A Wanted Woman

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Is the U.S. ready for Ayaan Hirsi Ali? If this slight and elegant woman's arrival in Washington sets off even half the clamor her departure from Dutch politics did, the capital better start girding itself. Last week, the Somali-born Member of the Dutch Parliament, an outspoken critic of the Muslim religion she was born into, announced her resignation to take up a fellowship at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (aei).

But what a send-off: Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, a member of same liberal vvd party as Hirsi Ali, announced that because Hirsi Ali had given a false name and age when she applied for Dutch asylum in 1992, her citizenship was officially rendered "not granted." Threats from intolerant Muslims are at the root of Hirsi Ali's departure — she's been under police protection for more than three years and last month a court ruled that because her presence endangered her neighbors, she'd have to move house by the end of August.

But the spectacle of Verdonk also hounding Hirsi Ali provoked outrage. "This is ludicrous," says Ahmed Aboutaleb, an Amsterdam alderman who has often been at odds with Hirsi Ali over integration issues. "This woman risked her life for her opinions. You can't abandon her like this." U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick called her "a very courageous and impressive woman" and said she'd be welcome in the U.S. The outcry has probably improved Hirsi Ali's chances of retaining her Dutch citizenship after a six-week appeal period — but she's leaving anyway.

The row has boosted Hirsi Ali's visibility — not that the aei is complaining. "Controversy isn't something we avoid; we're not a timorous institution," says its president, Christopher DeMuth. Hirsi Ali's studies into the confrontation of Islam with "the post-Enlightenment world" are a good fit with the aei, DeMuth says. But one of Hirsi Ali's most prominent Dutch collaborators, University of Amsterdam sociologist Paul Scheffer, says some of her new fans in the U.S. might be in for a surprise. "They'll discover that she's an atheist who is very critical about the role of Christianity in politics, too."