Even after she's gone, the Dutch have a Hirsi Ali problem

Although acting nobly, the Dutch seem to be of two minds on how to avoid becoming "Eurabia." The affair Ayaan Hirsi Ali is forcing the Dutch to think hard but not always correctly.

Ms. Hirsi Ali became partly the victim of her own success. Exaggerated fears of colonization by Islam have lent great support to Ms. Verdonk's tough stance and literalist reading of Dutch immigration law. What goes for an anonymous asylum seeker should also go for a celebrity politician.

And Ms. Hirsi Ali's tough secularism, partly modeled on French republicanism, alienated the more conservative faction within her own liberal party.

More generally, Ms. Hirsi Ali lost the support of a part of Dutch public opinion. Some even said they would not regret her departure. Even though most of them agree with her views on Islam, they seemed to grow wary of their constant repetition and of the media attention lavished on her. The murder of Theo van Gogh -- a film director who was shot and stabbed by a radical Muslim for collaborating with Ms. Hirsi Ali on "Submission," a movie about Islam's treatment of women -- convinced many Dutchmen that she created more problems than she had solved.

Ms. Hirsi Ali has always been more popular among intellectuals than with ordinary Dutchmen. Reports and pictures of her dining with high society in Washington and New York met with a populist backlash against her. "Act normal" is still very much a feature of Dutch self-image, even if Holland is in fact the most liberal country in Western Europe, sometimes extravagantly so.