Figure 1.--

The Dutch today are seen as one of the most democratic and tolerant nations in the world. That tolerance has permitted many Muslims seeking reguge and economic opportunity to seek refuge in the country, some of whom do not share the Duch commitment to tolerance and free speech. Dutch film maker Theo Van Gogh was stabbed to death by Muslim fanatic Mohammed Bouyeri. Bouyeri was offened because Van Gogh directed a documentary film criticizing Muslim treatment of women. Some Muslims believe that God gives them the right to take the life of people who offend them. The knife Boyuyeri used had a note about Ayaan Hirsi Ali. This young woman has become a cause celebre in the Netherlands, but a very controversial one. She is a Dutch-Somali politican who has been under Dutch police protection since 2002. She had complained about the treatment of women in the Dutch Muslim community and described herself as secular. (Apotasy is according to the Koran punishable by death.) At first a darling of the Dutch media, after the Van Gogh murder, many Dutch people have reached the conclusion that Ali is to loucd and too vocal and protecting her is not worth the cost. Some Dutch believe that the issues Ali raised such as women's rights and integration should be a matter of public debate. Others are uncomfortable about discussing these issues and raising any criticism of Muslim and other Third World peoples. The Dutch Government even tried to revoke her citizenship (2006). Her neigbors went to court to have her evicted claiming that the security threat was an infriment on their human rights. The Dutch Government terminated her security funding, although it is still an issue before the Parliament. Ali explains that many Dutch people tell her esentially that she "brought her problems on herself". Ali has decided that she needed to seek protection in America. [Applebaum]

Dutch Minorities

The Netherlandshas several ethnic and religious minorities. We only have limited information bout minorities in the Netherlands. For years the principal minority was the Jews. The Jews played an inportant role in Dutch hisstory, especially the Golden Age of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Dutch Jews were devestated by the NAZI Holocaust and have never recovered. The largest minority group is now the Turks who descended from the Guest Workers who came to the Netherlands after World War II. After the Reformation there was a small Catholic minority, but I know little about them. As a result of the Netherland's colonial empire there are Indo-Europeans. This group is from what is now Indonesia (Dutch East Indies), but it is impolite to call them Indonesians. There are also Antillians and Surinamers. There is also now an Islamic minority. Many are other Muslims, especially Moroccans. Many of these minority groups are concentrated in the cities, especially Amsterdam.

Pim Fortuyn

Pim Fortuyn critisized the growing influence and the intolerance of the Muslim fundamentalists. A HBC reader writes, "The day Fortuyn was killed, May 6, 2002, I arrived in Holland for a visit and I wrote an article about the tragedy 'Death of a Politician'."

Theo Van Gogh

Dutch film maker Theo Van Gogh was stabbed to death by Muslim fanatic Mohammed Bouyeri. Bouyeri was offened because Van Gogh directed a documentary film criticizing Muslim treatment of women. Some Muslims believe that God gives them the right to take the life of people who offend them. The knife Boyuyeri used had a note about Ayaan Hirsi Ali. [Buruma]

