Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection
By BBC
Added: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 UTC
Thanks to John Sargeant for the link. Maybe those of you in the EU can lobby your Euro MPs?
Reposted from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7245729.stm
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch MP and outspoken critic of Islam, has appealed to the EU to create a fund to help protect people in her position.
She told the European Parliament in Brussels her life was in greater danger because the Dutch government had stopped paying for her security.
"I don't want to die, I want to live and I love life," she said.
Ms Ali added that the cost of her bodyguards was beyond anything a private person could raise.
The Somali-born former MP has been living under police protection since the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in 2004.
She was threatened in a note left on his body for writing the script for Van Gogh's Submission - a highly controversial film alleging that women were being abused under Islam.
But she left the Netherlands for the United States in 2006 after a political row in which she admitted lying in her Dutch asylum request.
She now works for a conservative think-tank in the US and the Dutch government has said it can no longer justify paying for her security.
Full-time job
Ms Ali said she had been working full-time on raising funds.
Dozens of MEPs have signed a declaration backing the creation of a fund.
But for the initiative to become official, half of the parliament's 785 will have to back the petition.
Earlier this week she announced she was seeking French citizenship.
She said the campaign for her to receive honorary French citizenship was being spearheaded by a group of French intellectuals and was supported by the country's political leaders.
"Europe needs to defend her because she has defended Europe," French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy told MEPs.
Tweet
RELATED CONTENT
The faithful must learn to respect...
Lawrence Krauss - The Guardian 44 Comments
Tensions between religion and science will persist unless believers recognise that skepticism is a hallmark of science.
Outward displays of belief in God have become a proxy for trustworthiness in the US. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP
LA Black Atheist Group Calls For ‘Day...
- - CBS - Los Angeles 20 Comments
LA Black Atheist Group Calls For ‘Day Of Solidarity' - Feb 26th
Calls to Behead Indonesian Atheist...
Presi Mandari - Jakarta Globe 166 Comments

Calls to Behead Indonesian Atheist Alexander Aan
Julian Baggini - FT.com 34 Comments
Godlessness is the last big taboo in the US, where non-believers face discrimination and isolation
Press Release - Center for Inquiry 84 Comments

Black Nonbelievers Speak Out
More rubbish about "shrill" atheists -...
Russell Blackford - Metamagician and... 89 Comments
MORE BY BBC
Catholic Church in anti-gay marriage...
BBC - BBC News - Scotland 97 Comments
"Governments do not have the authority to say what marriage is or to change its nature or to decree that people of the same sex can marry."
Time travel: light speed results cast...
BBC - BBC News Science & Environment 45 Comments
Physicists have confirmed the ultimate speed limit for the packets of light called photons - making time travel even less likely than thought.
Vatican recalls Irish papal envoy after...
BBC - BBC News website 54 Comments
"The fact that I have had thousands of messages from around the world speaks for itself about the impact and the way people feel," he said.
UPDATE: FALSE STORY Jerusalem rabbis...
BBC - BBC News website 154 Comments
A Jewish rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a stray dog it feared was the reincarnation of a lawyer who insulted its judges, reports say.
BBC - Youtube - wedontknowanything 93 Comments
BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture 1996 -...
BBC - YouTube - GodTheHypothesis 47 Comments



















Comments
Comment RSS Feed
Please sign in or register to comment
View Comments Page