Posted on 11/29/2004 7:30:10 PM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
By all accounts, Theo van Gogh, 47, the great-great-grandson of the brother of the Dutch master, was a repulsive character.
Foul of mouth, given to anti-Semitic outbursts, the film director was described thus by the Wall Street Journal:
In writings and speeches he made crude jokes about Jews and riled Moslems with scatological insults. A few months before his murder, he attended a debate called "Happy Chaos" organized by students and a leftist magazine. It descended into rancorous chaos when Mr. van Gogh called a Moslem leader the "prophet's pimp."
In August, van Gogh, known as the Michael Moore of Holland, aired on Dutch television a 10-minute English-language film titled, "Submission." The movie, writes the BBC, "caused an uproar."
The outcry centered on the stories of four Moslem women who were beaten, raped and forced into marriage, and were asking for Allah's help. It becomes apparent that their chadors and gowns are transparent and their half-naked bodies are visible through their dress. On their bodies are written Koranic verses describing the permitted physical punishments for women who "misbehave."
"Submission" was to be the first of three installments. Someone else will have to direct the other two. For as Slate's Ronald Rovers describes in detail, Theo is no longer with us:
On the morning of Nov. 2 in a busy street in east Amsterdam, a 26-year-old Dutch Moroccan named Mohammed Bouyeri pulled out a gun and shot ... Theo van Gogh, who was riding a bike to his office. Van Gogh hit the ground and stumbled across the street to a nearby building. He didn't make it. As the Moroccan strode toward him, van Gogh shouted: "We can still talk about it! Don't do it! Don't do it."
But the Moroccan didn't stop. He shot him again, slit Van Gogh's throat and stuck a letter to his chest with a knife. He was slaughtered like an animal, witnesses said. "Cut like a tire," said one.
As the Journal describes it, the letter fulminated against "infidels" and warned, "Hair-raising screams will be squeezed from the lungs of the non-believers." It ended in:
... a Dutch incantation in the style of an Islamic verse: "I know for sure that you, O America, are going to meet with disaster. I know for sure that you, O Europe, are going to meet with disaster. I know for sure that you, O Netherlands, are going to meet with disaster."
What stunned Holland is that Bouyeri was born and educated in that most tolerant of countries, where drugs are done in public and all manner of sex is on sale. Nor was Bouyeri destitute.
When police went to arrest his friends, they put up a fight. Mosques have since been torched, churches burned, and Dutch leaders who have denounced Islamic fanatics have been threatened with ritual slaughter and beheadings. Dutch police now believe Holland has a sizable nest of homegrown terrorists among its million Moslems.
Welcome to the New Europe. Twenty million Muslims now reside there and are the fastest-growing minority on a continent where the native-born populations of every country save Muslim Albania are failing to reproduce themselves or have begun to die out.
Europe faces the dilemma of a post-Christian civilization that has lost all moral certitude – to worship at the altars of diversity and tolerance. As Slate writes: "The Dutch filmmaker believed that insulting people was his right as a free citizen. The Moslem fanatic who slaughtered him didn't agree."
How does Holland, how does Europe deal with a militant faith that preaches that to do your own thing means to do God's will and punish insulters of that faith – be they a van Gogh or Salman Rushdie?
As Muslims move toward majority status, why should they not use Europe's democratic procedures to establish Islamic law and make theirs the faith of Europe, as Christians did and secularists have now done?
To devout Muslims, what Europe offers is godless materialism and hedonism, a life devoid of meaning and purpose, save pleasure and self-indulgence. They prefer to do Allah's bidding in this world to ensure they share his paradise in the next.
Undeniably, Islam is rising. And, like all rising faiths, it is intolerant. Disbelieving that all religions are equal – "There is one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet" – Islam does not believe all faiths should be treated equally. Why should they be? If one has God's revealed truth, why should one tolerate lies that lead to the damnation of the faithful?
In its new constitution, the European Union has declared Christianity a dead relic. What Islam is saying – with its militancy, its soaring birth rate, it steady replacement of dying Europeans with young Muslim immigrants – is: "Christianity may be your past, but we are your future."
My money's on the true believers.
Well, after this, it's a safe bet that the tub of lard, Michael Moore, will not do a film documentary criticizing Islam.
That's not the attitude to have with this enemy.
The Religion of Peace strikes again.
