Dutch Outrage

While Perusing the Belmont Club,I came across a post which made my blood boil. It seems that murder threats by Islamists against a pair of Dutch parliamentarians has resulted in their being kept in prison cells and a high security military base FOR MONTHS. Rather than take steps to protect these lawmakers from Islamists, they have been locked away from the public and hindered from representing their constitutencies.

A Somali-born Dutch politician who received death threats after making a film critical of Islam has revealed she has been living in hiding on a naval base, a newspaper reported on Friday.

NRC Handelsblad said Ayaan Hirsi Ali had revealed her secret residence on a navy base to protest against the circumstances of her hiding.

"I want to live in a place of which everybody knows: here lives a threatened member of parliament, and he or she is safe here," Hirsi Ali was quoted as saying.

Hirsi Ali returned to public life last month after 75 days in hiding following threats to her life after she made a film critical of Islam with Theo van Gogh, who was murdered on Nov. 2.

The newspaper said Hirsi Ali was living on a heavily guarded navy base in Amsterdam, while anti-immigration populist Geert Wilders, whose life has also been threatened, was sleeping in a prison cell in the central Dutch town of Zeist.

Ali blames Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner for the situation.

The Liberal VVD said she revealed the secret locations due to "fear that it would be discovered by other people", the newspaper reported.

"I want to live in a place that everyone knows is where a threatened MP lives. That's the way it is in
countries such as the US and Israel, but also in Italy and Spain," she said.

Hirsi Ali said the secret living circumstances are "very unjust and poignant". She claimed the principle of free speech was threatened by the security philosophy employed by Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and the national protection and security service NCBB.

She claimed the philosophy is one in which anyone is threatened must be "hidden away". Hirsi Ali asserted further that the government was inadvertently assisting those who were opposed to her.

The response from other lawmakers has been critical -- of Ali. Some have even suggested that she and Wilders resign from Parliament because of the threats, in effect giving in to the terrorists. When will the Dutch grow some b@lls and deal effectively with the terrorist threat in their midst?