Right, now it's our fault

Today, three Erasmus Prizes were given to an equal number of prominent Muslim scholars. One of them was the Moroccan sociologist Fatema Mernissi, who used this opportunity to explain that it isn't just Mohammed B. who is responsible for the murder of Theo van Gogh. Mernissi feels the community is also to blame.
I've never been a big fan of the idea of collective responsibility, but I guess if you're a sociologist you tend to think more in community terms rather than individualist ones. After all, if all you've got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
But whereas the former has already caused considerably annoyance with some (admittedly not very subtle) Dutch, it gets worse. For if I am to believe Mernissi, it isn't the Moroccan community that caused the problem, nor aspects of Islamic culture. No, it is Dutch culture which is the problem:

'He was a product of Dutch society. (...) We are criminals too, since we didn't help such young people (as Mohammed B., ed.) to communicate in a normal way.'

In other words, it's everyone's problem except ours.

Thank God there are also courageous Moroccans like vice mayor Aboutaleb of Amsterdam, who don't opt for the easy way out.

Update 17.41: readers of the Moroccan magazine Mzine feel MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali should step down. Hirsi Ali is a vocal critic of radical Islam and made a film with Theo van Gogh. According to the Mzine press release Hirsi Ali's course will create more casualties. Right. Well, at least the messages from Mernissi and Mzine are consistent.

14:29

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