Posted on 11/13/2004 1:43:40 PM PST by Ginifer
Kneeling in the sodden, charred remains of the primary school, Hari Boukameans took a Stanley knife to a melted computer. He twisted and he gouged -- trying to recover the hard drive, hoping to salvage a little bit of the precious Dutch culture of live and let live from the flames of hatred that consumed his workplace.
The Moroccan gave up. He slumped in the smelly, black mass of ashes. "This is really evil," he groaned. Spray painting a white cross and White Power slogans on to the grey brick walls of the Muslim school the previous night, Dutch racists had set the place ablaze. The fire gutted the school and traumatised this comfortable town of 40 000 in the middle of the Netherlands.
"We never used to have problems here. Now everything is destroyed," said the computer engineer as teachers embraced in tears and strangers arrived from neighbouring towns bearing flowers and cards.
Uden is in mourning for the loss of its only Islamic school. And the Netherlands is in mourning for the loss of its innocence and optimism after the murder by a Moroccan Islamist of the film-maker and Muslim-baiter Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam 10 days ago. "Normally you see this sort of thing on the television, from Amsterdam or from a foreign country," said Jacques Bonnier (39), a financial adviser in the town. "Now it's come to your own town and to your own life. What comes next?"
When thousands assembled to grieve for Van Gogh in Amsterdam this week, they pleaded to no one in particular: "Give us back our old Holland." But Boukameans fears that the old Netherlands he has enjoyed for 31 years lies buried among the cinders of Uden, where 120 Muslim under-12s no longer have a school to go to.
The Netherlands is grappling with its worst epidemic of ethnic and religious violence and is struggling to come to terms with what it means for a country that prides itself on liberalism, openness and tolerance. "These fires and attacks are revenge for the murder of Van Gogh," said Stefaan, an 18-year-old student. "Ordinary people are looking for revenge, educated people are saying that's not the way we do things here. We prefer to make deals. But times are changing. It's a kind of war."
From marijuana cafes to euthanasia, prostitution to immigration, the Netherlands has long been Europe's pioneer liberal, secure in a political culture that shuns confrontation and prizes consensus. But political violence first shook the system two years ago when the maverick populist politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated. The murder of Van Gogh, who revered Fortuyn, shared his contempt for over-generous Dutch hospitality, and specialised in verbal hooliganism against Muslims, has come as an even bigger jolt and triggered a national bout of agonising centred on the question: "What's wrong with this country?"
The centre-right government which came to power following the Fortuyn killing thinks that the fabled fairmindedness of the Dutch has become part of the problem, that tolerance is no response to fatwas and fanaticism, that something must be done.
Over the past 10 days there have been some two dozen arson attacks on mosques, churches and schools -- a scale of violence unheard-of here -- as well as government and intelligence revelations about the menace of alleged Islamist terrorism in the heart of the Netherlands.
In the biggest security operations seen here in decades, 13 suspects have been arrested -- mostly Arabs but including two teenage brothers of mixed Dutch-American parentage who converted to Islam -- in connection with the Van Gogh murder and other alleged terrorist plotting.
On Friday at the Parliament in The Hague there was traditional Dutch consensus between government and opposition on tougher measures to combat terrorism and racism and to crack down on immigration. Dozens of the country's 500 mosques may be closed down. It was proposed that only Dutch-trained imams be licensed to run mosques. The security and intelligence services are to be expanded. Police powers of search and arrest are to be expanded. Websites and broadcasters inciting hatred could be censored.
"It's better to have 10 possibly innocent people temporarily in jail than one with a bomb in the street," said Maxime Verhagen of the governing Christian Democrats.
The prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, characterised the last 10 days of violence and tension as simply "un-Dutch". It is also "un-Dutch" to speak out provocatively on matters of race and religion. But Fortuyn and Van Gogh made their mark by breaching the taboos of political correctness. Others are following suit.
The influential former EU commissioner Frits Bolkestein is repeatedly warning of the impact of Muslim immigration. Compulsory "integration" of Muslims is becoming the government's watchword.
The Muslim population, mainly from Morocco and Turkey, is almost one million, or 6%, commonly double that in the big cities. If nothing is done, according to Bolkestein, cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht will have "non-European" majorities within a couple of generations. "The most common first name registered at birth these days in Amsterdam is Mohammed," he recently told the International Herald Tribune. "This, they say, is the Europe-to-be."
Ismael Taspina heatedly contests that view and says that such outspokenness is dangerous. The director of the Uden school and of a further seven Islamic schools in the central Dutch region of Brabant argues that freedom of speech may be very well. "But when we have all these different backgrounds, maybe we should have limits on what you can say. I am from Turkey. But I feel Dutch, I think Dutch. I dream Dutch. I am Dutch. I'm a Dutch Muslim."
