News from the New Party

Great Danes

The news that the Danish Culture Minister Brian Mikkelsen has proposed offering sanctuary and protection to Ayaan Hirsi Ali is most welcome.  Although the proposal is less than concrete (it depends upon a Danish municipality taking up the challenge - and Ayaan Hirsi Ali may in any case have other plans), the Danes are once again showing themselves willing to stand up and be counted in the battle to defend Enlightenment values and freedoms against intimidation and terror.  James Brandon at the Centre for Social Cohesion reports:

Mikkelsen has asked the country’s municipalities to invite the author and filmmaker to live there under a new parliament proposal to establish several ‘free cities’ for persecuted writers.

"Ayaan Hirsi Ali will be number one on the list of authors we should invite to Denmark," Mikkelsen said on Sunday.

"She has fought for the freedom of expression and has personally received threats on her life."

Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been living under the protection of the Dutch state since 2004.

The Netherlands government however said last week that it would stop paying for her protection as it was too expensive.

Mikkelsen said that Denmark would pay the full cost of protecting the Somali-born writer if she moved to Denmark.

By contrast, the cowardice of the Dutch government continues to reap the inevitable consequences:

A group of dozens of youths in the Slotervaart neighbourhood in western Amsterdam set cars on fire, damaged several other cars and threw stones through the windows of a police station. The riots followed the death of 22-year old Dutch-born Bilal Bajaka, of Moroccan descent.

On Sunday, Bajaka entered the police station of Slotervaart, stabbing two police officers with a knife. Although having sustained serious injuries, one of the officers, a policewoman, shot and killed her alleged attacker on the spot…

From the age of 13 up to his death on Sunday, the police said, Bajaka had been involved in several major criminal incidents, including armed robberies and a series of violent incidents. He was allegedly part of a criminal gang. In addition, police said he was personally acquainted with Mohammed Bouyeri, the convicted killer of the late film director Theo van Gogh, as well as with other Moroccan-Dutch terrorist suspects.

Mohammed Bouyeri and the others allegedly involved in terrorist activities also came from the Slotervaart neighbourhood… Moroccan-Dutch residents of Slotervaart complained to reporters they were ‘sick and tired’ of continuous ‘negative news reports’ about fellow Moroccan-Dutch, adding they felt increasingly stigmatized.

Several television reporters who came to report on the fatal incident at the police station were threatened by Moroccan-Dutch youths. Responding to the riots, Ahmed Marcouch, Moroccan-born chairman of the Slotervaart city council, said ‘it is always the same horrible people spoiling things for everyone.’

Following the infamous "cartoon jihad", Denmark has had to face the wrath of Islamist extremism on an international scale.  It has concluded that there is nothing to be gained by surrendering to such intimidation: those who avoid confrontation in the hope of a quiet life seldom find a quiet life.  This is a lesson that the Dutch have yet to learn.

[Thanks to Melanie Phillips]