How the Dutch robbed immigrants of their individuality

Tonight was a depressing night.
Whereas the Dutch population is pretty sure about what the problem is with our society, Dutch PBS tonight decided to spend half an hour arguing about something I feel is completely besides the point.

(Click 'Lees verder' to read the rest.)

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23:17

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'Theo was right'

Entrepreneur Ron Eilers from the Hague hired a plane to fly over Amsterdam today. The banner, which can be viewed here and here, contains the text 'Theo was right - no theocracy'. Further corroborating the statement that Theo may have had a point criticizing radical Islamism is the fact that yet another politician, Moroccan Labour Party member Fatima Elatik, needs to be guarded after 'an object which provides information about her personal life' was stolen from her office.

20:39

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Go to paradise, kill a Member of Parliament!

If anyone still had any doubts about the kind of people we're dealing with: shock blog GeenStijl has put a film online in which Dutch MP Geert Wilders is threatened. (Warning: RealAudio.) According to the film, the person who kills Wilders will end up in paradise. (To be completely honest, GeenStijl discovered the film about a month ago, but it went largely unnoticed then. Quality broadsheet NRC Handelsblad 'discovered' the film today, but credit to whom it's due, so here's another link to the item GeenStijl made about this issue today.)

20:20

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Film Van Gogh online

Below I've reported on the rebroadcasting of the film Submission, which was directed by Theo van Gogh and which drew the ire of his murderer. Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, currently in hiding, devised the script. For those of you who are interested, it can be viewed here (44 megabytes, 10 minutes playing time). A Torrent file can be found here.

I'd be very happy if some of you could put up American, Canadian, British and Australian mirrors. If you have contacts at your local tv station, you might want to use your influence to get it broadcasted there. The best way to deal with these thugs is to not give in to their attempts to censor us. Let's make sure as many people as possible see the film that radical Islamists don't want us to.

If you have any problems viewing the film, you may need to download the XviD codec as well. You can find both a Mac and Windows version here.

19:57

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Nearly a third of Dutch Muslims against closure of radical schools

'Nearly 70 percent' of Dutch Muslims want to close radical Islamic schools. That sounds good in itself, but the rest of the surveyed are against closure of such schools, even if they preach anti-Western sentiments. The same article also quotes Nico Landman, an expert on Islam, who suggests the survey probably provides a flattered image of reality, since the survey was done by computer and probably reached a disproportionate amount of well-educated and somewhat secularized Muslims.
Nice.
May I suggest that the people from Group 1 have a long and hearty conversation with the people from Group 2?

14:05

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No more tolerance towards intolerance

The Dutch are fed up, according to a survey by broadsheet Algemeen Dagblad:

• Three out of four Dutch want 'radical measures' to combat Islamic terrorism
• A similar number is in favor of increasing the capabilities of law enforcement agencies, the Attorney General and intelligence services. This in a country where even a few years ago, you would have been branded a 'Nazi' or a proponent of a 'police state' for even wanting to have a debate on this subject
• A 'big majority' agree our country has changed irrevocably after the 2-11 attack on Van Gogh (I'm using the Dutch date notation on purpose)
• Only one in five see the attack on Van Gogh as just a tragic incident. Yes, 'only'. Usually, these percentages tend to be much higher in the Netherlands
• An interesting remark near the end of the article: the survey took far more time than expected since many of the 400 interviewed needed to get something off their chest.

The Dutch pride themselves on being tolerant of many different opinions. Many of us now seem to agree that there is one thing that can never be tolerated: intolerance.

13:31

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More arrests

Two people have been arrested for threatening MP Geert Wilders. Also, one guy got busted for making a bomb threat yesterday night against an American target in the Hague. This caused significant traffic jams as roads had to be partially closed. The center of the Hague, where the American embassy is, was locked down at the time.

13:19

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Victory in Rotterdam

(Picture ripped from 2525.)

If we want to fight the war against terrorism, the first thing that needs to be achieved is internal clarity on our objectives.
Mayor Ivo Opstelten of Rotterdam Wednesday ordered a mural removed stating 'Thou shalt not kill', because it apparently offended Muslims. You can read about it here.
Today, broadsheet De Volkskrant tells us dat Opstelten has apologized. The mural should not have been removed.
I am relieved.
If we don't agree about what freedom of speech truly means, how can we defend it from attacks by the enemy?