To his admirers, Van Gogh is a martyr to freedom of speech. To his many detractors, Van Gogh was a loudmouthed racist hungry for attention and himself a victim of the hatred he helped to foment.
In the school in Uden, the arsonists also spray painted "Theo RIP" alongside their White Power taunts. "We're not going to accept this. Things will get worse," said Suleiman Sinan, a Turkish teacher at the school.
"It's not just one incident," said Taspina. "This has been developing for years and now it is escalating. It's very deep."
I think that, soon enough, at least a few more European countries will move over to our side of the fence...
Then again, they probably won't.
Izlam will be everyone's downfall if we ALL don't wake up soon...They breed and multiply like rabbits (or is that cockroaches) and for some reason they are practically given the "keys" to any city they show up in...We know their motives and agenda...We need to ship 'em out...All of them...
That should qualify me as a muzlim baiter and I'm proud of it...
over 1 billion muslims have reached the consensus that you non-muslims should die. so you can either be good liberals and obey the consensus and die or you can have some balls and fight.
Ah, so now it is thinking Dutch to have limits on what you can say. And what if those limits said, you cannot say, "there is no God but Allah..."? Would that be Dutch or un-Dutch?
Then there is the idea that they will solve it all with "compulsory assimilation". Uh huh. Here is a tip - if a man wants to assimilate and strives as hard as he can to assimilate, it is still a tough task and takes at least a decade, sometimes two full generations. If he doesn't want to, you can make him stand on one foot and touch his nose like a performing bear all you please, and he will never assimilate.
If the Dutch were serious about fighting Muslim terrorism, they would (1) find their terrorists and throw the book at them and (2) send half their army to Iraq to kill terrorists. Instead, they will pass meaningless high sounding resolutions and print strident leading editorials, which will not do a darn thing.
Maybe the western countries should start a Jihad Bus. Whenever one of these a##holes is convicted of a terrorist act in the west, they should be dressed in black pajamas and put on a charter plane for Fallujah.
Looks like the Dutch have "Their" Martyr, now.(Muslim's act as if they have the market cornered.) Islamofascists have slaughtered a National Treasure... A Van Gogh. May Dutch Vengeance be swift and earthshattering.
So between daubing the tears off of the sad clown painting face of his and lamenting the death of Dutch tolerance, this idiot makes a threat.
First Byzantium. Next north central Europe. Good luck, Europe. I'll be on the sidelines with my popcorn.
APf
"Izlam will be everyone's downfall if we ALL don't wake up soon."
You got that right!
Yep. The Boer War in South Africa proved that. The word Commando comes from the dutch.
Notice the slant of the article - it's really Theo Van Gogh's fault:
"The murder of Van Gogh, who revered Fortuyn, shared his contempt for over-generous Dutch hospitality, and specialised in verbal hooliganism against Muslims..."
Verbal hooliganism... I didn't see his movie, but he was depicting the horribly repressive and cruel treatment much of Islam serves out to Muslim women. That's hooliganism? Maybe he didn't bow and curtsey enough in the movie.
How come when Muslims kill people it's always justified by leftists, and when the people so attacked get righteously angry, they're the ones at fault?
And I also notice that the word "racist" bandied about freely. Is it really racism or is it legitimate anger against Muslims who hate and kill non-Muslims?
Interesting fact is that immigrants from "moderate" or "secular" Muslim countries, radicalize in Europe. So when the secular Turkey joins Europe, will it get radical too?
"Still, burning the school was wrong, wrong, wrong."
Will you say that when our lands are nuked by islam? I don't think so.
Response: The non-European never grasps this fact about the Teutonic peoples. That is why non-European groups are eternally suprised when things blow up in their face.
Chickens ------> Roost
They lack the means and the will to fight the Islamonazis. When push comes to shove finally, I hope no American blood will be shed. Let them fight for their own freedom for a change, maybe then those ingrates will appreciate it.
No, Hari, invading a school full of little children in Russia and then shooting them in the back is really evil.
Videotaping beheadings of screaming human beings is evil.
Flyine airplanes into office buildings is really evil.
Shooting a pregnant woman at point-blank range in front of her children, then shooting her in the belly to kill her unborn child and then shooting her little children one by one, including a toddler strapped into a car seat is really evil.
Blowing up public buses, pizza parlors, Passover seders, and restaurants is really evil.
Go back to freaking Morocco.
Hey, they are just four years behind the US.
"Will you say that when our lands are nuked by islam? I don't think so."
I certainly WILL still say it's wrong to burn the school because that can NEVER be justified! Depending on the circumstances, it might be right to close the school and to deport illegals or to terminate the legal status of some visitors and then deport them.
But if we're talking about American citizens, we can't deport them. If they've committed crimes, by all means bring them to justice, but burning their school is always wrong.
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