Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali cancels tour

Liberal MP Tim Wilson says Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s cancelled tour represents the way modern activists are hijacking public debate.

Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali has cancelled her Australian tour.

Prominent anti-Islamist activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali has blamed security concerns and “organisational lapses’’ on the part of her hosts as the reasons behind her can­cellation of her Australian visit.

Ms Hirsi Ali had planned to fly into Australia yesterday for a week of media events and ticketed public talks in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, and then Auckland, but just hours before she was due to arrive and appear on the ABC’s flagship Q&A program, she cancelled, leaving organisers perplexed. The decision also took police and sec­urity agencies by surprise, none of whom appeared to have any inkling she was under a specific threat.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali cancelled her tour to Australia at the last minute and will not be appearing on tonight's #qanda. #staytuned

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) April 2, 2017

In a statement issued yesterday morning, Think Inc, the group that planned her tour, said for a number of reasons, “including sec­urity concerns’’, the 47-year-old would not be coming.

Ms Hirsi Ali’s outspoken views on Islam, which she has described as a “nihilistic cult of death’’, have generated countless death threats against her and ensured she lives in a constant state of high alert.

The Somali-born Hirsi Ali underwent female genital mutilation as a child before fleeing to The Netherlands. In 2005 she was named among the 100 most influential people by Time magazine. She now lives in the US.

While her proposed visit had attracted the ire of Muslim community groups, security sources were last night scratching their heads at her decision to cancel her tour, saying there were no known threats against her.

An Australian Federal Police spokesman confirmed the agency was aware of media reports that Ms Hirsi Ali’s visit had been cancelled, but “the AFP was not asked to provide advice on security ­arrangements in this case”.

Police sources in the Queensland, Victorian and NSW forces told a similar story, with none aware of any threat.

It was reported last month that potential large-scale protests were planned at the Melbourne Festival Hall venue where Ali was scheduled to speak.

A petition organised by a group of Australian Muslim women garnered around 400 signatures online, condemning the tour and saying Ms Hirsi-Ali’s “divisive rhetoric simply serves to increase hostility and hatred towards ­Muslims”.

It was organised in part by community activist and restaurateur Hana Assafiri and Sherene Hassan, a board director of the Islamic Museum of Australia. Ms Assafiri was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women early last month for her contribution to her local community.

One of the founders of Think Inc, Desh Amila, was bewildered. “We hadn’t been given any specific set of information by police. This is as abrupt as it gets.’’

Mr Amila said ticket sales to Ms Hirsi Ali’s events had been buoyant, or at any rate had met organisers’ expectations.

As the day wore on, Ms Hirsi Ali’s publicist, Leonie Phillips, ­issued a second statement, this one laying the blame for the cancelled visit at the feet of organisers.

“Ayaan Hirsi Ali regrets that, for a number of reasons, including security concerns, she must cancel her upcoming appearances in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland,’’ she said.

“She is very disappointed indeed about this but was left with no alternative following a succession of organis­ational lapses on the part of the event organisers, Think Inc. Nevertheless, she wishes Think Inc success … and hopes to be able to return to Australia in the not too distant future.”

‘Disturbing trend in Australia’

Internationally renowned author and anti-Islam campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali has pulled out of her Q&A appearance and cancelled her upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand, citing security concerns as one of the reasons for the decision.

Ms Hirsi Ali lives with around-the-clock security protection due to her criticisms of radical Islamists.

She was due on the ABC’s Q&A program tonight, as well as live in studio on Sydney’s 2GB Radio with Ben Fordham.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali cancelled her tour to Australia at the last minute and will not be appearing on tonight's #qanda. #staytuned

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) April 2, 2017

Liberal MP Tim Wilson said the cancellation of the tour represented the way modern activists were hijacking public debate.

Tim Wilson spoke out against the cancellation.

“It’s a reflection of what happens when modern left progressive activists think that violence or threats of violence or intimidation are a way of dealing with public debate by silencing or censoring people who disagree with them,” he told Sky New’s The Bolt Report.

“This is not the progressive left of the past that has always defended freedom of speech and the contest of ideas, instead of rather than debating ideas, they are just trying to silence their opponents. This is a very disturbing trend in Australian societies, it’s been happening in university campuses in other Western liberal democracies and it will not end well.”

Ms Hirsi Ali was born to a Muslim family in Somalia, but has been a vocal critic of Islam after renouncing the religion. She has attracted critics for speaking out about ­reforming traditional Islam and confronting militant Islam

She has been a controversial figure, earning, according to the event’s organisers, “widespread criticism among the liberal left and death threats from the religious right.”

The event was organised by Think Inc., a Sydney-based organisation that attempts to provoke debate and rational discourse through conversation.

About 2000 tickets had been sold to Ms Hirsi Ali’s speaking events in Australia.

Buyers were being notified by email about the cancellations and will receive refunds.

Ms Hirsi Ali’s trip to Australia had sparked protests from a group of Muslim women who accused her of hate mongering and bigotry.

Nearly 400 people signed an online petition against Ms Hirsi Ali’s speaking tour.

“Against a backdrop of increasing global Islamophobia, Hirsi-Ali’s divisive rhetoric simply serves to increase hostility and hatred towards Muslims,” the petition, posted on Change.org, said.

The Somali-born Dutch-American activist, author, and former politician, is an outspoken opponent of female genital mutilation.

Last month Think Inc said it had been harassed about her appearance.

Its insurers were contacted and warned there could be trouble, and venues where she was scheduled to speak had been contacted and warned that there would be protests where she was due to appear.

Much of this was done by an individual called Syed Murtaza Hussain of the Council for the Prevention of Islamophobia Inc.

He informed Festival Hall in Melbourne there would be 5000 protesters outside the venue if the engagement went ahead. There have been other initiatives, including an abortive appeal on Change.org to prevent Ali from speaking.

Ms Hirsi Ali was elected to the lower house of the Dutch parliament. She moved to the US after receiving death threats for helping to make a short film that showed images of violence against women alongside verses from the Koran.

In a paper written for the Hoover Institute at Stanford University last month, Ms Hirsi Ali argues the public needs to be better educated about the political ideology of Islamists and the ways they recruit and finance their operations so they can reach their ultimate goal of imposing sharia law.

Additional reporting: AAP