"Gunman
kills Dutch film director"
In Memoriam: Theo van Gogh
"There will be no mercy for the wicked, only the sword will be raised against them. No discussion, no demonstrations, no parades, no petitions, only death will separate truth from lies." (Mohammed B.)
News and commentary on the murder of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh
in Amsterdam, Tuesday, November 2, 2004.
News and commentary: 2004/11/02 - 2004/12/29December 2004
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
"Letter from Amsterdam: Final Cut" (Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, from the 2005/01/03 issue)Saturday, December 18, 2004
"Holland Daze: The Dutch rethink multiculturalism" (Christopher Caldwell, The Weekly Standard from the 2004/12/27 issue)November 2004
Monday, November 29, 2004
Mohammed Bouyeri, November 2, 2004 (Opsporing Verzocht, 2004/11/29)
"MP vows follow-up to film 'Submission'" (Expatica, 2004/11/29)Thursday, November 25, 2004
"A civil war on terrorism" (The Economist, 2004/11/25)
"Bush's European Itinerary" (Gerard Baker, The Weekly Standard, from the 2004/11/29 issue)Wednesday, November 24, 2004
"Europe pays the price for its cultural naïveté" (William Pfaff, International Herald Tribune, 2004/11/25)
"Muslim preacher in hiding over death wish remark" (Expatica, 2004/11/24)
"The silencing of Theo van Gogh" (Ronald Rovers, Salon.com, 2004/11/24)Monday, November 22, 2004
"Muslim anguish and Western hypocrisy" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/11/23)Sunday, November 21, 2004
"Europe's Civil War?" (Arnaud de Borchgrave, New York Post, 2004/11/21)Saturday, November 20, 2004
"I mean, what else can you do?" (Harry's Place, 2004/11/20)
"Death threats force controversial Dutch MP underground" (Anthony Browne, The Times, 2004/11/20)Friday, November 19, 2004
"EU Imploring Immigrants to Learn 'Values'" (Constant Brand, AP/The Guardian, 2004/11/19)
"AP Interview: Popular Dutch lawmaker urges halt to non-Western immigrants, shutting down radical mosques" (Anthony Deutsch, AP/SFGate.com, 2004/11/19)Thursday, November 18, 2004
"'Take that article down. In Index it's disgraceful'" (Frank Fisher, Index on Censorship, 2004/11/18)
"Speak your mind, lose your life" (Anthony Brown, The Spectator, from the 2004/11/20 issue)
"Blasphemy law revival upsets the Dutch elite" (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/11/18)Tuesday, November 16, 2004
"Pim Fortuyn Is Voted Greatest Dutch Person in Survey" (Bloomberg.com, 2004/11/16)
"The assassin's master sermon" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/11/16)
"'Education By Murder' in Holland" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2004/11/16)Monday, November 15, 2004
"Why Theo Van Gogh Was Murdered" (Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal, 2004/11/15)
"Censure the censor" (Stephen Pollard, The Times/stephenpollard.net, 2004/11/15)Sunday, November 14, 2004
"Tolerant Dutch Wrestle With Tolerating Intolerance" (Bruce Bawer, The New York Times, 2004/11/14)
"Van Gogh murder: One terrorist group responsible" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/14)Saturday, November 13, 2004
"Dutch Muslims Dismayed by Anti-Islamic Backlash" (Reuters, 2004/11/13)
"Dutch extremist suspects planned to murder deputies: report" (AFP/ChannelNewsAsia, 2004/11/13)Friday, November 12, 2004
"Dutch Raid Kurdish Training Camp, Arrest 38" (Christopher Borowski, Reuters, 2004/11/12)
"How Enlightenment Dies" (Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 2004/11/12)Thursday, November 11, 2004
"Index writer responds" (Harry's Place, 2004/11/11)
"Index on Censorship" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/11/11)
"Racism Engulfs Europe!" (Robert Spencer, Human Events, 2004/11/11)Wednesday, November 10, 2004
"The Killers" (Michael Ledeen, National Review, 2004/11/10)
"Specials forces storm Dutch house, ending standoff with terror suspects" (Anthony Deutsch, AP/SFGate.com, 2004/11/10)
"For Dutch, anger battles with tolerance" (Craig S. Smith, The New York Times/IHT, 2004/11/10)
"Blast wounds Dutch police in raid" (BBC News, 2004/11/10)
"Dutch find the strength to take on their 'new Nazis'" (Daniel Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/11/10)Tuesday, November 9, 2004
"Hundreds of people watch Dutch filmaker Theo van Gogh's funeral..." (Olaf Kraak, AFP, 2004/11/09)
"Tears" (Zacht Ei, 2004/11/09)
"Subdued mood as hundreds attend funeral of slain Dutch filmmaker" (AFP/channelnewsasia.com, 2004/11/09)
"What war?" (Pieter Dorsman, Peaktalk, 2004/11/09)
"Islamic School Set Ablaze in Netherlands" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/09)
"Where is the debate on Europe's Muslims?" (John Vinocur, International Herald Tribune, 2004/11/09)
"Dutch Death" (Alexis Amory, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/11/09)Monday, November 8, 2004
"Muslim school in Netherlands attacked" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/08)Sunday, November 7, 2004
"The roots of prejudice" (Mary Riddell, The Observer, 2004/11/07)
"'Murder is normal'" (Zacht Ei, 2004/11/07)
"Jihad wrecks Dutch race harmony" (Matthew Campbell, The Sunday Times, 2004/11/07)
"Van Gogh murder backlash begins" (Murdo MacLeod, Scotland on Sunday, 2004/11/07)Friday, November 5, 2004
"GIJ ZULT NIET DODEN!" (Cineac Noord, 2004/11/05)
"Clueless in Rotterdam" (Pieter Dorsman, Peaktalk, 2004/11/05)
"Islamist hit list made public" (Zacht Ei, 2004/11/05)
"Excerpts From Letter on Dead Filmmaker" (AP/Newsday.com, 2004/11/05)
"Al-Zarqawi on clogs" (Pieter Dorsman, Peaktalk, 2004/11/05)
"Dhimmitude at the New York Times" (Hugh Fitzgerald, Dhimmi Watch, 2004/11/05)
"This would explain a lot" (Zacht Ei, 2004/11/05)
"Van Gogh suspect 'the perfect Jihad recruit'" (Expatica, 2004/11/05)
"Dutch Vow Tough Measures After Threat" (Anthony Deutsch, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/05)
"Of courage and cowardice" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/05)Thursday, November 4, 2004
"Amsterdam tightens security to prevent unrest after killing" (Expatica, 2004/11/04)
"Moroccan teens 'spit' on Van Gogh portrait" (Expatica, 2004/11/04)
"Dutch probe Casablanca link to filmmaker death" (Marcel Michelson, Reuters, 2004/11/04)
"'I feel terribly guilty'" (Jon Henley, The Guardian, 2004/11/04)Wednesday, November 3, 2004
"Government response to Van Gogh killing panned" (Expatica, 2004/11/03)
"8 Arrested in Slaying of Dutch Filmmaker" (Toby Sterling, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/03)
"AFGESLACHT" (De Telegraaf, 2004/11/03)
"Death of a 'Blasphemer'" (Robert Spencer, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/11/03)
"Suspected Islamist killing tests Dutch tolerance" (Emma Thomasson, Reuters, 2004/11/03)
"Suspected Extremist Jailed in Dutch Murder" (Toby Sterling, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/03)Tuesday, November 2, 2004
Theo van Gogh (De Gezonde Roker, 2004/11/02)
"A Fifth Column" (Pieter Dorsman, Peaktalk, 2004/11/02)
"Challenging Islam is risky" (Irshad Manji, UPI, 2004/11/02)
"Some 20,000 Dutch gather to pay homage to slain controversial filmmaker" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/03)
"Dutch mourn free-speech martyr" (Aaron Gray-Block, Expatica, 2004/11/02)
"ALLAH KNOWS BETTER" (Expatica, 2004/08/31)
"Vitriol and celluloid" (Carin Tiggeloven, Radio Netherlands, 2004/11/02)
"Dutch Filmmaker Theo van Gogh Murdered" (Toby Sterling, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/02)
"Gunman kills Dutch film director" (BBC News, 2004/11/02)From the archives:
"Unmasking Islamic domestic violence" (Cormac Mac Ruairi, Expatica, 2004/08/31)
"Refugee who became Dutch MP defies Islam with film about Koran" (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/08/31)
"Somali refugee follows in Fortuyn's footsteps with attack on imams" (The Daily Telegraph, 2003/01/11)
"No More Fanaticism as Usual" (Salman Rushdie, The New York Times, 2002/11/27)
"Behind the Veil: A Muslim Woman Speaks Out" (Marlise Simons, The New York Times, 2002/11/09)
"Woman in hiding after she lambasts Islam" (Andrew Osborn, The Observer, 2002/10/06)
"Letter from Amsterdam: Final Cut" (Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, from the 2005/01/03 issue)
"A social-studies class I visited included Africans, Indians, Turks, Moroccans, an Egyptian, and a few whites. We had a discussion about van Gogh and Hirsi Ali, and the only girl in class who wore a veil spoke more often and more passionately than the others. The girl, who was born in Amsterdam to Moroccan parents, didn’t condone the murder but could “understand why Mohammed B. had sought comfort in Islam.” She said that people had insulted her in the streets after the murder, spitting at her feet or telling her to take off her veil. “When I hear people talk about ‘those fucking Moroccans,’ I feel defensive and really want to be Moroccan, but when I visit Morocco I know I don’t belong there, either.” A Moroccan-born boy said that it was because of her Dutch accent.
