From a reader weighing in on the Hirsi Ali-affair and describing European attitudes:

" Total concern about individual comfort and safety with no regard for present morality or future consequence "

Indeed, and the quote neatly captures one of the core themes of this blog when Europe is on the table. For completeness sake I will give you the entire e-mail to put the quote in context:

The reason the Hirsi Ali story has no traction is that it is so basically and basely European. When I first read about her problem I thought this is Europe today mirrored in an apartment building. Total concern about individual comfort and safety with no regard for present morality or future consequence. Europe after WWII is like France after WWI, a place of total lack of will. During WWII France had a six week retreat and a war long collaboration. Were the lessons learned from Munich, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Vichy, and the Holocaust that evil ignore is evil that goes away?

In the meantime media debate about it remains scant, one of the bigger Dutch blogs notes that a parliamentarian from the Green Left has so far been the only one to raise questions in parliament. Which begs the question, do some have a vested interest - including Hirsi Ali's own party - in staying quiet about this? More in the days ahead.