Having read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book, Infidel, I have mixed feelings about the woman herself. While I have to admire her for rejecting, escaping from, and speaking out against a culture that oppressess and mutilates women, it seems that she has been especially blind to the effects of her behavior on those around her. Can she really be so naiive that she thinks death threats against her might not bring harm to her neighbors as well if they are carried out? Who can blame the people living nearby in The Hague for not wishing to be collateral damage?

A political opportunist, Ayaan now works for a right-wing, neoconservative think tank called the American Enterprise Institute. These are the people who brought us the Iraq war and the culture war, both of which, at least until recently. have served to keep them in power. Trustees and fellows have included Kenneth Lay, Dick Cheney and his equally charming wife, Lynne, Newt Gingrich, and anti-feminist Christina Hoff Summers. I don't beleive for a minute that the AEI hired Ayaan because it believes in feminism and hopes to end the oppression of women around the world. Rather, it is using her as a political tool to foment increased hatred of Islam and further its own political ends (read new war on Iran). Since Ayaan has signed on to play their game, I think the American Enterprise Institute should pay for her security. Funded by such corporate friends as Phillip Morris, Amoco, and Exxon-Mobil and eight-figure annual income, AEI can surely afford it.

I agree AEI should be able to put up the money...or at least spearhead the fundraising effort. They're already quite close to Ayaan and have close ties to big money; shouldn't be too hard for them to make it happen if they actually give a damn about her. Start an NGO for refugees like her or something to that effect perhaps?

As for the danger which surrounds her I cannot see any blame to be placed; you seem to be implying some degree of which is due. I suppose anyone who fights fascist groups and attempts to enter into society should somehow not have any neighbors any more? This could potentially apply to a wide range of situations...the desegregation movement in our own country, for example. I understand the fear. I wouldn't want my kids to be playing outside when some madman began taking "revenge" for a person claiming their own life to be theirs. Still...perhaps you have a solution? And if no solution, then how is she supposed to behave?

What worries me the most is that it becomes clear that any foreigner in the US is obviously unprotected against crime. Therefore the advise to every foreigner who goes shopping in in new York; take your own protection with you, because the US will not protect you.