I noticed that some of the Muslim boys, who were described to me later as “quite fundamentalist,” snickered every time the veiled girl spoke, even when she argued, to loud protests from the other girls, that Muslim women were not oppressed. “Hirsi Ali is a dork,” she said. “She doesn’t look beyond her own experience.” The whites in the class remained silent, as though afraid to enter this treacherous terrain. One of the black students made fun of the Muslims’ preoccupation with “identity” and said, “Moroccan, Egyptian, Algerian — who the fuck cares. They’re all thieves.” The others laughed, even some of the Muslims.""Holland Daze: The Dutch rethink multiculturalism" (Christopher Caldwell, The Weekly Standard from the 2004/12/27 issue)
"Early this month, another Schiedam native, a 30-year-old man known in his police dossier as Farid A., was found guilty of issuing death threats over the Internet. When the conservative Dutch politician Geert Wilders described Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last year as a "terrorist leader," Farid A. posted a picture of him on an Islamist website urging: "Wilders must be punished with death for his fascistic comments about Islam, Muslims, and the Palestinian cause." That was a year ago, and since then, Wilders has done even more to tick off Muslim radicals. ...
But Wilders also had to go into hiding. He now appears in public only for legislative sessions in the Hague, where he travels under armed guard. He complained in mid-December that the death threats had hampered his ability to build his party. The head of a conservative think tank told newspapers he had been advised by security personnel to stay away from Wilders. Anyone who declared himself for one of those 28 seats that looked ripe for the plucking would thereby place himself on a death list, too. One strange but highly professional video that can be downloaded off the Internet shows drawings of machine guns, then photographs of Wilders with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and then captioned panels reading:name: geert wilders
occupation: idolator
sin: mocking Islam
punishment: beheading
reward: Paradise, in sha AllahIn early December, an appeals court in the Hague confirmed the punishment of Farid A. of Schiedam. He was sentenced to 120 hours of community service." (See also: "Man escapes jail for threatening MP Wilders" (Expatica, 2004/12/03))
Mohammed Bouyeri, November 2, 2004
(Opsporing Verzocht, 2004/11/29)
From: "Vragen moord op Theo van Gogh" (Opsporing Verzocht, 2004/11/29)
Via Zacht Ei: "The police have just released this picture of Mohammed Bouyeri. It was taken on the second of November.""MP vows follow-up to film 'Submission'" (Expatica, 2004/11/29)
Theo van Gogh LXX: "Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is working on a follow-up project to "Submission", the controversial film made with murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh.
Hirsi Ali said the theme for "Submission part II" will be how the Islamic faith oppresses individuals, with a focus on the position of women. She also said that she wants to abolish or phase out Islamic education, rather than "burn it down" immediately.
The subtitle to the new film will be "Shortcut to enlightenment". Hirsi Ali said she hopes to point out a short cut for Muslims to gain enlightenment, evening newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported Monday.""A civil war on terrorism" (The Economist, 2004/11/25)
Theo van Gogh LXIX: "The Muslim population of France is now nearly 10% of the total. And it is officially projected that the three largest Dutch cities will have 50% non-western populations (most of them Muslim) by 2020. Yet even these figures need not be alarming, if Muslim populations assimilate easily. It is here that traditional liberal attitudes are undergoing a re-think. For Mohammed B, the murderer of Theo Van Gogh, was not a marginalised or oppressed figure. He spoke excellent Dutch and was studying for a diploma. It looks increasingly apparent that — as with the 9/11 hijackers — the problem is not lack of integration or opportunity, but a vicious ideology. ...
But Mr Wilders quotes Dutch academics who estimate that around 10-15% of the Dutch population of 1m Muslims sympathise with jihadist ideology. He says that the 150 suspected terrorists should be deported or imprisoned immediately. But he also demands a similar fate for those Dutch citizens who endorse jihadist ideology, whether in print, in a sermon or in an internet chat-room. Mainstream Dutch politicians still recoil from such measures, believing them to be incompatible with traditional freedoms — and likely to radicalise Dutch Muslims further. Launching a war on terrorism is one thing; a civil war on terrorism is altogether more daunting.""Bush's European Itinerary" (Gerard Baker, The Weekly Standard, from the 2004/11/29 issue)
Theo van Gogh LXVIII: "The reaction in the Netherlands to the murder was almost as troubling as the murder itself. Mosques were firebombed, the country's large, mostly Muslim, immigrant population was under siege. But at the same time the authorities demonstrated how inert European leadership has become in dealing with the terrorist threat at home and abroad — playing down the significance of the killing as a terrorist act. Much of the commentary in Europe focused on van Gogh's sins in inflaming radical Muslim opinion. ...
These apparently unconnected events ought to force Europeans to look a bit harder at the decay in their own societies. Even as the authorities go to absurd lengths to justify politically correct tolerance of those intent on destroying the very foundations of free societies; even as they seek, by contrast, to eliminate traditional Christian values and principles from European public discourse; even as they try to block American attempts to bring about a better, more enlightened, world for the people of Iraq and the broader Middle East, their own society is sliding steadily into an ugly maelstrom of intolerance, fear, and hatred.""Europe pays the price for its cultural naïveté" (William Pfaff, International Herald Tribune, 2004/11/25)
Theo van Gogh LXVII: "This specifically Dutch tragedy was created by good intentions combined with false assumptions about the human, social and political realities of cultural difference. After the Nazi catastrophe, racial and cultural distinctions were interpreted as cause for discrimination and conflict, and accordingly were not only avoided but denied. Certain illusions about the nature of man were — and are — promoted. People in the West want to continue to believe in these illusions, despite all that history has done to disprove them.
They include the belief that the core values of the Western democracies are innate, and that education, the liberalization of political and social institutions, and political action can liberate these values among people who don't yet recognize them. It is believed that all men and women are headed not only toward liberal democracy but also toward secularism or religious indifference.
Western political (and even economic) values are said to be universal, valid for all societies now and in the future. Hence the unity of mankind is only a matter of time. The moral complexity of the human condition in the past is ignored, or is simply unknown.
It all adds up to a naïve version of the belief in inevitable human progress that arose during the French Enlightenment and has inspired virtually every Western political ideology we have known since — and that history has repeatedly disproved.""Muslim preacher in hiding over death wish remark" (Expatica, 2004/11/24)
Theo van Gogh LXVI: "A Muslim preacher has provoked a storm of protest by admitting on Dutch television he wants parliamentarian Geert Wilders to die.
