The End of Tolerance

Newsweek ^ | 02-26-06 | Stefan Theil

[jecIIny]

The End of Tolerance Farewell, multiculturalism. A cartoon backlash is pushing Europe to insist upon its values. By Stefan Theil Newsweek International

March 6, 2006 issue - The world has long looked upon the Dutch as the very model of a modern, multicultural society. Open and liberal, the tiny seagoing nation that invented the globalized economy in the 1600s prided itself on a history of taking in all comers, be they Indonesian or Turkish, African or Chinese.

How different things look today. Dutch borders have been virtually shut. New immigration is down to a trickle. The great cosmopolitan port city of Rotterdam just published a code of conduct requiring Dutch be spoken in public. Parliament recently legislated a countrywide ban on wearing the burqa in public. And listen to a prominent Dutch establishment figure describe the new Dutch Way with immigrants. "We demand a new social contract," says Jan Wolter Wabeke, High Court Judge in The Hague. "We no longer accept that people don't learn our language, we require that they send their daughters to school, and we demand they stop bringing in young brides from the desert and locking them up in third-floor apartments."

What's going on here? Weren't the Dutch supposed to be the nicest people on earth, the most tolerant nation in Europe, a melting pot for minorities and immigrants since the Renaissance? No longer, and in this the Dutch are once again at the forefront of changes in Europe. This time, the Dutch model for Europe is one of multiculturalism besieged, if not plain defunct.

[Hill of Tara]

Thanks for the ping Fred.

"We demand a new social contract," says Jan Wolter Wabeke, High Court Judge in The Hague. "We no longer accept that people don't learn our language, we require that they send their daughters to school, and we demand they stop bringing in young brides from the desert and locking them up in third-floor apartments."

Good for him for saying this. He's absolutely right.

Holland is an awesome country. I'm glad theyre waking up and taking a firm line against the Muzzies.

Now they have to start deporting the ones who wont comply.

[junta]

Actually I have known a Mohammed who became a Mike, he converted.

[USF]

A different take on Holland and the direction EURabia is heading in an article on Jihadwatch:

Douglas Murray: We should fear Holland’s silence

....Where Holland has gone, Britain and the rest of Europe are following. The silencing happens bit by bit. A student paper in Britain that ran the Danish cartoons got pulped. A London magazine withdrew the cartoons from its website after the British police informed the editor they could not protect him, his staff, or his offices from attack. This happened only days before the police provided 500 officers to protect a “peaceful” Muslim protest in Trafalgar Square...

[Fred Nerks]

I just read the article in The Times. It's very sobering, very worrying...but Britian seems to be in worse shape than the Netherlands IMO.

[USF]

I totally agree.

[ncpatriot]

Yes, they live in the past. Not a very healthy thing to do.

[AmericanArchConservative]

Nawwww in the Nederlands, they may have to burn bicycles!

A.A.C.

"The Final Crusade has commenced - mount your rifle scopes and your bicycles!"

[Billthedrill]

Dutch Integration Minister Rita Verdonk, one of several top politicians under death threats from Islamists...demonstrated what that might mean in front of press cameras in January, telling an imam who refused to shake her hand because of "religious rules" that he had better learn Western customs. "Next year I expect to speak to you in Dutch," she said through an interpreter.

Or else. She gets it. But our own MSM continue to rationalize, to equivocate, to squirm around pretending that A is not A.

...Europeans will almost certainly have to accord Muslim faiths the same status accorded Christianity—including, perhaps, a media that voluntarily refrains from publishing needlessly offensive images of the Prophet, not under duress from abroad but out of greater respect for local religious sensibilities.

The authors of that line most certainly do not get it. There is no difference, no distinction, between insisting on one's own culture and refusing to be intimidated from threats of violence. "Voluntary" surrender is still surrender. If multiculturalism is being challenged in Europe it's still holy gospel for the U.S. media.

[jan in Colorado]

"Farewell, multiculturalism. A cartoon backlash is pushing Europe the United States to insist upon its values."