There is more to the story. An artist in Rotterdam painted the words, "Thou shall not kill" on a wall in response to the murder. A local mosque leader objected and complained to the police. City officials then sand-blasted the offensive phrase off the wall.
Diversity; ain't it grand? Its truly our greatest strength!
It is generally thought that Vincent van Gogh had no children. Theo was an descendent of Vincent's brother, Theo.
I have to wonder how the Muslims and EU elites will get along? We need to keep a close eye on this situation so we don't make the same mistakes the Europeans have made.
like nitro and glycerin, I'm sure.
"My money's on the true believers."
Buchanan betrays something disturbing in this sentence. Obviously Europe needs a re-awakening, but I wouldn't bet against the West in this war. I like Pat Buchanan, but I think he is not grasping some important points here, and he is going for some cheap sensationalism.
To quote him, quoting "As Slate writes: "The Dutch filmmaker believed that insulting people was his right as a free citizen. The Moslem fanatic who slaughtered him didn't agree."
Guess what, insulting people WAS Van Gogh's right, and NO BODY has the right to KILL somebody over an insult. Not a gang banger in the ghetto, some duel fighting dandy from a by-gone era, or a Muslim terrorist from today. Sticks and stones, etc. I'm no fan of nudity qua nudity, but let's face it, the museums of the world are filled with naked people. Yes, the Islamofacists would burn and break the finest art every created because it contains (GASP!) actual depictions of persons (NAKED PERSONS!), but I venture that it wasn't the nudity of the film "Submission" that offended the Islamofacists, it was the NAKED TRUTH therein.
Hey, I hate Howard Stern, but I never wanted to kill the guy. I don't think Jerry Falwell or Phyllis Schafley wants to kill him either.
Hey Pat, my money's on the West!
Right! Just start killing the bastards now.
I'm liking Van Gogh more and more!
This year, our congress and president will bring about 100,000 new foreign muslims into our homeland.
..."...Undeniably, Islam is rising. And, like all rising faiths, it is intolerant."...
..."...the European Union has declared Christianity a dead relic. What Islam is saying – with its militancy, its soaring birth rate, it steady replacement of dying Europeans with young Muslim immigrants – is: "Christianity may be your past, but we are your future."...
Islam will not stop on its own. There are no "Moderates" to slow down Islam's belief in world rule. They are in Europe and they are in America and intend to kill us until we either quit or we kill them.
Why?
I sure hope Condi Rice cleans up that pro-arab State Department!
I expect the Europe will be the primary battleground in this war. It's the Euros own fault.
Essentially, our immigration policy remains on pre-9-11 autopilot, with our leaders unwilling to touch the controls.
This is an unfair comparison. Michael Moore never had the guts to go up against anyone or anything that would actually take him seriously enough to fight back. Michael Moore slanders law-abiding gun owners and Christians, neither group being known for violent retribution.
Besides, Michael Moore loves Muslim Terrorists. He calls the be-headers and bombers of innocent people "freedom fighters" and compares them the founding fathers of this country.
“The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘The Enemy.’ They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow—and they will win.” - Michael Moore, 4/14/2004
That number needs to be drastically reduced.
The gang now invading Europe will be in for the lesson of their lives. Democracies, by definition, look weak to outsiders. But, when their backs are to the wall, they can turn on a dime. This country was just as disoriented in the 1930s, as Europe is today. This persisted right up until Pearl Harbor. We had an ambassador in England basically assuring the world that London was about to fall, and that we would likely be next (happens to be the father of JFK, Teddy, and Robert). We had leading industrialists meeting with Nazi leaders in New York, to get a piece of the action (in post-war Europe), as London was being pounded daily. We had a Republican Party that made Pat Buchanan look like a globalist. The country as a whole was just as bad (70% opposed any involvement in a survey done just before Pearl Harbor). The reasoning was that who are we to say Nazi Germany was worse than ENGLAND!! We were SICK. Yet Pearl Harbor changed everything, and we kicked some you know what.
Anglo Europe has 2 options, although the time to choose the second option is closing fast. (1) Succumb to Islamic domination peacefully and live as slaves (or worse). (2) Fight back. That means either civil war or mass deportations (or worse). I expect them to choose #2. I cannot see them going without a fight, but it will be very, very, ugly. If the Anglos do win, a lot of us will be wondering who the bad guys really were.
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