Human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali is controversial for her hardline stance which argues Islam is a misogynistic religion with war at its heart. In 2004 Ali appeared in a short movie about the oppression of women in Islam, and later that year, the Dutch filmmaker was killed by an Islamic extremist who pinned a note to his victim's body saying Ali was next. Ali became a right-wing politician in her adopted home, but resigned following a political scandal over her citizenship status, and soon thereafter, left for the US, where she became a citizen in 2013. Since then she has made a living as a public intellectual speaking against FGM and forced marriage, and has made many controversial claims about her former faith, including that Muslim women are "slaves" and that Islam – as opposed to Islamic terrorism – is a "destructive nihilistic cult of death [which] legitimates murder". The well-respected US hate-watch group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, named Ali in its 2016 "Field Guide to Anti-Islam Extremists".

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox There is no doubting the enormous propaganda value an attack on Ali would have for the Islamic extremist cause. But was it the fear of such an attack that prevented Ali from touring this week? The usual loud voices have been quick to claim the cancellation as proof free speech in this country is being cruelled by politically correct activism and/or the shadowy threat of malevolent Muslims, but the truth is more complex. The security agencies and police are unaware of any specific threat made against Ali by local extremists or would-be terrorists.

So what was she afraid of? In a statement earlier this week, Ali said her cancellation was due to "a number of reasons, including security concerns". She also said there was "a succession of organisational lapses on the part of the event organisers". The event organisers, Think Inc, are bound by a confidentiality agreement with Ali and cannot comment, however it is understood they knew of no specific threat against her. Some reports suggested a "meet and greet" of fans with Ali might have worried her. Other reports mentioned a "threat" made to Festival Hall in Melbourne, where Ali was due to speak on Friday, to bombard the event with 5000 protesters – a number that seems fabulously high. One commentator said this was an attempt to intimidate her.

This threat was made to Festival Hall about a month ago, via email, by a man who said his name was Syed Murtaza Hussain, of the Council for the Prevention of Islamophobia Inc. I can find no record of Mr Hussain anywhere, and his organisation is unknown to the mainstream anti-Islamophobia activists I spoke to. However the Council for the Prevention of Islamophobia is registered as an incorporated entity in Victoria, with its secretary listed as a man called Syed Waseem Razvi. Waseem Razvi is the president and founder of the Melbourne-based Islamic Research and Educational Academy (IREA). He has worrying associations: his organisation has organised several "peace conferences", and the 2013 event featured a speaker line-up including extremist, anti-Semitic bigots.

More recently the group created controversy when it printed promotional flyers for its conference with the faces of the female speakers blacked out. Razvi has also met with a Qatari-based sheikh who supports jihad in Syria and suicide bombers in Israel. But the shadowy Mr Hussain was not the only Muslim voice to object to the tour. Other, entirely respectable, mainstream and peaceful Muslim-Australians publicly criticised Ali ahead of her visit, creating some publicity for it. A group called Voices Against Bigotry last week put out a media information pack on Ali, including quotations detailing her controversial views, offensive to many Muslims.

There was a change.org petition signed by about 400 people, expressing the "utmost disappointment" that Ali was being brought to Australia, but it did not call for the tour's cancellation. Finally, there was a widely-shared video featuring Australian Muslim women speaking to the camera and telling Ali "you do not speak for me". These women did not tell Ali not to come to Australia. It's a shame Ali cancelled her trip. Her message is a polarising but important part of the debate over the modern face of Islam. Whether Muslim women like it or not, her message plays to unease many people feel about the attitudes towards women within some Islamic cultures. It is always preferable to air ideas (as opposed to hate speech) and debate them.

But the voices of mainstream, moderate Muslim women, who are justifiably offended by Ali's condemnation of them as universally oppressed, are not a threat to anyone's security. To equate them with a shady conservative out of Melbourne, or the forces of international extremism, is both false and stupid, and plays to the patently incorrect narrative that Muslim people are homogenous and monocultural.