Thanks for the ping, Fred!

"Welcome to the end of tolerance, or at least to the nonnegotiable limits to what Europeans will tolerate. Whether it's the Netherlands' rediscovery of Dutch communal values, or the universal affirmations of FREE SPEECH (to mock religion, or anything else), Europe is everywhere on the defensive."

Will the United States wake up before it is too late?

Our media caving in and NOT printing a silly cartoon of Mohamed (may pork be upon him) says A LOT about the fear of islam that already exists here in America.

When our freedom of speech is taken from us, we have NOTHING left!

Islam is evil and it destroys everything that it touches. This needs to to be repeated over and over again until the "blind" open their eyes and see!

I will not be silenced!

"We no longer accept that people don't learn our language, we require that they send their daughters to school, and we demand they stop bringing in young brides from the desert and locking them up in third-floor apartments."

[bayouranger]

Thanks again, Jan.

According to what I have read, Europe will be the canary in the cave for the West. We are beginning to see that their welcomed muslims have created multiple staging grounds for probing attacks throughout Europe. Riots that the French tolerate, marches in London calling for death of infidels and the brazen murders in Denmark have proved that the % of muslims are now strong enough for them to begin their takeover bid. Tolerance has become the sword on which they may fall upon if there's no action taken. The Western world seems to avoid checking on the canary for fear that it may be already dead.

Time to check on the bird, or we may suffer the same fate of our involuntary guard.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

mulitculturism and political correctness will be the death of western civilization.

The failed concept of multiculturism is that it deems every culture as equals, no matter how backwards and savage one culture is compared to a progressive, modern, civilized culture. They are supposed to be treated as equals. And this is where it fails because they are not equals.

Parts of Europe are finally waking up to this fact. Ofcourse Newsweak will accuse them of being intolerant and christian elitists.

[ctdonath2]

Ever notice that the signs that the English signs that Arab protesters wave are nearly all in the handwriting of very few (sometimes 1) people? I have to wonder if these demonstrators even know what message they're actually waving.

[ArmyTeach]

Here I go, bloviating. An excess of tolerance too easily becomes sympathy for the Devil and tolerance of the intolerable becomes a form of suicide.

[Fred Nerks]

I have to wonder if these demonstrators even know what message they're actually waving.

---

Methinks it doesn't matter - most of them never read the koran and believe every word their imam tells them is in it. The mental development of the average muzzie is probably comparable to that of a worker-ant. Programmed to carry out a certain task and no more.

[marc costanzo]

>>Here I go, bloviating. An excess of tolerance too easily becomes sympathy for the Devil and tolerance of the intolerable becomes a form of suicide.<<


Yes !

But who decides what is intolerable ?

The Liberals and Leftists who are tenured at our Universities ?

The Federal Judges ?

THEY seem to tolerate 'Hating Whitey' and Hating America !

Muslim and Minorities are 'sacred cows' . . . . .

[ArmyTeach]

Maybe that's the problem - we can no longer identify or define what is intolerable, therefore nothing is intoleraable, even flying planes into the WTC. Somehow I think our ancestors had a better grip.

[Outland]

In both your of responses, I presume you missed the fact that I was addressing illegal Mexican immigrants. I did so in reference to the sentence I quoted which contained the words:

"If an immigrant doesn't want to accept the laws..."

Clearly, if one does not immigrate legally, then they do not accept the laws. While they may be "potential Americans", breaking the law is not the best way of "adapting to American culture".

[raybbr]

Clearly, if one does not immigrate legally, then they do not accept the laws. While they may be "potential Americans", breaking the law is not the best way of "adapting to American culture".

I knew what you meant. My post was a little bit of sarcasm and some information about Bush. His speech and attitude about illegal mexicans and other hispanics shows why we have an "open" border to the south. He sees them as "new Americans" and he feels he's been given a blessing by the U.S. electorate to let them come.

[Coleus]

The assisination of Theo Van Gogh was a wake-up call.