Bruce Bawer provides an excellent counterpoint to the views of Frederik H Coppes in an AT article today. Bawer is a former Bay Area media figure whose work I admired when he lived here, despite some differences in outlook. Bawer now resides in Norway, and is a different man since 9/11. He is the author of While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within.

A sample of his defense of Hirsi Ali:

Even Hirsi Ali's neighbors in The Hague turned on her. A few weeks ago, anxious about living near a woman who was a terrorist target (no matter that she was a target precisely because she was defending their freedoms), other residents in her apartment building won a court battle to evict her. In recent days, Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has gone one better, citing incorrect details on Hirsi Ali's applications for asylum in 1992 and citizenship in 1997 (which Hirsi Ali admitted to, and explained, years ago) as justification for rescinding her Dutch citizenship.

The facts are consistent between the two articles, but the conclusions drawn are opposite, based on differing sympathies. Bawer sees a world at war, while Coppes see the Netherlands' legal system abused. Bawer sees a heroine, Coppes a troublemaker. Both men are being completely honest.

Sometimes what you see really does depend on where you stand.

Thomas Lifson   5 19 06