Wilders, an independent Conservative MP, plans to set up a party "to tackle Islamic extremism" in the Netherlands.
Abdul-Jabbar van de Ven, 25, told the media on Wednesday afternoon he had gone into hiding as a result of the outcry about his remark.
In a statement to define his position, Van de Ven claimed he did not want to incite anyone to murder Wilders, nor did he wish Wilders to contract a fatal illness.
"I don't wish that on him with either my tongue or my pen. But I would not mourn [his death], just as the great majority of the Dutch public would not mourn if Osama bin Laden was found dead tomorrow." ...
Asked by presenter Andries Kneuvel if he wanted Wilders to die within the next two years, Van de Ven said yes, preferrably due to illness. Wilders has received death threats for criticising Islam.
Van de Ven said he hoped Wilders was not murdered by a Muslim and that murder in general was wrong.
He did admit however that he felt "some joy" on hearing of the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh on 2 November.""The silencing of Theo van Gogh" (Ronald Rovers, Salon.com, 2004/11/24)
Theo van Gogh LXV: "On his Web site, the Healthy Smoker, van Gogh had predicted the assassination: "I suspect Fortuyn will be the first in a line of politically incorrect heretics to be eliminated," he wrote. "This is what our multicultural society has brought us: a climate of intimidation in which all sorts of goatfuckers can issue their threats freely." ...
Anger toward him had certainly been rising to a boiling point all year. In May, he was slated to act as chairman of a public debate called "Happy Chaos" at the Amsterdam City Theatre. Dyab Abou Jahjah, the leader of a relatively small but provocative Belgian Islamic organization, refused to sit at the table with van Gogh. One of the organizers claimed Jahjah said, "We're not taking any more of that pig." When Jahjah left the stage, van Gogh took the microphone and said: "So this is what some Muslims think of democracy!" After Jahjah left, he said to the crowd: "Why would he be afraid to talk to me? After all, he's the prophet's pimp and he has bodyguards." The debate was canceled. ...
In a society that tries to offer equality and fundamental rights to all its citizens, van Gogh always called himself "a fundamentalist when it comes to free speech." On a public radio show in May, he said: 'People always tells me I cross the line. But free debate is a war of ideas. It's a place where we should be able to hurt each other.'""Muslim anguish and Western hypocrisy" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/11/23)
Theo van Gogh LXIV: "As a matter of record, most European Muslim organizations declined to disavow the murder of van Gogh. During a November 19 radio interview, for example, Zahid Mukhtar, head of the Islamic Council of Norway, refused to condemn van Gogh's murder, creating a scandal out of proportion to Norway's small Muslim population. A Moroccan-born member of the Belgian Senate, Mimount Bousakla, received death threats after remonstrating with the umbrella organization of Belgian Muslims for its refusal to denounce the van Gogh murder. She since has gone into hiding.
In Germany, most of the country's Muslim groups refused to take part in this past Sunday's Muslim demonstration in Cologne against terrorism and violence. In fact, the Turkish government organized the 20,000-person demonstration without support from local Muslim organizations. ...
Muslim refusal to tolerate blasphemy has nothing to do with rage or recalcitrance. It is a theological necessity. Executions for blasphemy would attract no attention in Iran or Saudi Arabia. The trouble is that the population of Islamic countries has spilled over en masse into the West. Imams in Europe cannot pronounce differently on such matters than they would in their home countries, and blasphemy cannot be tolerated by traditional society. ...
The tragedy will continue to unfold, and at a faster pace.""Europe's Civil War?" (Arnaud de Borchgrave, New York Post, 2004/11/21)
Theo van Gogh LXIII: "Today, Muslims are a majority among children under 14 in the Netherlands' four largest cities.
There are 1 million Muslims (6 percent of the population) now living in Europe's most crowded small country. Some 30,000 new Muslims arrive every year. They tend to live among themselves, with their own schools, mosques and restaurants. Most are horrified by what they view as sacrilegious in their own religion. Their imams speak no Dutch and know nothing of the Netherlands' history and culture. ...
Could the Netherlands be a curtain-raiser for a wider clash of civilizations in the old continent?
Hundreds of thousands of young Muslims in Europe are potential jihadis, according to European intelligence chiefs speaking not for publication. They have been warning their political masters about the tinderboxes that many Muslim communities have become. Jihadi volunteers are known to have left for Iraq from a number of Muslim slums on the outskirts of major European cities.
Recruitment posters come on regular European and Arabic news programs — from the Abu Ghraib prison pictures to the battle of Fallujah.""I mean, what else can you do?" (Harry's Place, 2004/11/20)
Theo van Gogh LXII. What's wrong with the left?:
"Socialist Worker on the Van Gogh murder:Part of the reason for these killings is that the perpetrators feel there is no viable alternative in this racist climate.
It is no surprise that some individuals are pulled towards desperate acts."(See also: "Islamophobic backlash follows murder" (Maina van der Zwan, Socialist Worker, 2004/11/20))
"Immigration secretary to Dutch imams: Learn Dutch" (Zacht Ei, 2004/11/20)
Theo van Gogh LXI: "Mrs. Rita Verdonk, the Dutch immigration secretary, had a meeting today with several imams. The encounter produced some intriguing moments. For instance, one of the imams didn't want to shake her hand, citing religious taboo as the reason. You can view a small picture here. But the most interesting part of the encounter was when Mrs. Verdonk told all imams she hoped next year she would be able to speak Dutch with them. Today, Mrs. Verdonk had to use a translator to converse with several of the imams. Commercial broadcaster RTL Nieuws just showed two imams fully agreeing with Mrs. Verdonk. Both of them of course spoke Dutch already.""Death threats force controversial Dutch MP underground" (Anthony Browne, The Times, 2004/11/20)
Theo van Gogh LX: "Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP and controversial critic of Islam, has two policemen by his side even when in his high-security parliamentary office in case someone tries to decapitate him. Each day, he does not know where he is going to sleep that night, as he is taken from safe house to safe house in a convoy of armoured cars.
He was taken into hiding when police investigating the murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh on November 2 uncovered a network of radical Muslims with advanced plans to kill Mr Wilders, and other “enemies of Islam”. A video circulating on the internet offered 72 virgins in paradise to any Muslim who beheaded him.
“My life has changed completely. I am sleeping very badly. To think that someone plans to kill me is something that no person would have a good night’s rest about,” he said. “Even though I have this protection, I am afraid. Even when I am on the floor of the parliament, I don’t feel comfortable.” ...
Two critics of Islam have been murdered in the Netherlands, and Mr Wilders is one of three Dutch MPs under permanent police protection after half a dozen were issued with death threats. It is a huge change for the tolerant, consensual country that until recently boasted that its prime minister could cycle down the street in public.""EU Imploring Immigrants to Learn 'Values'" (Constant Brand, AP/The Guardian, 2004/11/19)
European values I: "European Union justice and interior ministers agreed Friday that new immigrants to the 25-nation bloc should be required to learn local languages, and to adhere to general "European values'' that will guide them toward better integration.
Dutch immigration minister Rita Verdonk, who chaired the meeting, said all countries agreed to make integrating newcomers a priority, considering the growing ethnic tensions as EU nations struggle to absorb a steady stream of poor, mostly Muslim immigrants.
Just this month in the Netherlands, the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a suspected Muslim radical unleashed a wave of attacks against mosques, churches and religious schools in a country once famed for its tolerance.
Tensions also rose in Belgium, where authorities arrested a suspect Friday accused of sending death threats to a senator of Moroccan heritage who criticized radical Muslims. ...
Highlighting a European-wide problem, Verdonk said that some 500,000 Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands don't speak Dutch.""AP Interview: Popular Dutch lawmaker urges halt to non-Western immigrants, shutting down radical mosques" (Anthony Deutsch, AP/SFGate.com, 2004/11/19)
Theo van Gogh LIX: "One of the most popular politicians in the Netherlands said Friday the country's democracy is under threat and called for a five-year halt to non-Western immigration in the wake of the killing of a Dutch filmmaker by a suspected Muslim radical. ...
