Prior to coming to the United States, Somalian immigrant and ex-Muslim activist, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, lived in the Netherlands. It was there that she rose to fame as a parliamentarian and outspoken activist against her former religion, Islam. Together with Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, she made a film about women in Islam called, "Submission, Part 1". For that, van Gogh was brutally murdered on a Dutch street by a Muslim immigrant, and Ali had to live under security. She later moved to the US.
The Dutch, like other Europeans, are getting only one side of the George Floyd story, and as a result, protests and riots are breaking out in European cities. From the US, Ali has sent out some of her thoughts about the US on Twitter, and fortunately, they have been picked up by the Dutch daily, De Telegraaf and translated into Dutch.
Therefore, I think it is worthwhile to translate the article from De Telegraaf.
https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1261944244/ayaan-hirsi-ali-samenleving-is-verre-van-racistisch
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Society is far from racist
Dated today (6-10-20)
Washington: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has spoken out from America about the Black Lives Matter protests. The opinion-maker argues that American society offers people the possibility to be themselves.
Hirsi Ali speaks out against the media. She is bothered by the fact that journalists draw a difference in skin color when it concerns the behavior of police officers towards black or white people, but not when it concerns criminality. " Then you don't get the whole story," says Hirsi Ali.
According to her, America is the best place on earth for blacks, women, homosexuals, transgender, or what have you, to be. "We have our problems, and so we must continue to address them. But our society and systems are far from racist."
Black Lives Matter Protest
In the past weeks, there have been large protests in the US after the death of the black arrestee, George Floyd. Originally, the protests were anarchist, with police cars set on fire and shops plundered. Over time, the protests have seemed to become more peaceful and more political.
The protests have also spread to Europe. Here they are, in the most cases, pleasant, with incidents and unrest here and there, but there is fear it can turn around.
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