Decision to strip Dutch MP of citizenship reversed

The Somali-born Dutch MP and critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is to be allowed to keep her passport and nationality despite falsifying her asylum application 14 years ago, after an international outcry forced a government U-turn.

Six weeks after announcing plans to strip Ms Hirsi Ali of her Dutch citizenship, the country's hardline immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, today reversed the decision which had split the Netherlands and had tarnished the image of the Netherlands as a haven of tolerance.

To make matters worse, Ms Hirsi Ali's neighbours sought to have her evicted from her home, complaining about the inconvenience caused by the security required to guarantee her safety.

Once a devout Muslim, Ms Hirsi Ali lives under 24-hour guard after a death threat against her was pinned to the chest of her ally, the filmmaker Theo Van Gogh. He was murdered in broad daylight in as he cycled to work in 2004.

Ms Hirsi Ali was an outspoken critic of Muslim fundamentalism and worked with Mr Van Gogh on the film Submission which featured veiled women with texts from the Koran written on their flesh.

The passport controversy burst into life after a TV documentary publicised the fact that Ms Hirsi Ali falsified information on her asylum application in 1992.

Fleeing to the Netherlands to escape an arranged marriage, Ms Hirsi Ali gave a false name and birthday - a fact she had acknowledged publicly before accepting a parliamentary seat. The naturalisation process was completed in 1997 and Ms Hirsi Ali became a member of parliament in 2002.

Ms Verdonk's bid to remove her citizenship caused uproar in parliament, prompting criticism even from political allies and dividing the country.

In the storm that followed Ms Hirsi Ali quit parliament and tearfully announced plans to speed up a planned emigration to the US to take up a job at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute think tank in September.

But the foreign media criticised the Netherlands for its failure to support a person who had faced death threats for her criticism of fundamentalist Islam.

The Dutch Parliament also passed motions calling on Ms Verdonk to ensure Ms Hirsi Ali remained a Dutch citizen, whatever the nature of her misdemeanour.

The minister paid a direct price, failing in her attempt to win the leadership of the VVD Liberal Party, despite being the favourite.

Today, in a letter to the Dutch parliament, Ms Verdonk found a figleaf to cover her change of heart, arguing that it had been legitimate for Ms Hirsi Ali to use her grandfather's name rather than her father's name, Hirsi Magen.

She said: "Taking everything into consideration, I have reached the conclusion that the naturalisation decision of 1997 identifies Ayaan Hirsi Ali sufficiently and thus she did indeed correctly receive Dutch citizenship."

"Had it not been for the investigation I carried out, the facts that were decisive in reaching this conclusion would not have come to light." In a statement Ms Hirsi Ali, aged 36, said she regretted admitting lying since the name she adopted was legitimate.

She said: "The name Ali is an essential part of me. The name Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the name that I was permitted to use according to Somalian law and custom and which may therefore serve as the basis for the official registration of my name in the Netherlands."

The minister's letter may not be the end of the matter, however, as Ms Verdonk's many critics will seek to exploit her political difficulties.

Left-wing politicians are likely to scrutinise the ruling to see if it could change affect the cases of at least 60 other people stripped of their Dutch nationality for giving a false name during the asylum process.

Today's announcement followed an agreement reached by senior Cabinet ministers during a meeting in The Hague with the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on Tuesday.

As he left the meeting, the deputy Prime Minister Gerrit Zalm, an ally of Ms Hirsi Ali, told journalists he had "good hope" that the case could be finalised.

Mr Zalm was leader of the VVD when Ms Hirsi Ali was recruited to run for parliament. She told him at the time that she had given a false name to get asylum in the Netherlands in 1992.

- INDEPENDENT