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

This young woman has become a cause celebre in the Netherlands, but a very controversial one. She is a Dutch-Somali politican who has been under Dutch police protection since 2002. Ali's father was a political activist opposed to the Somalian dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. The family, as a result, moved around a lot. From Somalia to Saudi Arabia, then forced to go to Sudan. Then to Kenya which was a paradise of liberty compared to Saudi Arabia or Ethiopia. As a Muslim she would have been forced into marriage at age 16 (to become "a factory of sons" according to her own words). She actually was to marry a cousin in Canada. At a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany, she decided to bolt. When she got the phone number of a Somali who worked at a center for asylum seekers in Holland, she went to the Netherlands. She learned to speak perfect Dutch. She stopped wearing a headscarf. She slowly became an atheist and she got involved in Dutch politics. She had the elegant bearing of an aristocrat and she started working at shelters for battered Muslim women. There she had complained about the treatment of women in the Dutch Muslim community and openly described herself as secular (meaning a non-beliver). (Apotasy is according to the Koran punishable by death.) At first a darling of the Dutch media, after the Van Gogh murder, many Dutch people have reached the conclusion that Ali is to loucd and too vocal and protecting her is not worth the cost. Some Dutch believe that the issues Ali raised such as women's rights and integration should be a matter of public debate. Others are uncomfortable about discussing these issues and raising any criticism of Muslim and other Third World peoples. The Dutch Government even tried to revoke her citizenship (2006). Her neigbors went to court to have her evicted claiming that the security threat was an infriment on their human rights. The Dutch Government terminated her security funding, although it is still an issue before the Parliament. Ali explains that many Dutch people tell her esentially that she "brought her problems on herself". Ali has decided that she needed to seek protection in America. [Applebaum] For a country noted for its tolerance and belief in free speech, it seems a terrible assault on its traditions that a Dutch citizen would have to flee to the United States for protection. A Dutch reader writes, "Ayaan Hirsi Ali was in danger to be murdered too. Many Dutchmen thought she was too fanatic, but I think somebody like her is needed in a spineless society such as the Dutch is nowadays. I admire this woman very much and I think it is awful that she practically was forced out of the country (she was a member of parliament!) and had to go to the United States. One does not hear about her anymore and I think that is a shame. The Muslims in Holland expect Dutch society to adjust to their ways and I think that got to stop. After all, how much freedom does one have in typical Muslim countries? Look at the poor women overthere!" [HBC Note: HBC has begun to assess the human rights sitution in Muslim countries, including women's rights. This has been promted by Middle Eastern readers compalining about human rights abuses in Israel and insisting that women and minorities are well treated in Muslim countries. You can view the preliminary results at: Human rights in Muslim countries.]

Newpaper Editorial: Five Clinched Fists

A Dutch reader has sent us this article. It was written by Dr. B. Smalhout, a columnist for the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. I thought your HBC readers might find it interesting.

Newspaper Trouw published a special first edition for New Year, January 2, 2008. The front page showed a photo with 5 clenched fists on top of each other. The skin color was white, brown and black. The photo belonged to an article with the title: "Appointing and building". It created quite a stir. This piece, covering the entire front page, is called "an advertisement". The sponsor was Doekle Terpstra, a sociologist. The article was has been signed by 50 prominent Dutchmen like Erica Terpstra, Rabbi Soetendorp and Geert Mak. Many of them presumably shared in the costs of this manifesto. Because it appeared as an advertisement, Trouw charged them a reduced price. That means that Trouw lost its status of an independent newspaper. It clearly shows that the paper sympathizes with the opinion of Doekle Terpstra.

What is going on? It actually is an extension of Queen Beatrix's Christmas speech and a disguised attack on Geert Wilders, although his name never is mentioned. Sociologist Doekle Terpstra says that Holland is being pulled downwards in a spiral of intolerance and indifference. Intolerance seems to take over according to Terpstra and his 50 co-signers: "We must return to the roots of the Dutch tradition to find a new balance between the values of then and the values of now. Everybody should be involved: autochthones and foreigners, Christians, Muslims, Jews, humanists, gays, straights, in short: everybody". That sounds good, but it is an interesting fact that all signers are white Netherlanders. Not a single allochthone among them. That, of course, is strange at an appeal for greater tolerance and better teamwork. But Doekle wanted " to give an autochthone signal". The result, however, is a lecture, written with an irritating raised finger and a disapproving tone in regards to the not-by-name-mentioned anti-islam politician Geert Wilders.

Something is wrong with this manifesto. Even the clumsy title suggests the fabrication from a journalist with a headache. But most irritating is the illustration: 5 clenched fists on top of each other. Clenched fists were popular with certain politicians. Fists with a rose with the socialists, fists with hammer and sickle with the communists, fists with weapons with the Nazis, fists of striking laborers, etc. Clenched fists have a negative radiation . They are a symbol of brute force and not reconciliation. In fact it is offensive.

