Posted on 02/12/2005 11:58:49 AM PST by Eurotwit
What is happening to Holland that once stood as the shining light of tolerance and religious freedom? A country that the entire world admired for its courageous protection of Jews and other persecuted people during World War II?
It would appear that Holland has forgotten its own history.
In a series of attempts to discourage immigration from Third World countries, the Dutch have introduced a legislative proposal that would require some potential immigrants to take an examination to prove that they have an understanding of the Dutch language and culture. This applies to individuals who marry a Dutch citizen or who have family members already living in Holland.
It does not apply to people from the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan or the United States.
This exam will require 350 hours of study and will cost each applicant $468.
One of the most disturbing elements of this program is a video that these individuals must watch. The video describes the essence of Dutch life. In the video are images of windmills and tulips but there are also scenes of a homosexual wedding and topless women sunbathing — elements that are clearly offensive to Muslim people.
There are about one million Muslims living in Netherlands. This represents six percent of the total population. They migrated to Holland mostly as “guest workers” from Morocco and Turkey from the 1960s through the 1990s.
According to Andre Krouwel, a political scientist at Amsterdam’s Free University, Holland encouraged these workers to maintain both their linguistic and cultural identities. The Dutch governments assumed these workers would eventually return to their native homes. Some did but many did not. It was in essence a miscalculation.
Now, the Muslim population in Holland is trying to become part of that country with all the rights and privileges the Dutch enjoy. However, there are a number of native Dutch who are against the absorption of these immigrants into their society. A recent poll showed that 50 percent of the voters support tighter restrictions on immigration and asylum and some elected officials are using this issue for political gain.
One such official is Parliamentarian Geert Wilders.
Wilders is building his political strength on a platform of anti-immigration and what many observers call bigotry. He calls immigration the biggest problem that Dutch society faces today. “We have been so tolerant of other’s culture and religion,” he says. “We are losing our own. Europe is losing itself. One day we will wake up and it will be too late. Immigration will have killed our country and our democracy”.
He calls mosques “houses of terror and recruitment” for jihad. He describes Islam as “dangerous” and “fascist”.
He warns the Dutch about not learning from the lessons of Pim Fortuyn, an anti-immigration activist who was killed by a deranged animal rights activist in 2002.
What is dangerous is that many of the people in Holland are listening to Wilders.
After the assassination of Pim Fortuyn his political party went on to win 26 of 150 seats in the Parliament.
Last November, when the anti-Islamist crusader Theo van Gogh was killed by a Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent on a street in Amsterdam, the sentiment against Muslim immigrants rose sharply.
Wilders who had been isolated in the Parliament suddenly had 19 other members of that body supporting his ideas on immigration issues, such as a five-year moratorium on all non-Western immigration.
Just a few days after the Van Gogh killing, Fortuyn was named one of the most important persons in Dutch history, outpolling Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt, two world famous Dutch painters.
Wilders’ rhetoric is inflammatory and often inaccurate. He claims that the immigrant population has grown from 160,000 to 1.6 million — a 1,000 percent growth.
What he does not say is that the number includes second and third generation children of immigrants, children born in Holland, who are legally Dutch.
He excites his audience by stating that 90 percent of the prison population is foreign. The Netherlands’ Central Statistical Office shows that number to be about 50 percent. While this is a high percentage in relation to the total population, as Andre Krouwel has stated, Holland increasingly finds itself divided into two societies, a relatively affluent and educated Dutch “in-group” and a mainly Muslim under-skilled “out-group”.
Disenfranchised members of any society are often found in higher percentages among prison populations. The underlying elements that men like Wilders and Fortuyn appeal to are dangerous and inhumane. With Dutch women having 1.7 children and their population living longer, economists predict their extensive social-welfare network will go bust without the influx of new, young workers.
True, some Dutch express concerns about losing their culture, about their disappearing heritage.
The answer should be in managing their immigration system, not in dismantling a major part of it. It is a shame that this country has reached such a sad state of affairs that they are looking at the ethnic background or religionist beliefs of would-be immigrants.
Perhaps, they should reflect upon the idea that the complexion of the Dutch people is changing, which is inevitable as it is for most Western nations. Their Muslim population can make great contributions to this new Holland, if they refuse to hear the voices of anger and prejudice.
Have at it.
I guess you're right. Not all Muslims can have Yasser Arafat's movie star appeal.
Aaaaaw, c'mon...
