Posted on 11/06/2004 3:10:31 PM PST by NormsRevenge
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Europe's complex interplay with Islam appears to stand at a tipping-point, and the slaying of a Dutchman who made a movie critical of Islam could indicate one direction in which it is headed. "The Muslims say they're scared," said mourner Nicolette Toering. "No, we're scared."
Dutch authorities were investigating whether the chief suspect, a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan man detained shortly after the attack, acted alone out of rage or had links to wider extremist networks.
A five-page letter pinned to the body of Theo van Gogh, brutally murdered Tuesday as he was riding his bike down a busy boulevard in Amsterdam, called for Muslims to rise up against the "infidel enemies" in the West.
Other messages - later left at the sidewalk shrine where the 47-year-old filmmaker's throat was slashed - dripped with equal venom against radical Islam. "Enemies live among us," read one missive in a bed of flowers, votive candles and crosses.
The attack has underscored the hard political and social choices that European leaders face about Muslims and the wider Islamic world.
In December, European Union leaders will decide whether to overlook widespread public objections and move ahead with membership talks with Turkey, a Muslim nation of about 70 million people and a galloping birthrate that could push it past Germany's population in a generation.
European police agencies have sharply boosted cooperation against suspected Islamic terrorist groups following the March train bombings in Spain that killed 191 people. Washington's European allies in Iraq are reassessing their levels of military and commercial support following waves of attacks, kidnappings and beheadings blamed on Islamic militants.
EU officials last month signed the text of a proposed EU Constitution that still could face opposition from voters demanding a clear reference to Europe's Christian history.
But those big issues fade on the streets of many European centers. Here - even in places like tolerant Amsterdam - it's often expressed as a gnawing feeling that militant factions in Islamic immigrant communities are gaining ground and chipping away at values such as free speech and secular politics.
"There is a general feeling that a social collision is becoming inevitable," said Jan Rath, co-director of the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies at the University of Amsterdam. "People think it's been building for years and now finally coming to the surface."
The landmarks along the way included the 1989 death threat "fatwa," or religious edict, against British writer Salman Rushdie for alleged insults to Islam in "The Satanic Verses," the rise of neo-Fascist movements, the assassination of Dutch anti-immigrant politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002 and France's ongoing showdown with Muslims over a ban on headscarves and other religious apparel in schools.
"My impression is the European voices that say, 'Everyone is equal, but we are more equal than Muslims,' are growing," Rath said.
The Netherlands offers a good vantage point to gauge changing attitudes toward Muslim communities across Europe - which have grown more than 100 percent in the past 15 years, according to U.N. reports. Some sources place the Muslim population as high as 13.5 million in Western Europe, or more than 2 percent of the population, in addition to more than 6 million native-born Muslims in the Balkans.
Unlike the French or Spanish, the Dutch long had little direct contact with Islam apart from a colonial presence in distant Indonesia that ended in 1949. Muslim immigrants began arriving following World War II as reconstruction labor - as they did in Germany and other countries.
The workers, mostly Turks, assimilated well into Dutch society. Moroccans and other North Africans began arriving in the 1970s and 1980s, when more lenient laws allowed men to bring in their families.
But the situation in Holland was getting tougher. Jobs were more scarce - especially for the Moroccan immigrant children - and some politicians began trying to connect the rising crime rate with the swelling Muslim community: now about 1 million in a country of 16 million people.
Last year, a parliament member, Geert Wilders, pressed for a five-year ban on immigration from Turkey and Morocco. Dutch anti-terrorist agents, meanwhile, have intensified probes into alleged radical recruitment among young Muslims.
Van Gogh - a distant relative of the famous 19th-century Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh - often tested the boundaries of free expression by denouncing Muslims in the most graphic terms. His last work, "Submission," a joint project with Somali-born lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, attacked the treatment of women under Islam.
The filmmaker's fans were as passionate as his detractors.
"He was trying to warn us about the dangers of radical Islam," said teacher Geert Plas as he visited the site where Van Gogh was ambushed. "Now maybe we'll listen. To me this is not just a small event. It's part of the World Trade Center and Madrid. We must see this."
