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| Europe |
| Dutch find the strength to take on their 'new Nazis' |
| 2004-11-10 |
| The assassination of Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film-maker whose funeral took place yesterday, is something new in Europe. There are, of course, antecedents. Fifteen years have passed since Ayatollah Khomeini issued his fatwa against Salman Rushdie: the first shot in the culture war between fundamentalist Islam and the West. But there is no precedent for the ritual slaughter of a prominent artist in broad daylight on the streets of Amsterdam. For the Dutch, this murder is not only sinister: it is symbolic. Van Gogh - distantly related to Holland's most celebrated artist - was shot on his bicycle, another national emblem. As he writhed on the ground, the murderer cut his throat without mercy and left him with two knives protruding from his body: a method that is apparently common in North Africa, but unheard of here. Just in case there was any doubt about the symbolism of this butchery, a note was found pinned to his chest, containing death threats against three other public figures. The resonance of this hideous crime, not only in the Netherlands, but across the whole of continental Europe, is difficult for the British to comprehend. We have no conception of the status accorded to the artist in countries that have known totalitarian dictatorship within living memory. The Nazis and the Communists liquidated or exiled the intelligentsia wherever they could. Persecution cast a shadow across the Continent from which it has still not wholly recovered. Hence the reverence in which the artist is held. Hence the cult of dissent at any price, however absurd, pretentious or childish. Hence the aversion to censorship of any kind, including self-censorship. For a post-traumatic culture, the artist is a high priest. The murder of an artist for the sake of his art shocks secular Europe rather as martyrdom once shocked Christendom. Theo van Gogh is a secular martyr. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #7 The Dutch are unique in many issues concerning individual freedom. Its history bares it out. The small but great free nations such Danmark and Holland are being swallowed by EU immigration quotas. France has been swallowed up and spit out. Islam is forcing a show down in every country in the world. Spain, an attack and immediate defeat. Those who love freedom and toleration, as the Dutch, will have to fight the hardest. The biggest issue is immigration, illegal must be eliminated and legal must be secured. 9/11 Happened. How many have been stopped? For the Dutch a nation with a heart and heritage this 9/11 is for them. |
| Posted by: Erik 2004-11-10 7:56:18 PM |
| #6 Lex America has NEVER dealt with a religion who tells its tennants are a master race entitled and with the duty to slaughter its opponents. These are not quakers, mnemonists or hassidim. Coexitsence with that kind of wahabists would be about as easy as with worshippers of the Aztec gods. |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-11-10 4:26:09 PM |
| #5 Van Gogh's murder is the Dutch 9/11? We can only hope and we can only hope that its not too late for an effective resistance there. How lucky they would be if all it took was the loss of one life rather than the loss of 3000 lives for them and maybe the rest of the continent to wake up to reality. If they do wake up and mount a civilized resistence there just might be hope for at least some of Europe even after the shameful Spanish debacle. |
| Posted by: peggy 2004-11-10 10:40:25 AM |
| #4 Van Gogh's murder is the Dutch 9/11? We can only hope and we can only hope that its not too late for an effective resistance there. How lucky they would be if all it took was the loss of one life rather than the loss of 3000 lives for them and maybe the rest of the continent to wake up to reality. If they do wake up and mount a civilized resistence there just might be hope for at least some of Europe even after the shameful Spanish debacle. |
| Posted by: peggy 2004-11-10 10:31:02 AM |
| #3 Interesting article. As mentioned in a different thread you can download and watch Submission Part 1. This link goes to a montage - click on it and you will get the video. (or right-click and do a save link as...). |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-11-10 10:30:22 AM |
| #2 But the longer-term solution is the American one: respect people of faith, give them real economic opportunities in a growing economy, and leave them alone. We have used this formula brilliantly throughout our history to attract hardworking, business-savvy religious minorities, from the Quakers and the mennonites in PA to the mormons in the west and Dutch reformed in MI to hasidim in NY and Iraqi Chaldeans in Dearborn MI to sikhs and Korean methodists in California. The Euros' problem is that, instead of strivers, they brought in millions of islamist resenters from Africa and the middle east, ie people who are more concerned with attacking jews and their own women than they are with building businesses and social networks that help their own to succeed. Compounding the problem is the limited access to capital and the myriad difficulties facing small entrepreneurs. Trouble ahead. Get ready for another wave of European emigration to the US, this time the good European muslims, the strivers who will find in the US plenty of tolerance, opportunity and above all, no state interference. Bring them here, the more strivers the better. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-10 10:28:56 AM |
| #1 As the Dutch wake up and start standing up to the muslim fanatics there is probably going to be a counter-reaction from Al-Qaidazoids and their recruits. I wonder if we are not witnessing the beginning of a chain reaction that will sweep Europe like a forest fire. Whatever passes to be, its most likely going to be ugly. However it is probably better to amputate your finger than to have your whole body sucumb to gangrene. |
| Posted by: Elder of Zion 2004-11-10 10:15:42 AM |