Posted on 03/12/2006 9:58:20 AM PST by wagglebee
TWO MEN kissing in a park and a topless woman bather are featured in a film that will be shown to would-be immigrants to the Netherlands.
The reactions of applicants — including Muslims — will be examined to see whether they are able to accept the country’s liberal attitudes.
From this Wednesday, the DVD — which also shows the often crime-ridden ghettos where poorer immigrants might end up living — will form part of an entrance test, in Dutch, covering the language and culture of Holland.
Those sitting the test will be expected to identify William of Orange and to know which country Crown Princess Maxima comes from (Argentina) and whether hitting women and female circumcision are permitted.
Muslim leaders in Holland say the film is offensive. “It really is a provocation aimed to limit immigration. It has nothing to do with the rights of homosexuals. Even Dutch people don’t want to see that,” said Abdou Menebhi, the Moroccan-born director of Emcemo, an organisation that helps immigrants to settle.
He added: “They are trying to find every pretext to show that people should not come to the Netherlands because they are fundamentalist or not emancipated. They confront people with these things and then judge them afterwards.”
Famile Arslan, 34, an immigration lawyer of Turkish origin, agreed. “I have lived here for 30 years and have never been witness to two men kissing in the park. So why are they confronting people with that?” she said.
She accused the government of preaching tolerance about civil rights while targeting non-westerners with harsh and discriminatory immigration curbs.
The new test — the first of its kind in the world — marks another step in the transformation of Holland from one of Europe’s most liberal countries to the one cracking down hardest on immigration.
Rita Verdonk, the immigration minister known as Iron Rita, has introduced compulsory integration classes, higher age limits for marriage to people from abroad and the removal of residency permits if immigrants commit petty crimes. She has also talked of banning the burqa.
The measures were prompted in part by outrage over the 2004 murder of Theo Van Gogh, who had made a film about the oppression of women in Muslim communities.
Applicants will sit the exam at one of 138 embassies around the world. They will answer 15 minutes of questions and those who pass the first stage will have to complete two “citizenship” tests over five years and swear a pledge of allegiance to Holland and its constitution.
The centre-right government of Jan Peter Balkenende, the prime minister, believes the tests will provide an objective way of assessing the suitability of applicants by gauging how well prepared they are to make the transition to Dutch life and their willingness to integrate.
Critics complain that people living in the mountains of Morocco or rural villages in Pakistan will not be able to make the long journey to cities for Dutch language lessons. According to Instituut Oranje, a Dutch language school, someone with a low level of education would require 250 hours of tuition, costing £1,200, to pass the tests.
The total bill of £1,495 — including £55 for a preparatory test pack and DVD and £240 for the exam — makes the process unaffordable for many.
Dirk Nieuwboer, a Dutch journalist based in Istanbul, said the multiple-choice cultural test included a question about how to behave in a cafe if two men at the next table started kissing. “There was another question about which former Dutch colony a particular spice came from,” said Nieuwboer. “Most Dutch people don’t know these things.”
However, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, a socialist from the parliament’s immigration committee, said the film had been created to help prepare people for “open-minded” attitudes on issues such as homosexuality. “We have lots of homo-discrimination, especially by Muslim youngsters who harass gay men and women on the streets. It is an issue here.”
A spokeswoman for Verdonk said an edited version of the DVD would be available for showing in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran where it would be illegal to possess images of homosexuality.
There is no freedom of speech issue involved. If someone agrees to certain things in exchange for the privilege of entering the country and then reneges, he is to be kicked out -- not for expressing certain ideas, but for perjuring himself during the immigration process.
I'm sure you'll ping me when (if) something happens.
What a big ego you have, grandmother.
And so the mere belief that homosexual activity is immoral or sinful should be a disqualification for immigration?
Again, immigration is a PRIVILEGE, not a right.
So what? There should be some rational basis for the exclusion. Advocacy of violence against groups or membership in groups who so advocate violence is narrowly tailored. To say that objection to homosexual activity as immoral should bar one is giving legitimacy is providing support to the left-wing thought control police who want to criminalize selective "hate speech" as they have done in Europe and Canada and have created a right not to be offended. Yes, of course immigrating is a privilege, but enacting this left-wing thought control nonsense in this context is of a peace with criminalization domestically and is not narrowly tailored to fit the precise objection to potentially violence-minded Muslim immigrants.
Me: "The western world has to be careful how they respond to islamofacists. A test like this would quickly evolve into list of political correctness without which you can't enter the country."
steve-b: "So what? Entry into the country is a privilege, not a right."
Well, I'm projecting a bit, I admit. I am envisioning similar rules for the U.S. The end result could be that no more Christians are allowed to immigrate here. Over time that would hurt the country.
Wow.. she really must not get out much in Holland! I wonder if shes even ever gone out to party during Koninginnedag...
Is this what The Netherlands are attempting to prevent by including the question re homosexuality in their immigration quiz? The sharia interpretation - which has also been 'preached' by the imams in Australian mosques...? As a result of which a relative of the imam in company of other muslim youth, took to beating a cyclist in a park with a baseball bat?
(snip)
The Koranic claim that homosexuality was unknown before it first appeared in Sodom is a uniquely Islamic concept; so is the notion that its destruction was exclusively due to the homosexual practices of its inhabitants, a departure from the Hebrew Scriptures. In addition to the Koran many hadiths or authoritative traditional sayings mention liwat, (homosexual intercourse) e.g. “When a man mounts another man, the throne of God shakes,” and “Kill the one that is doing it and also kill the one that it is being done to (6).” Mohammed’s first successor Abu Bakr reportedly had a homosexual burned at the stake. The fourth caliph, Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali, ordered a sodomite thrown from the minaret of a mosque. Others he ordered to be stoned. One of the earliest and most authoritative commentators on the Koran, Ibn ‘Abbas (died 687) blended both approaches into a two-step execution in which “the sodomite should be thrown from the highest building in the town and then stoned.” Later it was decided that if no building were tall enough, the he could be shoved off a cliff. Regardless of the exact method,
“Moslem Jurists agree that, if proven of guilt, both of them should be killed. However, jurists differ on the methodology of capital punishment (7).”
There are seven countries in the world that carry the death penalty for homosexual acts, and all of them justify this punishment with sharia.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/Printable.asp?ID=5704
If you don't want to live with Dutch culture, don't move to Holland. I can't think of anything more "rational" than that.
Advocacy of violence against groups or membership in groups who so advocate violence is narrowly tailored.
Anybody can say they are nonviolent. Yasser Arafat did it all the time (when speaking in English for Western audiences).
Pretending to be civilized when confronted with an image that hammers on one of the barbarians' hot buttons is more difficult.
So the definition of being "civilized" is that one has no moral objection to homosexual activity? You sound like the Boston Globe as that is certainly their attitude. All traditional Christian believers need to be exiled from Netherlands immediately if that were the case.
The definition of being civilized is that you are able to react to annoyances like an adult rather than a spoiled brat.
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