Submission

On November 2, 2004, Mohammed Bouyeri shot and stabbed to death the filmmaker Theo van Gogh, a descendent of Vincent van Gogh's brother.

Pinned to van Gogh's chest with a knife was a five-page letter addressed to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born member of the Dutch Parliament who had foresworn Islam years before. In the letter, which quoted the Koran extensively, Bouyeri wrote:

"I know definitely that you, O America, will go down. I know definitely that you, O Europe, will go down. I know definitely that you, O Netherlands, will go down. I know that you, O Hirsi Ali, will go down."

Earlier that year, Hirsi Ali and van Gogh had collaborated to produce a film called SUBMISSION about the mistreatment of women in Islamic cultures.

Now a resident of the US, Hirsi Ali continues to be an outspoken critic of Islamic cultural oppression. Her autobiographical book INFIDEL tells the story of how a young Somali woman subjected to genital mutilation and educated by radical imams found and embraced freedom in the West.

Rogier van Bakel interviewed Hirsi Ali for the November 2007 issue of reason magazine; you can read the interview here.