In his first interview with the foreign media since the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh on Nov. 2, [right-wing lawmaker Geert] Wilders said his own life has been repeatedly threatened. He said he has begun living under state protection and has even had to stay away from his own home. ...
The latest video threat broadcast on the Internet — in Dutch, with Arabic music in the background — condemns Wilders for insulting Islam and offers the reward of paradise for his beheading. ...
He cited a report by Dutch intelligence saying recruitment for jihad, or holy war, is taking place in as many as 20 mosques in the Netherlands, and said they should be closed and their imams, or preachers, arrested and deported.
"If we don't do anything ... we will lose the country that we have known for centuries. People don't want the Netherlands to be lost, and this is something that I get angry about and I am going to fight for, to keep the country Dutch," he said.""'Take that article down. In Index it's disgraceful'" (Frank Fisher, Index on Censorship, 2004/11/18)
Theo van Gogh LVIII: "Theo Van Gogh's body wasn't yet cold before Index on Censorship marked him down as 'furiously provocative', a 'free speech martyr' who 'abused his right to free speech'. Van Gogh's most recent transgression was Submission, a collaboration with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. ...
Like The Satanic Verses, the anger surrounding Submission is against it; the film itself isn't violent or threatening. Of course, criticism of Islam is implicit, and criticism of the men who use or misrepresent that religion to abuse women. (Does Index really think we shouldn't speak of such things?) ...
Index's article is a far more incendiary piece of work. It has named targets. It comes in the wake of bloody murder. It doesn't have any artistic merit, (the claim of ‘irony' is laughable; is the use of the terms ‘idiot', ‘cretinous' or ‘bullshit' ironic perhaps?), it's a pure hatchet job. Van Gogh was already dead by the time it hit the web - but his colleagues are not. ...
What on earth has gone wrong at Index? A publication that once vociferously defended Salman Rushdie now parrots the same sentiments you hear from Muslims and so-called liberals on every talkboard: “I don't condone his murder, but he asked for it…” ...
Please take that article down. If Rohan wants to applaud a murder and support religious censorship, then let him find a more appropriate place to do it. In Index, it's disgraceful." (See also: "Index on Censorship" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/11/11))"Speak your mind, lose your life" (Anthony Brown, The Spectator, from the 2004/11/20 issue)
Theo van Gogh LVII: "True to his polemicist style, van Gogh said lots of objectionable things about Muslims, such as calling extremists ‘goatfuckers’. But that doesn’t excuse the Guardian pigeonholing him as a ‘loudmouth racist’ as a way of avoiding thinking about the complexities of the issue. He was a lifelong socialist, from a leading left-wing family. A journalist friend of his told me at his funeral: ‘He was left-wing, but he had his eyes open. He started seeing these dark developments in society, and surprised himself by having right-wing thoughts.’ ...
What angered them all — van Gogh, Hirsi Ali and Fortuyn — is the way the intolerant left-wing hegemony of political correctness was strangling free speech and democracy — not just causing the problems in the first place, but trying to destroy those who discuss them. ...
In a sickening essay, Rohan Jayasekera, the associate director of Index on Censorship, a group which supposedly defends freedom of speech, blamed van Gogh for his own murder. He wrote that the film-maker was guilty of ‘an abuse of his right to free speech’, his ritual slaughter was ‘his very own martyrdom operation’ and we should ‘applaud Theo van Gogh’s death as the marvellous piece of theatre it was’.
Unable to make the moral distinction between offending someone and murdering them, Index on Censorship has forsaken liberal democracy in the clash of values that faces us; but it is not alone." (See also: "Index on Censorship" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/11/11))"Blasphemy law revival upsets the Dutch elite" (Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/11/18)
Theo van Gogh LVI. Where is Index on Censorship when you need them? Oh, that's right, they are busy accusing van Gogh of abusing free speech:
"A proposal to revive a blasphemy law to calm sectarian tensions in Holland has outraged artists, writers and the political elite.
The plan follows the murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh by a Dutch-Moroccan extremist in Amsterdam two weeks ago.
The killing was followed by bomb attacks on mosques and reprisal attacks on churches.
In response, the Dutch justice minister, Piet Hein Donner, has proposed enforcing a 1932 law banning "scornful blasphemy".
The minister told the Dutch parliament on Tuesday that the law was needed to curb "hateful comments", whether oral or written, that were destabilising the country.
"If the opinions have a potentially damaging effect on society, the government must act," he said. "It is not about religion specifically, but any harmful comments in general."
Mr Donner, a Christian-Democrat, said strict enforcement was needed to stop "explosive material" setting off yet more violence.
His announcement horrified Holland's free-thinking intelligentsia, mostly congregated in the university enclaves of Amsterdam, Delft, Utrecht and The Hague.
A group of writers and artists published a letter in the Volkskrant newspaper condemning the idea as an assault on free speech and asking whether they would be hauled before an inquisition for poking fun at religion." (See also: "A good time to clean up the law" (Zacht Ei, 2004/11/14): "The correct response to Mr. Donner's ludicrous plan was offered today by immigration secretary Rita Verdonk. To paraphrase her words: the problem isn't the people that do the insulting, it's the people that feel insulted. Or, in the words of Mrs. Verdonk: 'I think the average Muslim has a lower level of tolerance than the average Dutch. And I can't imagine that my colleague Mr. Donner intends to take us all to that lower level of tolerance.' According to Mrs. Verdonk, we'd be rewarding intolerant Muslims for their intolerance.")"Pim Fortuyn Is Voted Greatest Dutch Person in Survey" (Bloomberg.com, 2004/11/16)
Theo van Gogh LV: "Pim Fortuyn, the anti-immigrant candidate for the Netherlands' parliament assassinated in 2002, was voted the greatest Dutch person ever in a survey done amid the killing of a critic of Islam and violence against local Muslims.
Fortuyn, 54 when he was shot dead, was picked ahead of nine other finalists, including Anne Frank and Vincent van Gogh. The survey was organized by the KRO public broadcaster and conducted via Internet, telephone, text messaging and mail on Oct. 11 through Nov. 15. The results appeared on KRO's Web site today.""The assassin's master sermon" (Spengler, Asia Times, 2004/11/16)
Theo van Gogh LIV: "'An Open Letter to Hirshi Ali' opens a window into the great theological conflict of our times. Most Western readers would stop after the first 10 lines, for it begins with paranoid Jew-hatred copied from Islamist websites and petty complaints about Ayaan Hirshi Ali's immigration policy. But the core of the "Open Letter" is an admonition from a believing Muslim to an atheist apostate, with a unique exposition of the faith of radical Islam. ...
Failure to confront Islam as a religion, I maintain, is the Achilles' heel of Western strategy. Ayaan Hirshi Ali has my entire sympathy, but to her antagonists I accord the respect due to a lethal enemy. US conservatives applaud secular Muslims for being reasonable, but at the same time admire the religious impulse of the American Christians. One may argue, of course, that Americans should have a religion while Arabs should not, but the fact is that they do have a religion. Antagonistic modes of faith underlie the conflict between the West and the Islamic world. The assassin Mohammed B, by delivering this message attached to the corpse of a prominent figure in European culture, demands that we consider this antagonism in earnest. ...
If you are so convinced of your philosophy, asks the writer, why do you not wish for death? We jihadis, he implies, welcome death, and if your conviction is as strong as ours, you should do no less. Westerners should think twice before despising this line of reasoning.""'Education By Murder' in Holland" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2004/11/16)
Theo van Gogh LIII: "'Education by murder' describes the slow and painful way people wake up to the problem of radical Islam. It took 3,000 deaths to wake up Americans, or at least to wake up the half of them who are conservative. Likewise, it took hundreds of deaths in the Bali explosion to semi-wake up Australians; it took the Madrid assault for Spaniards, and the Beslan atrocity for Russians. Twelve workers beheaded in Iraq awoke the Nepalese.
But it took just one death to wake up many Dutch. Indeed, one gruesome killing may have done more to arouse the Netherlands than September 11, 2001, did for Americans. ...
