17 May 2006

AMSTERDAM — Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk was compelled in the early hours of Wednesday morning to reconsider whether Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Dutch citizen.

A majority of the political parties in parliament backed two motions on the issue. One calls on Verdonk to reconsider within six weeks whether Hirsi Ali is a Dutch citizen. The second instructs the Minister to grant Hirsi Ali accelerated naturalisation if she finds she is not a citizen of the Netherlands.

During eleven hours of debate on Tuesday, Verdonk parried criticism from parties on both the left and right of the political spectrum about her treatment of former Liberal MP Hirsi Ali.

Verdonk, also a member of the Liberal Party (VVD), continually exasperated MPs as she defended her decision to send Hirsi Ali a letter on Monday to say her naturalisation in 1997 was invalid. This flows from the use of a false name and date of birth by Somali-born Hirsi Ali to get asylum five years earlier.

The letter was the last straw that led Hirsi Ali to resign with immediate effect from parliament on Tuesday and formally announce she is moving to Washington to work for a neo-conservative think tank.

She had intended to resign next September. Recently a court ruled she has to leave her rented home in The Hague. Neighbours took the case because of safety fears arising from the fact Hirsi Ali's life has repeatedly been threatened.

To the incredulity of much of the Second Chamber, Verdonk repeated several times she had not determined, but rather 'observed', Hirsi Ali's naturalisation was invalid. Hirsi Ali was given six weeks to respond with arguments to convince the Minister otherwise. If she fails to do so, she will lose her Dutch passport.

Verdonk told parliament she had based this 'observation' on a ruling in the Dutch Supreme Court which left her with no option.

This standpoint was repeated challenged as MPs accused the Minister of wrongly interpreting the judgement and unnecessarily rushing to send the letter.

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