The letter pinned to the victim's body also threatened death to Hirsi Ali, who has gone into hiding, and predicted the downfall of the "infidel enemies of Islam" in Europe, America and the Netherlands.
"The jihad (holy war) has come to the Netherlands," parliament speaker Jozias van Aartsen said.
The memorials that piled up on the dark brick sidewalk often crossed the line from sympathy to seething recriminations. "This is the true face of Islam," said a handwritten message. A framed poem called "Imam" ends with a stanza: "If you want to improve the world, start with yourself and your faith."
A banner waved from a fence: "Theo rests his case."
Christian prayer cards, crosses and biblical passages sat amid the flowers - a rare religious outpouring in one of Europe's most secular states.
"This doesn't just say something about the Netherlands," said Baukje Prins, assistant professor of social philosophy at Holland's Groninjen University. "It is an example of how international relations have become polarized."
At a mosque near the murder site, Friday prayers were dominated by talk of the slaying - sprinkled with worry about a possible backlash.
"We are in danger," a Moroccan man told a group of friends sitting in a circle on a carpeted floor.
"No, no," another man said. "We cannot give in to fear. This is our home now."
Moulay Idrissi listened and shook his head.
"I'm afraid. I can't deny it," said Idrissi, who emigrated from Morocco in 1978. "I feel respect for Muslims is falling away in Europe. When people have no respect, anything can happen."
A few hours later, suspected arsonists set fire to a mosque in the central Dutch city of Utrecht, but no injuries were reported.
A 22-year-old student, Abdul Salam, said he tries to tell Christian friends that Muslims have been in Europe since the Moors crossed into Spain in the 8th century.
"So I don't know what to think when people say I don't belong here because I'm Muslim," he said. "I was born here. I don't even speak Arabic. I am European. That's what I feel. That's what I am."
But Salam represents just one side of an internal struggle within Muslim communities in Europe, said Akbar Ahmed, a professor of Islamic studies at American University in Washington.
"Right now the West sees all Islam as a kind of monolith and wipes away all nuances," said Ahmed. "Some want to draw boundaries around Islam in Europe. Other Muslims want to deal with non-Muslims in a broad and tolerant way. It's not new to Islam. It's just new to Europe."
From my experience with Europeans, I think they are thoroughly brainwashed that the "Religion of Peace" practicioners really want to co-exist peacefully with them.
I had a penpal from France a few years ago. The elections came up in 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen (campaigning on a platform of deporting illegals) was gaining momentum, gaining something like 30% of the vote in the first round of elections. I commented that Le Pen is not an extremist or a racist. Even my ultra-liberal penpal admitted their Islamic population is responsible for alot of the crime, some of whom are illegals. She experienced so much cognitive dissonance that she did not write to me again after my positive comment about Le Pen.
Even though most French are wimps, I got to admit Le Pen has a pair.
If the current political parties in Europe refuse to deal with the problems of Islamism now, nationalist parties are sure to take advantage of the growing backlash against Islamic fascism.
"It's not new to Islam. It's just new to Europe."
Saudi Religious Scholars Support Holy War
1 hour, 10 minutes ago
Add to My Yahoo! Middle East - AP
By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Prominent Saudi religious scholars urged Iraqis to support militants waging holy war against the U.S.-led coalition forces as American troops prepared Saturday for a major assault on the insurgent hotbed of Fallujah.
Photo
AP Photo
The 26 Saudi scholars and preachers said in an open letter to the Iraqi people that their appeal was prompted by "the extraordinary situation through which the Iraqis are passing which calls for unity and exchange of views." The letter was posted on the Internet.
"At no time in history has a whole people been violated ... by propaganda that's been proved false," Sheik Awad al-Qarni, one of the scholars, told Al-Arabiya TV.
"The U.S. forces are still destroying towns on the heads of their people and killing women and children. What's going on in Iraq (news - web sites) is a result of the big crime of America's occupation of Iraq."
In their letter, the scholars stressed that armed attacks by militant Iraqi groups on U.S. troops and their allies in Iraq represent "legitimate" resistance.
