Tour threats

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was scheduled to speak in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland. The leader of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia, Uthman Badar, said in March that he supported death for apostates. Hirsi Ali is a critical apostate of Islam and has required constant security since the 2004 murder of her fellow film-maker, Theo van Gogh, by a Muslim.

The organisation hosting her and the venues at which she was to speak were warned that there would be trouble. Hirsi Ali subsequently cancelled her tour for a number of reasons, including security concerns.

You can still listen to Hirsi Ali in her internet videos in which she is polite, knowledgeable, reasonable and articulate. But even so, suppression of expression by the threat of Muslim violence has come to New Zealand.

Barrie Davis, Wellington