I am not surprised that Ayaan Hirsi Ali opposes Donald Trump’s misguided Muslim immigration and travel ban. She characterizes it as “a bad idea” in “a long-term ideological war.”

But Hirsi Ali also has other reasons to oppose the idea. Let us remember that she sought asylum in this country in 2006 after the Dutch government attempted to strip her of citizenship when it was revealed that she lied on her refugee application in 1992. Let’s be honest. Would the Dutch government have gone after her had she not been so outspoken against the current state of Islam?

With that said, if Trump gets elected and he implements his plan then we could not offer asylum to someone so brave like Hirsi Ali and this country would be the poorer for it.

While I think it is entirely reasonable to place restrictions on the number of Syrian refugees we accept and give Muslim immigration greater scrutiny than non-Muslim immigration on national security grounds, Trump’s Muslim travel and immigration proposal cannot tell the difference between terrorists like San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik and brave Muslim dissidents like Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Denying Hirsi Ali and other Muslim dissidents asylum would be akin to this country turning its back on Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn during the 1970’s.

Somehow I doubt that Trump knows who Ayaan Hirsi Ali is and the things for which she stands. If Trump did know, would he have put forward such a proposal?