Dutch Muslims have been calling for stripping Hirsi of her parliamentary membership

AMSTERDAM, August 31 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Dutch Muslims and human rights activists expressed Tuesday, August 31, their deep disgust and outrage at a film broadcast on national television tarnishing Islam’s stance on women’s rights, saying they found the hatred-inciting 11-minute clip “extremely insulting”.

They hit out at the film’s scriptwriter right-wing anti-Islam MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, pointing out that she depended on stereotypes and hoary-old traditions that had nothing to do with Islam.

Ayyoub Mohammad Ajoeb of the Muslim Information Center said the film “is yet another attempt at provocation by Hirsi Ali”.

“She is the most frustrated politician in our country. She creates a culture of fear around Islam by trying to portray it as a backward culture,” he told Scotsman.com.

Ceylan Weber of the Al Nisa Foundation for Muslim Women said Hirsi’s “irrational, insensitive approach will only drive the issue [of domestic violence] further underground”.

“She has absolutely no clue about the complexity of domestic violence,” said Weber, who has worked for years with abused women.

Submission, the name of the English-language film broadcast Sunday night, August 29, tells the fictional story of a young Muslim woman forced into an arranged marriage with a man who beats her.

She is ordered to keep silent about being raped by her uncle to protect his honor. She is later punished for having an adulterous relationship with a man she falls in love with at a market.

The almost naked body of the actress on which Hirsi Ali painted verses from the Noble Qur’an, is shown with inflamed lacerations to the sound of a cracking whip.

Steven Huismans, the director of Holland's Institute for Multicultural Development, told British daily Telegraph: "What she is doing is really provocative."

Nabil Marouch, head of the Dutch wing of the Arabic European League, added: "If the public keeps listening to Ayaan Hirsi, it will do great damage to integration."

Penniless Somali Refugee

Hirsi arrived in Holland as a penniless refugee in 1992 after sneaking across the German border, escaping an arranged marriage as she claimed.

She did not speak a word of Dutch. Finding jobs as a cleaner, she went on to study political science at Leiden University.

She was catapulted into the limelight for her incessant verbal assault against Islam, making use of the anti-Muslim seismic waves stirred by the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. She prefers to call herself an “ex-Muslim”.

In an interview with the Dutch daily Trouw on January 25 last year, Hirsi shocked as many as one million Muslims living in the Netherlands by branding Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) with some abhorrent, repugnant descriptions, stirring up feelings of anger and antagonism towards her.

Having no inkling about Islam or Shari'ah (Islamic law) as it appears in her curriculum vitae, Ayaan said the Prophet (PBUH) was a “despotic, narrow-minded and violent” man, who killed whoever stood in his way.

Muslim organizations, as well as the Dutch Liberal Party (VVD), which has some 28 seats in the parliament, had called for stripping Hirsi of her parliamentary membership and to pressure her into backtracking on her degrading remarks.

As far as Islam is concerned, a father cannot force his daughter to get married to someone she does not approve of. If forced by threats to show consent, she can complain to a judge, who, in turn, annuls the marriage contract.