The scholars were careful to direct their appeal to Iraqis only and stayed away from issuing a general, Muslim-wide call for holy war. They also identified the military as the target, one that is considered legitimate by many Arabs who view U.S. troops and their allies as occupiers.
The independent scholars some of whom have been criticized in the past for their extremist views apparently did not want to antagonize the Saudi government, a U.S. ally, or appear to be flouting its efforts to fight terrorism.
Saudi Arabia has sealed off its long border with Iraq and bars people from crossing into that country. Its most senior clerics issued a statement last year saying the call for jihad or holy war should only come from the ruler and should not be based on edicts issued by individual clergymen.
Saudi officials did not comment on the latest statement.
The clerics' appeal came as U.S. troops, backed by air and artillery power and Iraqi security forces, were gearing up for a major assault on Fallujah.
The clerics issued a fatwa, or religious edict, prohibiting Iraqis from offering any support for military operations carried out by U.S. forces against insurgent strongholds.
"Fighting the occupiers is a duty for all those who are able," the letter said. "It is a jihad to push back the assailants. Resistance is a legitimate right. A Muslim must not inflict harm on any resistance man or inform on them. Instead, they should be supported and protected."
Besides al-Qarni, the prominent scholars signing the letter included Sheik Safar al-Hawali, Sheik Nasser al-Omar, Sheik Salman al-Awdah and Sheik Sharif Hatem al-Aouni.
Al-Hawali, who was jailed in the 1990s for five years without trial because he criticized U.S. involvement in the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) against Iraq, once was close to Saudi-born al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites). He opposed the presence of U.S. troops in the kingdom.
His name appeared this month on a list issued by a group of Arab intellectuals seeking to prosecute prominent clerics for encouraging terrorism.
The scholars said inter-Iraqi fighting would cause "great damage to the Iraqis and give a free service to the Jews who are infiltrating into Iraq and to the coalition forces which exploit differences to consolidate their domination."
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and home to its two holiest cities, has launched a campaign against militants. The crackdown began after al-Qaida-affiliated operatives attacked three residential compounds in Riyadh in May 2003 and killed dozens of people, bringing terrorism to the kingdom for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Not really...
A study of how many moozies are in France is around 3 and a half million, and some of them are completely assimilated...
The others will wake up one day and discover what it is to try and push a country without habeas corpus... It won't be pretty!
Well she must have been of the PC variety... Because French people just loathes arabs (do you know how they are called? Les ratons, the rats!)
This summer a couple in Brittany called them in the middle of the restaurant "le cancer du monde...
It won't be pretty for the muslims when this will explode...
As regards the Palestinian issue, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, expressed their good wishes to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and hoped that he would soon recover and return with excellent health to his homeland.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard reiterated the Kingdom's unwavering support to the Palestinian people and to their just cause, and underlined the importance of enabling the Palestinians to restore their legitimate rights.
Meanwhile, Minister of Culture and Information Dr Fouad Ibn Abdul-Salam Al-Farsi, told SPA that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques had briefed the Cabinet on the contents of the messages and contacts made by him and the Crown Prince with a number of leaders of Arab and friendly countries on the latest developments at various arenas notably the tragic situation in Palestine and Iraq.
The Kingdom urged the international community to work for ending fighting in the Iraqi territories and to put pressure on Israel until it ends its flagrant aggression against the innocent people.
Call me crazy, but I don't think "submit or die" is a tough choice.
5.56mm
Nevertheless, when unrest and violence happens in Europe on a daily basis, those who can leave will do just that. Plus, they'll demand that we fix their mess.
Letter in a Saudi paper
We Are Sorry
Steven Laifer Dar Al-Hayat 2004/10/12
We, the people of the USA, still shaken by the events of September 11, 2001, were deceived by President George Bush into believing Saddam Hussein and his government was an impending mortal danger to our children, family, friends and way of life. As a result, a majority of us supported the attack and occupation of your country that continues to kill and injure your children, family, friends, and destroy your way of life. As we have learned recently, the danger was fabricated and did not exist.
