Posted on 11/12/2004 9:29:26 PM PST by saquin
THE rural Dutch town of Uden, a patchwork of landscaped parks and modern suburban housing, seems a paradise of affluent tranquillity until you see the charred remains of Bedir Islamic primary school.
The only things left standing of this former model of state-funded religious education are the blackened brick walls. Inside, all that remains of the 120 sets of children’s chairs are metal frames crumpled by the heat of the inferno, the work of racist arsonists.
A father of Turkish origin, entering the nearby Suleymaniye mosque with his young daughter, asked angrily: “How do you explain it to her? That someone burnt down her school because they hate her?”.
Ismail Taspinar, the school’s director, told The Times: “We are very deeply shocked, angry, frightened. The parents don’t understand it. They feel it is an attack on their community, on their religion, on peace and democracy.”
The tiny Islamic community of Uden, just 1,200 Turks and Moroccans in a town of 40,000, are victims of what Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch Prime Minister, calls a “maelstrom of violence”.
In just over a week, a country widely regarded as a paragon of tolerant liberalism has been transformed into a cauldron of religious and ethnic violence.
In reprisals and counter-reprisals, more than 20 mosques, churches, Islamic and Christian schools, and Muslim community centres have been attacked in a wave of petrol bombings and vandalism.
Half a dozen politicians, accused of being “enemies of Islam” have received death threats, and two have gone into police safe houses.
Yesterday, police arrested 39 suspects as they closed down what appeared to be a training camp for Kurdish separatists in the southern village of Liempde. Earlier in the week, the Government sent special forces to arrest an Islamic cell in The Hague. Three officers were hurt during the 15-hour siege as they came under attack from grenades and gunfire.
The Netherlands is in shock, with fear gripping communities and turning neighbour against neighbour. “Hate is spreading across the country like wildfire,” the popular daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad said in a front-page editorial.
The national trauma was sparked by what is now being dubbed the “Dutch September 11” — the ritualist murder and near-beheading in an Amsterdam street of Theo van Gogh, a film-maker and critic of Islam.
It was the second murder of a prominent critic of Islam after the shooting of the anti-immigration populist Pim Fortuyn two years ago. But he was killed by a native Dutch activist, whereas Mr van Gogh was killed in an act of jihad.
“Holy war has come to the Netherlands, ” Jozias van Aartsen, the Dutch parliament’s Speaker, said.
An Amsterdam court extended yesterday the detention of a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan charged with Mr van Gogh’s murder and four others charged with membership of a terrorist group and conspiracy to murder Mr van Gogh.
A note pinned with a knife to the film-maker threatened Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a liberal member of parliament with whom Mr van Gogh made a film about violence against women in Muslim society, and criticised two other politicians.
The Government introduced tough anti-immigration rules after Fortuyn’s murder, and has this time pledged to deport Islamic extremists and to require all imams in mosques to be Dutch.
Queen Beatrix visited a Moroccan youth centre in Amsterdam yesterday in an attempt to lower tensions, but public attitudes have hardened sharply. Polls show that 90 per cent believe the Netherlands is now less tolerant, with 47 per cent admitting that they are more hostile to Islam since Mr van Gogh’s murder. About 40 per cent “hope” that Muslims no longer feel welcome in the Netherlands.
“Fear is ruling Holland at the moment — both Muslims and non-Muslims are afraid,” said Yassim Hertog, co-ordinator of the group Islam and Citizenship, which tries to promote Muslims in Dutch society.
“People are afraid that the Muslim next door is their enemy. Muslims who are fully integrated suddenly find their colleagues and neighbours didn’t really think of them as part of ‘us’.”
The Dutch are now asking how their multicultural experiment could have gone wrong. Nabil Marmoush, chairman of the Dutch branch of the radical Arab European League, which opposes assimilation, blamed “Muslim-bashing” by politicians such as Fortuyn, who declared the Netherlands “full”.
“The mosque and the Islamic school have become the symbol of the enemy,” he said. “A lot of people have seen this coming. You could see the tension in society.”
But many Dutch are concluding that Mr van Gogh and Fortuyn have been vindicated. At the site of Mr van Gogh’s murder, among the thousands of flowers and candles, a sign reads: “Theo rests his case.”
Geert Plas, a teacher paying his respects, said: “He was trying to warn us about the dangers of radical Islam. Now maybe we will listen.”
One of the first to predict the crisis was Paul Scheffer, professor of urban sociology at Amsterdam University. He wrote in 1999: “None of the unspoken expectations, such as the idea that integration was simply a matter of time, have turned out to be right. So the house of cards known as multiculturalism collapses.”
The fabled Dutch tolerance, he said, was just a code for people ignoring other communities, living parallel but separate lives. But with mainly Muslim ethnic minorities reaching 50 per cent in the main cities it is no long possible to ignore what is happening. Rita Verdonk, the country’s hardline Immigration Minister, admitted: “We must ask ourselves if we have not been naive over the past few years.”
The question everyone is asking, but no one dares answer, is: What will happen if there is another assassination or terrorist attack?
I suppose going back to the Middle East is out of the question?
Enough with this fanatics!
I visit Amsterdam twice a year ..This has been coming , little by little. I warned my friends for the past few years but they didnt see it coming. I just spoke with then 2 days ago and the situation is tense in Amsterdam. I was told last year that the Moslems fail to intergrate into Dutch society , they hate the Dutch but like the money they make there. The kids are arrogant in the schools and there is the beginings of street crimes , mainly by young moslem punks. Whats sad is that my buddy and his wife cancelled their Christmas trip to see me her ein NY City because they were told that MANY Euro are being stopped and even jailed here in the US now that Bush is re elected..How sad is that ? I explained that it's all anti Bush propaganda . Supposedly they have heard stories of Dutch tourist detained for days at LAX and Newark for no real reason ..Sad,,,
Well here is the problem.....
Half a dozen politicians, accused of being “enemies of Islam” have received death threats, and two have gone into police safe houses.
If the Muslims would stop with the death threats and the killings, their schools wouldn't be burned down. It is all about the hatred, death threats, and murders.....
and why don't they just go back home.
Let's hope the liberal elite in this country hears that message loud and clear.
Holland , do your selves a favor .
Throw them all out!.....
historically, the dutch have been anything but naive. with a land of few resources, they have found ways to "make more land" and build an empire based on entrepreneurship. it will be interesting to see how they deal with this problem.
We are either moving to Los Angeles or den Hague Holland soon. (for my husband's job) Holland sound scary
So the citizens are wising us are they? This could be the same thing we have had here. Terrorist Training camps disguised as schools.
OOPs, WISING UP of course.
Lord have mercy on this world's morally bankrupt lowlife liberals even though they are intolerant, unrepentant, disrespectful, scum sucking bottom dwellers. Amen.
We can be praying for you either way.
Have they blamed Bush yet?
holland is a totally beautiful place to live . It's a shame what's happining there recently . Hague is a bit of a boring place though . In this case the Dutch were TOO NICE and TOO Liberal ..Now they are seeing what we already know .
They've been ridiculously naive about drugs, prostitution, welfare, homosexuality, and mullafied islam. By "historically," you must be referring to previous generations.
Oh, they hear it alright. It's just like socialism. It has been an abject failure everywhere it has been tried, but they believe that's only because the wrong people have been in charge of it. Of course, THEY'RE different. Our annointed caretakers, if you will.
Yeah, right.
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