That a non-Muslim critic of Islam was ritually murdered for artistically expressing his views was something without precedent, not just in Holland but anywhere in the West. ...
Islamist terrorism in the West is counterproductive because it awakens the sleeping masses; in brief, jihad provokes crusade. A more cunning Islamist enemy would advance its totalitarian agenda through Mafia-like intimidation, not brazen murders.
But if Islamists do continue with overt terrorism, the tough Dutch response will everywhere be replicated.""Why Theo Van Gogh Was Murdered" (Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal, 2004/11/15)
Theo van Gogh LII: "The slaughter of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh on the streets of Amsterdam, in broad daylight, by a young man of Moroccan origin bent on jihad, has at last dented Dutch confidence that unconditional tolerance can be on its own the unifying principle of a viable society. For tolerance to work, it must be reciprocal; tolerance appears to the intolerant jihadist mere weakness and lack of belief in anything. Unilateral tolerance in a world of intolerance is like unilateral disarmament in a world of armed camps: it regards hope as a better basis for policy than reality.""Censure the censor" (Stephen Pollard, The Times/stephenpollard.net, 2004/11/15)
Theo van Gogh LI: "According to its website, Index on Censorship was founded “to protect the basic human right of free expression”. ...
A fortnight ago Theo van Gogh was stabbed and shot in Amsterdam by an extremist Muslim who objected to the Dutch film-maker’s latest work, which lambasted the treatment of women under Islam. To most people, this was a deplorable crime and precisely the sort of outrage that Index would be expected to condemn.
Index certainly published a condemnation. But its hostility was directed not at the murderer but at his victim. ...
A film that criticises the abuse of women is an “abuse” of free speech. Indeed, van Gogh is the guilty party because, in highlighting the behaviour of extremists, he “roared his Muslim critics into silence” by “effectively censoring their moderate views as well”.
Leave aside Jayasekera’s lesser stupidities, such as the assertion that making a film that expresses one view amounts to censoring opposing views. Concentrate instead on the grotesque warping of morality that condemns the author rather than the book burner and murderer." (See also: "Index on Censorship" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/11/11))"Tolerant Dutch Wrestle With Tolerating Intolerance" (Bruce Bawer, The New York Times, 2004/11/14)
Theo van Gogh L. Bawer revisits Amsterdam, where he lived five years ago:
"During my time there, I quickly came to see that the city (and, I later recognized, Western Europe generally) was a house divided against itself.
The division was stark: The Dutch had the world's most tolerant, open-minded society, with full sexual equality and same-sex marriage, as well as liberal policies on soft drugs and prostitution; but a large segment of the fast-growing Muslim population kept that society at arm's length, despising its freedoms.
Instead of addressing this issue, Dutch officials (like their counterparts across the continent) churned out rhetoric about multicultural diversity and mutual respect. By tolerating Muslim intolerance of Western society, was the Netherlands setting itself on a path toward cataclysmic social confrontation? When I tried to broach the topic, Dutch acquaintances made clear it was off limits. ...
In my old, mostly Muslim neighborhood, a police officer told me flat out not to venture into such areas. The mood in all of the Netherlands is very tense right now, she explained. Earlier that day, she said, a journalist's car had been smashed, presumably by Muslims displeased with something he had written.""Van Gogh murder: One terrorist group responsible" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/14)
Theo van Gogh XLIX: "Dutch authorities say 13 young Muslims arrested on terrorism charges following the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh are members of a radical Islamic group with international links.
Dutch intelligence calls the group the "Hofstad Netwerk," and a Justice Ministry official says 43-year-old Syrian Redouan al-Issar, the alleged spiritual leader, has disappeared without a trace. ...
[Interior Minister] Remkes said the Hofstad Network, composed mostly of young Dutch Muslims of North African ancestry, has links to networks in Spain and Belgium; that several members of the group have traveled to Pakistan for training; and that its members were under the influence of al-Issar for many years.
"The number of persons and networks in the Netherlands that thinks and acts in terms of actual violence is, in our opinion, limited," he wrote. "But the feeding ground from which they spring is broader ... it's better to think in terms of thousands than hundreds," he said.""Dutch Muslims Dismayed by Anti-Islamic Backlash" (Reuters, 2004/11/13)
Theo van Gogh XLVIII: "Selami Aydin's words will comfort many Dutch people if opinion polls are to be believed.
"I'm thinking of going back to Turkey. Seriously," the 39-year-old Muslim said just a few hundred meters (yards) from the apartment police stormed last Wednesday after a 14-hour siege with suspected Islamic militants. "We're all frightened."
The Netherlands' image as the land of tolerance has been shattered in the two weeks since outspoken filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered and a Muslim suspect arrested in the crime.
Since Van Gogh's death on Nov. 2 there have been at least 20 arson attacks on mosques and churches in tit for tat violence. ...
Some Muslims believe the community itself can help to build bridges. One of Germany's largest Muslim groups plans to hold an unprecedented protest against militancy later this month with up to 30,000 demonstrators.
"The Dutch government should organize something like this, but maybe we can do it ourselves. I would join in," said Douiri.""Dutch extremist suspects planned to murder deputies: report" (AFP/ChannelNewsAsia, 2004/11/13)
Theo van Gogh XLVII: "Two suspected Islamic extremists arrested this week are suspected of plotting to assassinate two Dutch lawmakers known for their critical stance towards Islam, the Dutch press reported.
One of the deputies targeted was Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a liberal lawmaker of Somali origin who co-wrote a film about the place of women in Islam along with Theo van Gogh, the outspoken filmmaker who was murdered by a suspected Muslim radical on November 2, the NRC Handelsblad reported.
The suspects, who were arrested Wednesday in a police raid in The Hague, also intended to kill Geert Wilders, a deputy highly critical of Islam who intends to launch a new, staunchly right-wing, party, the report said.
Both lawmakers have been placed under constant police protection, having received threats in the past.""Dutch Raid Kurdish Training Camp, Arrest 38" (Christopher Borowski, Reuters, 2004/11/12)
Theo van Gogh XLVI: "Dutch authorities on Friday raided a camp suspected of training Kurdish guerrillas for "terrorist attacks" in Turkey and arrested 38 people, prosecutors said.
Around 200 police swooped on locations across the south of the Netherlands, including a farmyard campsite in the village of Liempde where they seized night vision equipment, instructions, passports and a gun, prosecutors said in a statement.
"In the farmyard campsite in Liempde it appeared around 20 people were receiving training to prepare them for the armed struggle of the PKK in Turkey, including terrorist attacks," prosecutors said.""How Enlightenment Dies" (Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 2004/11/12)
Theo van Gogh XLV: "Writing in the New York Times, an overwrought Garry Wills had this to say:The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies.
The title of his article? "The Day the Enlightenment Went Out."
Oh really? If it was the fate of the Enlightenment for which Mr. Wills feared, he would have done better looking some 3,000 miles to his east, to lovely, wounded Amsterdam, a city once famed for its brisk, North Sea tolerance, a city that now mourns the death of an artist killed for speaking his mind. ...
After, allegedly (we must, I suppose, use that word) shooting his victim, B started to stab him. In a last attempt to save his life, a desperate Van Gogh reportedly pleaded with his attacker: "We can," he said, "still talk about it." Talk. Dialog. Reason. In response, savagery. The murderer sawed through Van Gogh's neck and spinal column with a butcher knife, almost severing his head. And that, Mr. Wills, is how Enlightenment dies." (See also: "The Day the Enlightenment Went Out" (Gary Wills, The New York Times, 2004/11/04) and "Jihad wrecks Dutch race harmony" (Matthew Campbell, The Sunday Times, 2004/11/07))"Index writer responds" (Harry's Place, 2004/11/11)
Theo van Gogh XLIV: Rohan Jayasekera has written a lame response to the criticism of his outrageous article below about Theo van Gogh.
Basically, Jayasekera claims that he was "ironic" and argues that the exercise of free speech should be conducted in a "civil" manner (a rule which apparently doesn't apply to himself):"I'm not sure exactly how it can be reconciled with the principle of freedom of expression, but it might be fun to try."
