strict opposition against Islam, particularly in its form which she views radical. As it is mentioned before, she experienced several difficulties before arriving to the Netherlands. The fact that Hirsi Ali accuses Islam as the principal source of all these difficulties, ascertains the tension between different elements in the Dutch society. This makes her to be perceived provocative among the Muslims, especially among radical groups of this belief. Hirsi Ali experienced serious discrimination in countries she lived before, solely due to being female. What causes problems is that, she identifies all her bad experiences such as female circumcision, arranged marriage, and many other kinds of suppression against female in underdeveloped countries with the Islamic belief. To illustrate, killing a woman by throwing stones- due to infidelity- is rather a sign of underdevelopment than being a practice of Islam. Nevertheless, Hirsi Ali, together with the racist politician Geert Wilders, cited this practice as if a usual practice in Muslim countries. (3) Furthermore, she closed all the ways of communication with her accusatory style when a group of diplomats of some Muslim countries requested an excuse due to her accusations against Islam her article. Even it is accepted that Hirsi Ali is sincere in her struggle to improve the status Muslim women, her style creates completely the reverse. It does not seem possible to solve problems through identifying such a tradition with Islam and handling an unpracticed issue, as tragic as Hirsi Ali does. Furthermore, dealing with such an issue with one of the most radical racist politicians of the Netherlands creates reasonable grounds for suspicion. The socio-economic background behind the problems should be evaluated seriously in order to overcome problems. The fact that one of the three biggest religions of the world with one and a half billion believers is charged with the “barbarism” and “criminality”, creates a “clash of civilizations” in the centre of multiculturalism. The situation becomes much more complex when it is taken into consideration that, 900,000 Muslims live in the Netherlands and consists of almost the %6 of the Dutch population.
Just as the brutal tradition, given above, neither female circumcision nor arranged marriages have anything to do with Islam. In addition to these, calling Islam “backward” and pouring scorn on the Prophet Mohammed is not the answer of problems. (4) All these do nothing but divide the Dutch society sharply into the Christian Dutch and the Muslims and raise the already present tension on both of these sides in a very terrible sense. On her first interview after the murder of van Gogh, Hirsi Ali stated that she felt sorry for naming the Muslim Prophet as pervert as he had married his spouse when she was very young. She acknowledged that she had better took the context of that era and society rather than the one of the modern world into consideration. All these raise the hopes of finding solutions to problems between different cultures. Nevertheless, the word she had chosen in the place of pervert was pedophile. Because of all these, Hirsi Ali is perceived rather provocative than someone who tries to analyze the situation.
Besides these, it is not clear what Hirsi Ali means by “humanizing Islam through critics”. Van Gogh had also expressed that he liked “functional insulting”, and did nothing but continuously insulted Muslims. However, this only led to increase further the tension in the Dutch public opinion to such an extent that even the basic values of the country of multiculturalism disappeared.
Concluding Remarks
Hirsi Ali is not an ordinary name in the field of politics. She has been chosen as one of the hundred most effective people of the world by the American magazine, Time this year. (5) As originating from a Muslim country and being a successful politician in a very important European country she can do many in overcoming the tension between different cultures. Nevertheless, Hirsi Ali does not seem to take on such a role. The fact that serious problems take place in the Muslim world is undeniable. Indeed, different underdeveloped regions, in which the Christian practice or any other identity domains are not immune from these. It is very important to realize that the drawbacks of the economic and social structures in the underdeveloped regions cause the humiliation of women and many other matters rather than Islam. Even if it is accepted that Hirsi Ali is sincere in her mission to help women of the Muslim countries, it is not logical to blame Islam as the source of these problems. Evaluating the causes of underdevelopment could be much more functional in overcoming the trouble. Otherwise, people should accept the responsibility of destroying the multicultural characteristics and humanitarian values of the modern Europe if they continue insulting a religion and all its members.
(1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3322399.stm
(2) http://www.parlement.com/9291000/biof/02411
(3) http://www.vvd.nl/teksten/p_ni_li.asp?ItemID=80&ID=4377
(4) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4183697.stm
(5) http://www.parlement.com/
(6) Further information about Ayaan Hirsi Ali can be found on www.ayaanhirsiali.nl
JTW, Ankara
Nermin Aydemir (naydemir@usakgundem.com)
Turkish Opposition to Rasmussen as the Head of NATO 