The truth is that we have been tolerant since centuries and we have had a multi-cultural society before any other western country. Holland always has been a free port for people who had to flee on account of religion, race or political persuation. Here they found safety and work and freedom of religion. We are able to find the names in the registration offices. German, French, Spanish and Hungarian names are frequent. Many are descendants of French Huguenots and Portuguese jews. All those refugees got adjusted. They learned our language, made a living and enriched our culture. Because we were international trade people, we accepted foreigners. Nobody should be surprised that we have 65.000 Chinese in our midst. Never a problem with a Chinese. They work hard, learn Dutch, raise their children well and are good citizens. The same goes for 400.000 Indonesians, 13.000 Hungarians. 32.000 Poles and 22.000 Czechs. All Dutchmen know that there are four allochthone groups that have been making trouble: Surinamers, Antillians, Turks and especially Moroccans. We are not supposed to say anything because that's politically incorrect. But as a medical doctor I know that the cure of an illness starts with a diagnosis, the naming of a disease. And that did not happen in our soft multi-cultural society. It was not only disastrous for the relation with the native-born Dutch, but harmful for the immigrants as well. Because we should not forget that a large portion of these people function all right. But they are being judged by the misconduct of otheres of their nationality.

How compassionate and tolerant the Dutch are, was shown the other day in the village of Arnemuiden in the province of Zeeland. A fast-burning fire destroyed the restaurant Oriental Paradise. The owners, the Chinese couple Lin, lost everything, includint their 4 young daughters. The whole village was present at the funeral and in all churches special services were held, even when the Lins were not Christians. A large sum of money had been collected to help the family. It would be useful if Doekle Terpstra and his friends would recognize how a tradionally tolerant country like Holland slowly starts getting angry about the crimes of bad foreign elements that has been given free play."

Free Speech

The Dutch Parliament amended Article 136C and 137D of the country's Penal Code to appease the country's Muslim minority which is now substantial enough to affect elections. Article 137C now reeds that anyone "who publically , verbally or in writing orv in image, deliberately expresses himself in anyway insulting of a group of people because of their race, their religion or belief ... will be punished with a prison sentence of at most one year or a fine of third category. If the offense is committed by a person who makes it his professionor habit, or by two or more people in association, a prison sentence of at the most two years or a fine of fouth category will be imposed." Notice that the law is based on the reaction, not what was said. Thus for example, in America black Americans disturbed by a criticism of Presuident Obama would have a right to sue. Note that truth is not a factor here, only that a group is insulted. Nor is comedy and satire an exception. This is thus a massive infringement on free spech--a basic human right and conerstone of Western Civilization. It is also a principle for which the Netherlands is particularly rebounded. As written virtually any discussion of Islam in the Netherlands. It was ineffect a provision protecting Muslim intoerance in the guise of protecting group rights.

Geert Wilders

Geert Wilders is an elected member of the Dutch Parliament. Wilders is very outspoken about Islam. He has called Mohammed 'the Devil' and the Koran a 'fascist book' and compared it to Mein Kampf. He at first was dimissed as a fringe politicans, but after breaking from thec Liberal Party and forming the Freedom Party, he and his new Party has begun to win more an more seats in the Dutch Parliament. Many believe that the limits ion free speech discussed above were designed to muzzel Wilder ad his Party. He was charged with blasphemy and tried (October 2010). [Ali, p. A19.] A Dutch reader in America reports, "I do read some Dutch newspapers every day and today Wilders was acquited of all charges. I am very happy about it, because he is one of the few Dutchman who dares open his mouth about the growing Muslim influence in the Netherlands. As long as the Muslims refuse to adjust to the general tolerant attitude of most Dutch people, we will have problems with them. They expect the Dutch to adjust to them and give in to any of their demands. No wonder that Dutch citizens feel threatened by them. Wilders has the courage to expose what's going on in the country and to point out how dangerous the situation is. Of course, he is going to need a body guard (in case he doesn't already have one). I am thinking of the murdered Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh." [Stueck]

Sources

Ali, Ayaan Hirst. "In Holland, free speech on trial," The Wall Street Journal (October 11, 2010), p. A19.

Applebaum, Anne. "A Dutch retreat on speech?" Washington Post October 8, 2007, p. A12.

Buruma, Ian. Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerance. (London: Penguin Books, 2006).. The author is half-Dutch (Buruma is a typical name from the province of Friesland) and lives in England where he is a professor at Bard College. He explores the clash between East and West and he addresses questions about Muslim fundamentalism, especially in the Netherlands.

Smalhou, B. "Five clinched fists," (Dutch newspaper), January 2, 2008.

Stueck, Rudi. E-mail message (October 15, 2010)

Created: 4:15 AM 10/10/2007
Last updated: 1:19 AM 10/16/2010