Monday, May 15, 2006

Their Loss, Our Gain

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is moving to America this fall. I say: Welcome!

Amazing that she'd be moving to the repressive U.S., isn't it? Wait until she discovers how terrible the oppression is here for people of conscience!

Fascinating that a woman with her political history is taking a job at the American Enterprise Institute.

That should set a-spinning the heads of those from across the spectrum who struggle with nuance, complex perspective and the concept of holding multiple, and sometimes conflicting, thoughts at the same time.

I say: Welcome to that, too!

Update: Here is an additional twist having to do with Hirsi Ali lying about certain facts on her application for asylum in The Netherlands back in 1992. She is expected to appear at a press conference tomorrow.

Obviously, I can't and don't approve of or condone providing false information on such applications, and I want to see what Hirsi Ali says in a press conference tomorrow. She needs to shoot absolutely straight on this one.

In and of itself, however, this revelation does not cancel out her great courage over the past several years, although--so far as we know the story now, and depending on how it plays out--it certainly may tarnish certain parts of her credibility.

Time will tell.

Update II: Thanks to a commenter for bringing to my attention this article, published on Saturday, that I missed over the weekend.

Hirsi Ali, 36, said Saturday she was puzzled by the uproar since she publicly acknowledged the false refugee application when she stood for parliament in 2002.

"Have they all gone mad?" she said, accusing her rivals of a political vendetta.

"Yes, I did lie to get asylum in Holland. This is public knowledge since at least September 2002," she said in a telephone call from Hamburg, Germany.


Personally, I don't find it puzzling that this is causing a flap at this time, and nor do I think Hirsi Ali does, either.

Do you?

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