Muslim women glad Hirsi Ali quit Netherlands

AMSTERDAM, Apr 25 (Reuters) For three years Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali galvanised Dutch society with a frank account of her traumatic past and her conviction that Islam is a violent, misogynous religion.

That conviction led to death threats, the murder of her associate, filmmaker Theo van Gogh and, her critics say, the alienation of precisely those she aimed to engage as relations between Muslims and non-Muslims deteriorated as never before.

Now almost a year since the former Dutch parliamentarian hit headlines worldwide for admitting she lied to gain asylum in the Netherlands, many of the Dutch-Muslim women Hirsi Ali sought to stir and inspire state bluntly they are relieved she is gone.

The 37-year-old now works for a U.S. think-tank, while her international profile as an ex-Muslim critic of Islam soars.

''I am glad that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is gone, because now the tone has softened, it has become less extreme and tensions have eased,'' said Nermin Altintas, who runs an education centre for migrant women.

Hirsi Ali is held responsible by many in the Muslim community for ''Islamising'' the Netherlands' migrants, polarising communities and diverting attention from those trying to boost integration in what they see as a more constructive approach.

''Let her call one woman forward and show how she really helped her,'' said Famile Arslan, a 35-year-old family lawyer.

''We worked for 10, 15, 20 years to help emancipate Muslim women... and she stole the respect we should have had as grass- roots movements working for change.'' POLARISING FORCE In the Netherlands, where the majority of the country's 1 million Muslims are of Moroccan or Turkish background, some of Hirsi Ali's pronouncements on Islam met astonishment.

''Her statements on Islam were very harsh. I have a completely different experience of Islam... as I come from a Turkish cultural background,'' said Altintas.

Hirsi Ali caused uproar by calling Islam ''backward'', and by branding the prophet Mohammad a paedophile and a tyrant. However, it was the film ''Submission'' she wrote for Dutch television which most provoked.

In the short film, an actress whose naked body is covered with a thin veil appeals to God about the violence she believes she must endure in his name, while in other scenes naked women cower with texts from the Koran inscribed on their bodies.

''If she wanted to campaign against violence against women then she shouldn't have written the Koran text on the body, because that was offensive to many of the religious women she claimed she was trying to help,'' said Altintas.

''Her methods were such that rather than attracting Muslim women she pushed them away... She polarised things,'' said 19-year-old student Suzan Yucel from Eindhoven.

The film's director Theo van Gogh was gunned down on an Amsterdam street in 2004 by a Dutch-Moroccan, who stabbed a note to his body addressed to Hirsi Ali warning she would be next.

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