America's citizens would never have supported an invasion of your country absent President Bush's deception, and we are only now starting to understand the consequences, both to you and us.
We sincerely apologize for invading your homeland without a justifiable reason.
We are so sorry our bombing and our soldiers unintentionally killed and maimed your innocent babies, children, family and friends.
We regret arresting 45,000 of your innocent sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, grandmothers and grandfathers, for separating families, and for the humiliating mistreatment and torture.
We apologize for the physical, emotional and psychological damage done your children and people.
We apologize for the destruction of your cities, towns, villages, and houses.
We regret causing the loss of jobs and livelihood, the unchecked crime and kidnappings, and for making daily life an ongoing struggle.
We are so sorry that our invasion has caused a terrorism problem in your country when none existed before, and that our president has turned your country into a terrorist "magnet."
Many of us recognize the universal human kinship between people regardless of nationality, race or religion, and feel deep sorrow for the human suffering America has caused to your people. We extend our hand in friendship and solidarity, and we will do what we can to help you overcome the injustice done in our name.
We know that life under Saddam was no paradise, and many suffered under his rule. We truly hope when all is said and done, some good will have come of our mistaken invasion, and your country will recover and emerge as a free, peaceful and fruitful society, with an elected government by and for the people. Don't be discouraged by the fact that democracy can elect people like George Bush. We get a chance to recognize our mistake, and throw him out after 4 years -- without violence.
Englewood, New Jersey, USA
steve@electricimagetech.com
You've been reading the same tea leaves. Europe is just waking up, but by the time they stop dithering and discussing what to do, the Muslims will have kidnapped any number of them, thus stopping any action against them. Appeasement will be the order of the day. Feed the tiger and hope he eats someone else. This has been France's game plan for years.
i remember le pen well. i have a distant cousin in alsace that i have been in contact with for several years. she supports chirac, but said that le pen is gaining some momentum again as the french economy is tanking. (us business and tourism is down by as much as a third).
to be fair to the europeans, they have been ruled by tyrants for centuries. just about every village in western europe has a festival, most of which celebrates the removal of a local tyrant from the middle ages. given that, the stories about the devastation of the 30 years war and the more recent memories of world war II, i can understand why they believe in the "religion of peace". i just don't happen to agree with them and i hope, for their sake, that they wake up.
Mozzies need two options, Assimlate or get the hell out.
Final War between Islam and the West and India?.
The initial stories of Van Gogh's death contained those tidbits. Don't have a link, but I'm sure I read it on FR, since I seldom bother to go elsewhere!
"Christian Europeans needs to have more babies, or they can kiss Christian Europe goodbye in about 100 years!"
...it won't happen most of the "Christian" states of Europe are aborting their children at a faster rate than they're birthing them. Also, based on the new EU Constitution...they've jettisoned any references to Christianity being the morale basis of their civilization.
...they're screwed.
Dennis, here is the eyewitness account of Van Gogh's murder; I finally found it on Belmont Club blog:
The Dutch blog Zacht Ei is an interesting window into how people in the Netherlands are reacting to the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by Islamic fundamentalists. The UK Times described Gogh's death in the following way:
Theo van Gogh, the film maker who had often attacked radical Muslims, had been riding along on his bicycle when a Muslim fanatic first shot and then butchered him on a busy street with the nonchalance of an abattoir worker. ... 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.
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, "Dont 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.
The murder caused widespread popular anger, yet political correctness forced much of the public reaction into unconventional channels. The Mayor of Rotterdam Ivo Opstelten had a mural with the words "Thou Shalt Not Kill" removed in the aftermath of the Gogh murder because it might inflame Muslims. Gogh's film "Submission", which offended his murderers in the first place, was pulled from the Stedelijk Museum of modern art because it might cause an "uproar"; the same film was yanked off Rotterdam TV West for fear it would endanger their employees. Instead the Dutch PBS ran a special program to discuss:
'how a multicultural society should deal with freedom of expression'. This implicitly suggests that Mr. Van Gogh may just have stepped over some sort of invisible line, and therefore may be partly to blame for his own death. Of course, this suggestion was never spoken out aloud.
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