So let's have fun. Imagine for example Jayasekera's civility test applied to Voltaire:
"Voltaire was not an atheist, but he was against any and all religions that were opposed to freedom of thought. Thus he became a bitter enemy of the Catholic Church as it existed in France. As he aged he spewed a great and greater venom against the church. Beginning in his early 60's he began to sign his letters to his friends with the phrase "Ecraser l'infame!" (Crush the infamous thing!) Voltaire clearly meant the spirit of persecution but his enemies proclaimed that he was ridiculing the Catholic Church."
So imagine defenders of free speech denouncing Voltaire's "abuse" of it. It isn't hard to do. And it might be fun! (See also: "Speak now or forever rest in peace..." (Rohan Jayasekera, INDEX, 2004/11/11))
"Index on Censorship" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, 2004/11/11)
Theo van Gogh XLIII. Rohan Jayasekera, the Associate Editor of Index on Censorship, calls Theo van Gogh a "free speech fundamentalist on a martyrdom operation" and deems his film "Submission" an "insult".
This is obscene in its own right, but especially rich, of course, coming from a 32-year-old publication dedicated to defending free speech.
Comments can be sent to Rohan Jayasekera at rohan@indexonline.org:
"Yep, these alleged protectors of free speech are blaming the victim in the Theo van Gogh murder. Money quote:Van Gogh's juvenile shock-horror art finally led him to build an exploitative working relationship with Somalia-born Dutch MP Ayann Hirsi Ali, whose terrible personal experience of abuse has driven her to a traumatizing loss of her Muslim faith. Together they made a furiously provocative film that featured actresses portraying battered Muslim women, naked under transparent Islamic-style shawls, their bodies marked with texts from the Koran that supposedly justify their repression. Van Gogh then roared his Muslim critics into silence with obscenities. An abuse of his right to free speech, it added injury to insult by effectively censoring their moderate views as well.
These are the defenders of free speech? Then there's this obscenity:
A sensational climax to a lifetime's public performance, stabbed and shot by a bearded fundamentalist, a message from the killer pinned by a dagger to his chest, Theo van Gogh became a martyr to free expression. His passing was marked by a magnificent barrage of noise as Amsterdam hit the streets to celebrate him in the way the man himself would have truly appreciated. And what timing! Just as his long-awaited biographical film of Pim Fortuyn's life is ready to screen. Bravo, Theo! Bravo!
The man was murdered for his controversial political views. Murdered. Somehow I don't think he was intending it to be a publicity stunt." (See also: "Free speech fundamentalist
on a martyrdom operation" (Rohan Jayasekera, INDEX, 2004/11/03) and "Index on Censorship Has a Fox in its Henhouse" (Harry's Place, 2004/11/10). As for the "furiously provocative" "Submission", you can download it here or watch it online here and make up your own mind.)"Racism Engulfs Europe!" (Robert Spencer, Human Events, 2004/11/11)
Theo van Gogh XLII: "Radical Muslims today charge "racism" against anyone who dares to point out their motives and goals — manifesting a canny awareness of what stands as the unpardonable sin in Western political discourse. All too often, the mainstream media plays along, probably because they simply don't have any conceptual apparatus enabling them to view conflicts any other way. ...
If everyone in the Netherlands were white and blonde, and yet 5% of the population believed that the society should be remade into an Islamic state, wouldn't the Dutch be facing the same problem they are now? ...
The problem, in short, is not the race, but the ideology of Muslim immigrants. ... The problem is not racism, but precisely a clash of civilizations, or a clash between two radically opposing views of how society should be ordered. Another news item from Holland last week vividly illustrated that fact: when Dutch artist Chris Ripke commemorated van Gogh by painting a mural featuring the words "Thou shalt not kill," a local mosque leader complained to police. The mural, you see, was "racist." The police obediently sandblasted away the offensive message.
If "thou shalt not kill" is racist, then so is the entire Christian civilization upon which Holland (and Europe in general) was built. And that, no doubt, is exactly what the multiculturalist journalists who see the strife in Europe as a race problem believe." (See also: "The roots of prejudice" (Mary Riddell, The Observer, 2004/11/07) and "Clueless in Rotterdam" (Pieter Dorsman, Peaktalk, 2004/11/05))"The Killers" (Michael Ledeen, National Review, 2004/11/10)
Theo van Gogh XLI: "As the outstanding Italian journalist Magdi Allam sadly noted in the Corriere della Sera a few days after the event, the murder of van Gogh probably marked the end of Europe's multicultural utopian dream, because it forces politically correct Europeans to face an identity crisis that is eerily symmetrical with the same sort of crisis that has been afflicting Muslims for the past 30 years. ...
The killing of Theo van Gogh is a textbook case of what happens when a tolerant but confused society takes political correctness to its illogical extreme. For Mohammed B. did not choose terrorism all by himself. He was indoctrinated and recruited in a mosque where he was pumped full of the Wahabbi doctrine "predominant in Saudi Arabia." The murder of van Gogh was an instant replay of the many murders carried out by Zarqawi and his followers in Iraq, extolled by fanatical Muslim Imams. As Allam reminds us, not all mosques are fundamentalist, extremist, or terrorist, but all the fundamentalists, extremists, and terrorists got that way in mosques. ...
The rules of political correctness made it impossible even to criticize the jihadists, never mind compel them to observe the rules of civil society. Just look at what happened the next day: An artist in Rotterdam improvised a wall fresco that consisted of an angel and the words "Thou Shalt Not Kill." The local imam protested, and local authorities removed the fresco.
That's what happens when a culture is relativized to the point of suicide." (See also: "Clueless in Rotterdam" (Pieter Dorsman, Peaktalk, 2004/11/05))"For Dutch, anger battles with tolerance" (Craig S. Smith, The New York Times/IHT, 2004/11/10)
Theo van Gogh XL: "The attacks have scratched the patina of tolerance on which the Dutch have long prided themselves, particularly here in their principal city, where the scent of hashish trails in the air, prostitutes beckon from storefront brothels and Hell's Angels live side by side with Hare Krishnas. But many Dutch now say that for years that tradition of tolerance suppressed an open debate about the challenges of integrating conservative Muslims.
Jan Colijn, 46, a bookkeeper from the central Dutch town of Gorinchem who was at the funeral Tuesday night, complained that the Netherlands' generous social welfare system had allowed Muslim immigrants to isolate themselves. Because of that, "there is a kind of Muslim fascism emerging here," he said. "The government must find a way to break these communities open."
Another man, who declined to give his name, was more succinct: "Now, it's war."
For many years, such criticism of Islam and Islamic customs, even among Dutch extremists, was considered taboo, despite deep frustrations that had built up against conservative Islam in the country.""Specials forces storm Dutch house, ending standoff with terror suspects" (Anthony Deutsch, AP/SFGate.com, 2004/11/10)
Theo van Gogh XXXIX: "Special forces overpowered two suspected Islamic extremists Wednesday after a 15-hour armed standoff, adding to Dutch concerns that global terrorism has spread into their corner of Europe. ...
Six suspects, believed to be members of a radical Islamic terrorist group, are in police custody in connection with the murder, including the alleged killer, 26-year-old Mohammed Bouyeri, who holds dual Dutch and Moroccan citizenship.
The Geneva newspaper Le Temps reported Wednesday that a terrorism suspect jailed in Switzerland, Mohamed Achraf, had telephone contact in September with Bouyeri.
Achraf's alleged group of Spanish-based Islamic extremists is suspected of plotting to bomb the National Court in Madrid, a hub for anti-terror investigations, as well as other targets.
Le Temps also said Achraf wired money from Switzerland to two purported Islamic militants in the Netherlands, Ziani Mahdi and Mourad Yala, who were later arrested on terrorism-related charges in Spain. Yala is believed to have met with Bouyeri several times in Amsterdam, the report said.""Blast wounds Dutch police in raid" (BBC News, 2004/11/10)
Theo van Gogh XXXVIII: "Three Dutch police officers have been wounded in an explosion during an anti-terror raid on a house in The Hague.
