If this were Fark I’d give it the “Obvious” tag, not so much for what Hirsi Ali says but for why it won’t happen.

Dutch author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the target of death threats for her criticism of radical Islam, says Muslims must demonstrate their anger when terrorism is committed in the name of religion, just as they did last year when newspapers published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Muslims must make a moral choice to defy extremists who use their religion to justify terrorism, the Somali-born former Dutch lawmaker said during a debate late Tuesday in London organized by a think tank, the Center for Social Cohesion.

“Muslims, I believe, should take to the streets when, in the name of their prophet, people are beheaded and passengers are blown up — not only when drawings of Prophet Muhammad are made,” she said, referring to last year’s mass protests in Muslim countries over Danish newspaper cartoons.

Sitting a few meters (yards) behind her on the stage was a bodyguard, a reminder that she lives under round-the-clock protection since the 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam.

Van Gogh was shot and stabbed by a Muslim radical offended by the film “Submission” about oppressed Muslim women, for which Hirsi Ali wrote the script. The killer, now serving a life sentence, pinned a letter threatening Hirsi Ali on Van Gogh’s chest with a knife.

The location of the debate was kept secret until the last minute, and the audience of policy makers, academics and journalists was carefully selected.

They have to be, lest someone sneak in and kill her. And that says all that needs to be said, doesn’t it.

Read the whole thing to hear from former radical Islamist and now moderate Muslim Ed Husain. He says some encouraging things. But the fight he’s in is very much uphill and against the winds and the tides.