In strict accordance with the Globalist Sacrew Cow (moo!), they MUST accept all, including terrorists! Nations no longer have the right to self defense or self-determination. We now live in a Communal Global Village (CGV) and the Earth is our Mother.
Get with the Collective global program. (sarcasm)
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/kittycat.php
http://www.robrob8.com/song_parody/play_immigrant_song.htm
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html
When people can come to Arabic/Islamic countries to find jobs there, getting social assistance from the state, and are free to build their churches and invite the 'natives' to convert to their religion without any trouble from the states/Islamic clergies, THEN, we may start talking about real tolerance. Otherwise, the Arabic countries should look at the mirror and point to themselves: YOU are xenophobic.
From the article:
I've read that in cities like Rotterdamn the mohommedans have reached the 50% mark.
In other words, "it's inevitable to be absorbed by Islam. Resistance is futile. Give it up, Netherlands and the rest of Europe, we'll be running things now."
The Dutch had better get a grip fast. It may already be too late.
... enough said, and quote: "Prominent Muslim lauds van Gogh slaying, blesses murderer"...
Fanaticals committing assassinations??? Naaaah, you don't say??
Did the terrorists think they could have gotten away with this insane act?
God bless that Sovereign Country, its Government, Police and Military Intelligence forces in cracking down on the JIHAD which is definitely brewing up right under their very noses. I hope they clean up their country and make it totally impervious to terrorist infestation.
God speed.
Thanks for looking- I appreciate it.
Did you ping Bayourod to defend the right of the Islamics to do murders the Dutch don't want to do?
I'll admit, the author is right about one thing: an understanding of dutch language and culture should also be applied to Westerners.
In general, though, perhaps the seeming incompatibility of hardcore Islam with such ideas as freedom, tolerance, and a high regard for women, is why the Dutch are looking toward a religious test for immigrants, if they truly are doing so. Perhaps we should do so as well.
To answer the question put forth in the article, no, the Dutch are not xenophobic. If they were xenophobic, they would be paranoid about the Japanese, Icelanders, Canadians, etc. Instead they are increasingly supicious of people from an Islamic background.
Somehow more Muslims are sympathetic to terrorists than, say, Japanese tourists or Icelandic fishermen are sympathetic to terrorists. There have been Islamic radicals who have killed Dutch people because Holland is not Islamic. I have not heard about Norwegians killing Dutch people because Holland isn't Lutheran. Maybe this happens all the time by a strange coincidence on busy news days so incidents involving Norwegian terrorists just don't get reported.
You guys are brutal.
heh heh heh.
How come the Dutch are xenophobic because they require immigrants to have some idea of what it takes to be a civil person in the Netherlands, but it is apparently SOP to behead westerners in some parts of the Islamic world?
Agreed, albeit for a lower cost.
"Now, the Muslim population in Holland is trying to become part of that country with all the rights and privileges the Dutch enjoy. However, there are a number of native Dutch who are against the absorption of these immigrants into their society. A recent poll showed that 50 percent of the voters support tighter restrictions on immigration and asylum and some elected officials are using this issue for political gain."
The last sentence begins: "A recent poll showed that 50 percent of the voters support tighter restrictions on immigration...". Now, what they HELL does that have to with whether the Dutch want the existing Muslim population to assimilate? Of course they want them to assimilate, since the other option is to help them pick up arms for the jihad.
The first sentence: "Now, the Muslim population in Holland is trying to become part of that country with all the rights and privileges the Dutch enjoy." BASED ON WHAT??? The entire problem in Europe, as you guys well know, and the Dutch are finally figuring out, is that these clowns have no intention of EVER assimilating. They simply want to build up their numbers and guns - and then take over.
I may throw in another parsing later (I saw one that really stood out). But this lady is pathetic, and taking such a condescending attitude towards the white Dutch population, who prefer not have their genitals mutilated by these savages, is only going to fan the flames over there (which may, actually, be helpful in settling this situation once and for all).
Islam.
What is happening is a once proud nation is awakening. The spirit of William of Orange is stirring from slumber.
The Arabs will find it to their cost - the Dutch are tolerant and amenable to a certain point, then they turn around and fight back.
Regards, Ivan
I disagree with that. There's no such thing as "human nature", only individual nature, which is a combination of biological predispositions and moral choices. Then there exist dysfunctional cultures, as we see in Islam, which leaves no room for the individual. Before Islam the cultures of the Near East had always been advanced and on the forefront of human achievement. The first declaration of human rights was conceived in the ancient Persian Empire. Islam is nothing more than Arabic imperialism, and has caused once great civilizations to stagnate.
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