Two of them remain in hospital after the grenade blast, police say. Shots were also fired during the raid.
The area - near the Holland Spoor train station — was sealed off and airspace immediately over it was closed. ...
Police said there were still suspects in the building raided in The Hague on Wednesday.
"At the moment of assault, a hand grenade was thrown at the arrest team," said Hague Police Chief Gerard Bouwman. "It exploded and several officers were hurt."
Mayor Wim Deetman said negotiators were trying to end the standoff peacefully." (See also: "Dutch police mount major anti-terror raid" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/10): "An inhabitant of the sealed-off Laak quarter told NOS he heard one suspect shout, "I am going to behead you" at what the resident called a police negotiator. ...
Nearby residents told ANP news agency they were jolted awake by a huge blast. "It was like a war movie being played out in front of my house," said Sylvia Cordia, 42.
She told ANP a first blast came from a boobytrap attached to a door, then a grenade was thrown before police and suspects exchanged gunfire.")"Dutch find the strength to take on their 'new Nazis'" (Daniel Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/11/10)
Theo van Gogh XXXVII: "The bitter experience of occupation and collaboration has made the Dutch hypersensitive to intolerance in any form.
Now, with the manifestation of a violent form of intolerance in their midst, the iron has entered their souls. After decades of welcoming immigration and preaching multiculturalism, they now propose to expel failed asylum-seekers and to assimilate those who settle, rather than permit de facto religious segregation. If neo-conservatives are liberals who have been mugged by reality, the Dutch are fast becoming a nation of neo-conservatives.
While the Arab-European League accused the Dutch immigration minister of giving a "Hitler speech" at a rally in protest at van Gogh's murder, the Dutch know who the real Hitlers are. Even the most liberal society is illiberal when it is a question of survival. The Dutch see those who dream of Europe under a revived caliphate as a threat to their way of life. The prospect of Islamist imams imposing sharia law on Dutch cities amounts, they feel, to a new Nazi occupation.
Unlike his great, great, great uncle Vincent, Theo van Gogh was not a genius. Was he really an artist at all? But van Gogh's murder has proved him right about the hardline Islamists. Their ideology is inimical to all that the Dutch hold dear. Last night, as van Gogh's cremation was seen on television, the tension was palpable. Holland is now the crucible of Europe. Not even the most tolerant people on earth can tolerate the Islamists."
"Hundreds of people watch Dutch filmaker Theo van Gogh's funeral..."
(Olaf Kraak, AFP, 2004/11/09)
"Hundreds of people watch Dutch filmaker Theo van Gogh's funeral on a giant screen in Amsterdam. Placard reads:
'MOUTH SHUT = DEADLY
SPEAKING = DEATH
NEVER THINK'""Tears" (Zacht Ei, 2004/11/09)
Theo van Gogh XXXVI. "Een volk dat voor tirannen zwicht, zal meer dan lijf en goed verliezen, dan dooft het licht...":
"I'm not exactly the least bottled up of fella's, but even for me it's rather exceptional to nearly start crying whilst driving a car.
I never cry. But the sadness which struck me got close to getting me there.
Fortunately, I was stuck in a traffic jam, so no one got hurt.
What caused all this was a radio broadcast about the cremation service for Theo van Gogh.
His sister read out a poem by Henk van Randwijk, an underground resistance fighter during World War II.
The last three lines are known to virtually all Dutch. However, I had never heard it in full.
I couldn't find an English translation, so I had a go at it. ...All of us who've gathered here
All of us who've gathered here
The living, the dead
The stretch which parts us is small
Jointly summoned we have been
Before the court
Remember the loved one lying here
Brother, brethren or father
But give your eyes a wider view
Behold the land and people jointly
Hear this word:
Before the court we stand together
To elect either good or bad
A people which to tyranny consents
Will lose more than life and land
Then light relents...""Subdued mood as hundreds attend funeral of slain Dutch filmmaker" (AFP/channelnewsasia.com, 2004/11/09)
Theo van Gogh XXXV: "After the deafening protests of around 20,000 people in central Amsterdam in memory of slain Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh his funeral services passed in a subdued mood with some 700 people following the gathering on giant screens. ...
Van Gogh's mother was the first to speak inside the austere hall of the crematorium.
"We are here together because our child is dead, murdered," said the frail, grey-haired lady, her voice chocking with emotion.
"Theo was respected... A barbarian robbed us of the thing we loved most dearly," she said, her hands shaking.
"This week I felt my life fill with anger and hatred... Let no social worker, psychologist or another member of the thought police tell us we cannot hate, that we have to turn the other cheek." ...
"Dear Ayaan Hirsi Ali, don't feel guilty ... make sure Theo is not forgotten. Freedom, Ayaan, is not for people who are afraid," Van Gogh's mother told her. ...
Inside Van Gogh's father was quick to say that his son would have "vigorously condemned" the recent spate of attacks on mosques that Dutch authorities said are retaliations for the murder.""What war?" (Pieter Dorsman, Peaktalk, 2004/11/09)
Theo van Gogh XXXIV:"Last Friday Deputy Prime-Minister Zalm declared a war on radical Islam, a move applauded by many, but I wondered whether these statements where just words to quell the emotions shortly after the murder or a real change in attitude. ... Green Left leader Femke Halsema weighed in as well saying she was:"Extremely unhappy" about the statement, claiming that Zalm had suggested "everything was possible". Admitting that the Cabinet needed to do everything what it could to combat Muslim extremism, she also said it needed to show self-restraint. "We fall too easy into an 'us and them' antithesis with the word war," she said. ...
The absolute gem however comes from Jan Marijnissen the leader of the Socialist Party, the hard left in Dutch politics:
“If rationality is pushed aside, hate could lodge itself in the heads of extremists”
Huh? Wasn't it there to begin with?"
"Islamic School Set Ablaze in Netherlands" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/11/09)
Theo van Gogh XXXIII: "Suspected arsonists set an Islamic elementary school on fire Tuesday amid a string of attacks following the killing of a Dutch filmmaker by an alleged Islamic extremist.
Firefighters struggled to extinguish the flames at the burning Bedir school in the southern town of Uden, where someone had scrawled "Theo Rest in Peace" in the building in homage to slain filmmaker Theo van Gogh, but the building was destroyed in the blaze. ...
Arsonists attempted to burn down Protestant churches in Rotterdam, Utrecht and Amersfoort in apparent retaliation for the bombing of a Muslim elementary school in Eindhoven on Monday, police said." (See also: "Muslim school in Netherlands attacked" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/08))"Where is the debate on Europe's Muslims?" (John Vinocur, International Herald Tribune, 2004/11/09)
Theo van Gogh XXXII: "In France, with Europe's biggest Muslim population, Nicholas Sarkozy, the former interior minister who has become a political force to rival Jacques Chirac in setting the national political agenda, slipped past a direct question last week on whether Islam was compatible with the spirit of the French Republic.
Sarkozy has said that the decline of equality in France is indisputable, suggested that some kind of affirmative action programs may be necessary to further Muslim integration, and wants the state through the funding of mosques to create an Islam en version française.
Although Sarkozy made no reference to it, the broad context for this is a report by the French internal intelligence service published in the newspaper Le Monde five months ago that told of the existence of some 300 Islamic fundamentalist enclaves in the country where French law and standards had virtually no hold. ...
On the subject of a missing hard edge, Dutch ironists tell of the internal security service's attempts to reassure the country by announcing that extremists make up only five percent of the Muslim population.
The Dutch, in character, quickly did their math and came up with the figure of 50,000 less-than-comfortable neighbors.
In this lethal context, here is the misery of the Islam debate in Europe: It requires both candor and caution in uncertain doses far from any prescription of one-gulp-fits-all.""Dutch Death" (Alexis Amory, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/11/09)
Theo van Gogh XXXI: "Yet 24 hours after the gruesome and repellent murder of Van Gogh, Geert Wilders, a democratically elected representative of the Dutch people in parliament received a note in his mailbox addressed to him as “ugly dog”. It told him he would soon be beheaded. “Do not think you are safe, because we will catch you and cut your ugly head off.” Wilders, who had been planning to form a party to tackle “the Islamic problem” now also has 24-hour police protection. There is apparently one more Dutch politician, besides Hirsi Ali and Wilders, who has now been accorded 24 hour police protection. Outside parliament, a Dutch TV chat show host has also been given protection. And the mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen has also now been put on the hit list, as has the deputy mayor, fellow Muslim Ahmed Aboutaleb. ...
