Dutch MP To Quit Amid Asylum Row
BBC NewsMay 16, 2006
Controversial Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali has said she will resign after admitting lying on her asylum application. Ms Ali said she will quit after the country's immigration minister said the MP's citizenship might be invalid.
A fierce critic of conservative Islam, Ms Ali rose to prominence in 2004 after a film-maker colleague, Theo van Gogh, was murdered by a Muslim extremist.
She has since had police protection, amid threats from Islamic extremists.
Ms Ali wrote the script for Van Gogh's TV film Submission, which angered many Muslims.
'Saddened but relieved'
Ms Ali announced her decision at a news conference in the Hague.
"Today I resign as a member of parliament," she was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
"I will leave the Netherlands, saddened but also relieved. I will pack my bags. I will go on."
Ms Ali came under pressure to resign after a Dutch television programme broadcast details of her falsified, 1992 asylum application.
Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk said in the light of the programme other facts, Ms Ali's citizenship was unlikely to be valid.
Dutch media has reported that Ms Ali will go to work for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, in Washington.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4986418.stm
Published: 2006/05/16 12:38:20 GMT
© BBC MMVI
Controversial Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali has said she will resign after admitting lying on her asylum application. Ms Ali said she will quit after the country's immigration minister said the MP's citizenship might be invalid.
A fierce critic of conservative Islam, Ms Ali rose to prominence in 2004 after a film-maker colleague, Theo van Gogh, was murdered by a Muslim extremist.
She has since had police protection, amid threats from Islamic extremists.
Ms Ali wrote the script for Van Gogh's TV film Submission, which angered many Muslims.
'Saddened but relieved'
Ms Ali announced her decision at a news conference in the Hague.
"Today I resign as a member of parliament," she was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
"I will leave the Netherlands, saddened but also relieved. I will pack my bags. I will go on."
Ms Ali came under pressure to resign after a Dutch television programme broadcast details of her falsified, 1992 asylum application.
Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk said in the light of the programme other facts, Ms Ali's citizenship was unlikely to be valid.
Dutch media has reported that Ms Ali will go to work for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, in Washington.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4986418.stm
Published: 2006/05/16 12:38:20 GMT
© BBC MMVI
posted by Unknown | 6:10 AM
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