Praise for the Moroccan vice mayor of Amsterdam

An interesting endorsement of our Moroccan vice mayor Achmed Aboutaleb, who has shown great strength of character in the past few days. Yesterday he claimed that people with a dual nationality who can't accept essential Dutch values such as freedom of speech would probably do best if they decided to leave the Netherlands. Those are extremely harsh words for a Dutch politician. And as an immigrant and a member of the Dutch Labour Party (full of people who often tend to shirk away from tough measures) this was definitely a courageous thing to say, whether you agree or not. It is also true that we will need people like Mr. Aboutaleb to rally well-meaning Moroccans against people committing atrocities such as the one on Tuesday. Criticism from within a community can be very effective, as well as extremely hard to deliver, and Mr. Aboutaleb deserves praise for making the effort.

(He's got his work cut out for him, as there have been reports of Moroccan youngsters spitting on a mural of Theo van Gogh. Equally sad: apparently, he also needs around the clock protection because of his comments.)

12:56

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