With the depressing lack of insight and originality for which it is world famous, the BBC headlined a news item: “Dutch fear loss of tolerance”. An indigenous Dutchman is hideously murdered in a public street for his political beliefs by a religious fanatic, and the BBC interprets the anger of his countrymen as fretting that this proves they are becoming less tolerant." (See also: "Dutch fear loss of tolerance" (Perro de Jong, BBC News, 2004/11/03))"Muslim school in Netherlands attacked" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2004/11/08)
Theo van Gogh XXX: "An explosion blew the door off a Muslim school in a southern Dutch town and shattered windows across the street on Monday, Dutch television reported. There were no reports of injuries. ...
Vandals threw red paint Saturday night on a center in Amsterdam that aids immigrants, many of them Muslim. The agency, called the Emcemo center, is located several blocks from the spot where Van Gogh was killed, and its director, Abdou Menebhi, told local television station AT5 that he believed the vandals were racists.
In the town of Huizen, police arrested two men they say were caught preparing to ignite a fire at the a-Nasr mosque Friday night, national news service NOS reported. A mosque in the city of Breda sustained minor fire damage in another reported arson attempt.
Earlier this week, a small fire was set at a mosque in Utrecht, police said, and a pig's head was left in a plastic bag outside a mosque in Amsterdam.
NOS reported Sunday that pamphlets with the image of a pig and a slur against Muslims were circulating in Rotterdam.""The roots of prejudice" (Mary Riddell, The Observer, 2004/11/07)
Theo van Gogh XXIX. Was Theo van Gogh "anti-Islamic", as Mary Riddell claims in this article? Not that there's anything wrong with that — one should of course be allowed to be anti-Islamic or anti-Christian or anti-religious or anti-Scientology or whatever. But, anyway, she doesn't provide any explanation or examples at all for her allegation, so let's try another route. Did Van Gogh call Muslims "goat fuckers"? This allegation is made by the quoted Muslim in Amsterdam below and it is also found in an article in Expatica on "Submission":"His remarks can sometimes be very offensive and totally unfounded. Van Gogh once said "Muslims are goatf***ers", accuses Dutch-Moroocan website Maghreb.nl."
Now, perhaps he did say it and that would certainly be a bad case of bigotry and even anti-Muslim. But in the only quote by van Gogh (in English) I've seen on this subject, he is careful to exclude Muslims in general from his vitriolic descriptions of radical Islamists:
"Yet Van Gogh is nuanced when he talks about Islam. “Let’s be honest. There is a significant number of very reasonable Muslims that are not prepared to pull the trigger” Van Gogh wouldn’t be Van Gogh if he didn't add that 'Well, if everyone is starting to get scared over a fifth column of goat-fuckers, as I call them, then the debate in this country will pretty soon be over.'"
So until I find a quote proving the allegation, my working hypothesis is that Van Gogh attacked fundamentalistic Islam, in his trademark provocative style. This is, of course, seen as an attack on Islam by fundamentalistic Muslims. More surprising, perhaps, is that this line of reasoning, fusing criticism of Islamofascism with criticism of Islam, then is parroted in mainstream media accounts. Thus someone who is attacking a fanatical fringe of Islam is turned into being "anti-Islamic" or a "racist" who is attacking Islam and Muslims in general.
Here's just one example of this logic in motion, from Mary Riddell in today's The Observer. For her the allegation is apparently so self-evident that it doesn't need any explanation. The roots of prejudice, indeed [emphasis added]:"Last Tuesday morning, Theo van Gogh, an anti-Islamic Dutch film-maker, was shot six times..."
"'Murder is normal'" (Zacht Ei, 2004/11/07)
Theo van Gogh XXVIII: "A Muslim from Amsterdam explains his position on the murder of Van Gogh. Footage courtesy of local tv station AT5. If anyone feels the need to prepare a Dutch translation, it would be appreciated. To summarize: he agrees with the murderer. The guy is married to a Dutch woman and has five children.
Update 23.48: Reader Iwan was kind enough to provide a translation. ...Anchor: Today in several mosques one paid attention to the murder of Theo van Gogh during the Friday prayer. Imams told their flock that the murder was a violation of all principles of Islam. But not everone agrees. ...
Third man: This man (the imam) has given his personal response. He's not expressing everyone's point of view. I say, if he (Mohamed B., the murderer) wouldn't have done it, I could have done it, or somebody else would have done it. Because, that man (Van Gogh) went too far. He had all the possibilities.
Interviewer: You mean, it's self-evident that it has happened?
Third man: It's very self-evident. He had his freedom of speech, but he has never tried to start a discussion or debate. He called Muslims goat fuckers. He received all attention to express that Muslims...
Interviewer: So the murder was in fact a just act?
Third man: That's my opinion. Not everybody's opinion, but that's my opinion. It is just. ...
Interviewer: But don't you think that murder can't ever be considered normal?
Third man: Murder is normal. Why wouldn't murder be normal? What happens in Iraq? What do the Americans do to the Iraqi's? Did the Iraqi's ask for that? That's murder as well, and everone has accepted that. Everyone thinks that that's 'deadly normal.'""Jihad wrecks Dutch race harmony" (Matthew Campbell, The Sunday Times, 2004/11/07)
Theo van Gogh XXVII: "When Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician, collected his post from the letterbox on Wednesday he got an unpleasant surprise. Among the bills and junk mail was a letter addressing him as “ugly dog”. It told him he would soon be beheaded. ...
Now other people were being targeted, too, as evidence emerged of a “brigade” of Dutch jihadists preparing to murder “the enemies of Islam” in a terror campaign that would be easier to carry out than the bombing of trains or heavily guarded government buildings.
The carefully planned killing of van Gogh plunged into ferment the formerly peaceful “bicycling monarchy” where, in the good old days, a relaxed Queen Beatrix used to ride about without attracting any attention. It prompted some to rethink their faith in a multiracial society. Others predicted a bloodbath. ...
“Do not think you are safe,” said the letter to Wilders, who had been planning to set up a party to help to tackle the “Islamic problem” in Holland, “because we will catch you and cut off your ugly head.”
He was not the only one to be threatened. “There will be no mercy” said a document that the killer had held over van Gogh’s chest before skewering it there with a final knife blow to his heart.
By then van Gogh, 47, had been shot several times and was seen by one witness on his knees, pleading with his assailant, “Don’t do it . . . we can still talk about it.”
The response was a knife to the throat. The killer sawed through the neck and spinal column, almost to the point of decapitating him.""Van Gogh murder backlash begins" (Murdo MacLeod, Scotland on Sunday, 2004/11/07)
Theo van Gogh XXVI: "Prior to his death, Fortuyn’s views had been condemned by the liberal media. But the slaying of Van Gogh has had a cathartic effect in a country where racial tension and hostility towards foreigners is on the rise.
The leading liberal Amsterdam broadsheet, The Telegraaf, has led the charge with a hard-hitting editorial that would never previously have been published.
"There needs to be a very public crackdown on extremist Muslim fanatics in order to assuage the fear of citizens and to warn the fanatics that they must not cross over the boundaries," the newspaper said. ...
Barry Madlener, a councillor in Rotterdam, where half the population is foreign-born - many from Muslim countries - said: "If you say: ‘I reject the Western lifestyle and I don’t want to fit in your way,’ then I say: ‘Keep away.’"
"GIJ ZULT NIET DODEN!"
(Cineac Noord, 2004/11/05)
"Thou Shalt Not Kill" erased by Dutch police. From the video of the destruction of Chris Ripke's mural in Rotterdam [RealMedia]: "'Gij zult niet doden': Opruiende tekst??" (Cineac Noord, 2004/11/05))
