Why would a liberal think-tank want to hire someone who has made a career out of bashing Islam?
[WS:] Because Islam, like any other religion (or nationalist ideology) is a fair game. I think liberals should invite more bashing of religion, not less. Religion is what is doing them in, slowly but surely.
Selective? Can't bash everything at the same time. Besides, one needs to know something about the object of his/her bashing to do it effectively.
As to your comments re. the pillarization system, I think it is a mixed blessing. I think of it as laissez faire with a human face - basically the government financing faith based institutions and otherwise taking the "hands off" approach. It worked in the past not because of its merits - it was basically a cope-out, albeit a good one - but because of the general secularization of the Dutch (and European) society.
The system worked, so to speak because it shed its religious character and became a mere service delivery mechanism. In other words, it worked, because nobody pulled the sectarian card implicitly embedded in it due to general secularization of society. That is, not until the arrival of Muslim immigrants who were not secular at all and milked the system big time to advance their religious cause.
I think today this way of service delivery is an exception to avoid rather than an example to follow.
As to Hirsi Ali - every time a woman is blamed or chastised for some social problem, I become suspicious, regardless of whether she is an immigrant, a politician, or for that matter, a US Army general.
Wojtek