Dutch Government Fell Yesterday

This is a headline in the Times today:

"Dispute over Muslim MP leads to fall of coalition"

Blink and you'll miss this. What a very gentle way of saying the Dutch government fell yesterday because one cabinet minister screwed up.

"Jan Peter Balkenende, the Prime Minister, announced that he would hand his resignation to Queen Beatrix today after he failed to heal rifts in his coalition over Ms Verdonk’s decision to strip Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born MP and world-renowned critic of Islam, of her passport."

Who is Ayaan Hirsi Ali and why is she a danger to the community there?

From "The Caged Virgin":

"born in Mogadishu, Somalia, was raised Muslim and spent HER childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia. In 1992, she moved to the Netherlands as a refugee...she denounced Islam after the September 11 attacks and now serves as a Dutch parliamentarian, fighting for the rights of Muslim women in Europe, the enlightenment of Islam and security in the West."

By rescinding her passport she no longer was allowed to remain a Dutch MP.

Well, would you want someone in your country who would dare to write a movie treatment that started with this paragraph:

From Submission, Introduction:

"Amina is a dedicated Muslim woman who dutifully adheres to the rules of the Shari'a. She is surrounded by women who are treated cruelly in the name of Allah: they suffer abuse, marital rape, incest and corporal punishment. These acts of cruelty are justified by verses from the Koran....every day she turns to Allah and prays fervently for an improvement in their circumstances, but Allah remains silent and the cruelties continue" p. 142

Or some uppity female writing things like this?

From Genital Mutilation Must Not be Tolerated:

"...genital mutilation falls under the criminal offense of "willful, grievous bodily harm" as well as an "unqualified practice of medicine"...moreover, genital mutilation of girls falls under the definition of child abuse...Muslim reactionaries as well as all other political parties and politically correct politicians who want to preserve genital mutilation argue against a screening programme." p. 123

"An Islamic fundamentalist murdered Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker who helped me make Submission: Part 1, a film about the relationship between the individual and God...and he threatened to kill me too, a threat that others have also pledged to fulfill." p xii

Isn't it amazing that the government would fall over something so inconsequential?

Isn't the weather beautiful today?