13:05

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Excellent reply to Mohamed B. by friends of Theo van Gogh

Warning! Don't read this if unless you've got a well-developed sensitivity for irony!

'We, the friends of Theo van Gogh, are sorry for having gone too far this time. We politely request you provide us with clear directives on what we can and cannot say. We didn't want to put Mohamed B. in such a difficult situation. Is his leg alright? We will do our utmost to understand his culture better so we will never cause an incident like this one again. Finally, we wish Mohamed B. the best of luck in the coming days, and we kindly request he keeps his sense of humor.'

What was that about the pen being mightier again? This makes my day.

(Hat tip: Sargasso. The full text in Dutch can be read by clicking 'Lees verder'.)

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12:29

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'I think it's freelancers, not Al Qaeda'

Qu'ran translator Fred Leemhuis comments in NRC Handelsblad on the five page Mohamed B. letter: 'We shouldn't ignore the possibility this act was perpetrated by an international, pan-European group. However, it could be a smokescreen, but at this time I don't think they have anything to do with Al Qaeda. It sounds to me more like a group of freelancers who started their own business.'

11:54

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UPDATED We will not be censored

Since Van Gogh was murdered partly because of making the film Submission, in which the abuse of women in Islam is criticized, it seems very fitting that some local tv stations (RTV Noord Holland, RTV Utrecht) are considering to broadcast the film again. This of course will increase the chance of retaliation against them, but editor-in-chief Dink Binnendijk says he won't be stopped by that. Instead, extra security precautions will be taken. Battlestations!
I am however disappointed by the decision of national tv station VPRO not to rerun the film. They try to shift the blame on MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who corroborated with Theo van Gogh in making the film. Hirsi Ali, currently in hiding, doesn't want to provide 'context' to the film and thus the VPRO won't broadcast it. This to me seems to be total and utter nonsense, since the VPRO has stock footage in which Hirsi Ali provides all the 'context' anyone could reasonably need. It seems to me they were trying to use her as a preemptive lightning rod for any Islamist backlash. Good for her she didn't fall for it.
Apparently, to quote a famous Dutch comedian, the events of Tuesday have awakened the animal inside the VPRO: the chicken.

Update 20.00: Website Fok mentions that Rotterdam tv station TV West doesn't want to broadcast Submission since they fear for the safety of their employees. Right. Meanwhile, here are the email addresses of the VPRO and RTV West if any of you want to send them a note just how you feel about them giving in to Jihadi demands: tegenlicht@vpro.nl and west@rtvwest.nl. Yes, nearly all Dutch are able to read English.

Update 20.40: To my astonishment, it was just announced that the Stedelijk Museum (where a lot of modern art is displayed) has decided to cancel the screening of Submission which had been planned for tonight. They apparently were afraid it might cause an uproar. Funny how different people have different priorities. I'm more concerned that now it won't. Their email address is info@stedelijk.nl.

Update 22.01: RTV Noord-Holland and RTV Utrecht have backtracked on their earlier decision to broadcast Submission. This is really strange. You don't let the largest newspaper of the country write an article about something and then suddenly change your mind. I can only hope they've been ordered to cancel the broadcast, or have some other damn good reason, as I am severely disappointed. So far, both stations are refusing to comment.

11:47

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'Bickering amongst Dutch law enforcement officials'

According to De Telegraaf, there is a lot of merry bickering going on between Dutch law enforcement and intelligence agencies on how to handle the investigation into the Van Gogh murder.

Please bear in mind that De Telegraaf is a populist newspaper. It needn't be true. But if it is, I don't feel this is a bad thing. There have long been signs that something is amiss in many of those agencies. It's probably good that it can't remain hidden anymore. Politicians, as well as many Dutch, are so angry that they won't ignore it this time. Maybe (I'm hoping here) justice minister Piet-Hein Donner will actually dismiss the current attorney-general Joan de Wijkerslooth, who is in my opinion a legalistic bureaucrat who should stick to enforcing manure policy, rather than fighting terrorism and crime. This is the guy that tried to get a Dutch soldier convicted for murdering an Iraqi, who was (probably, there's no body) shot when a group of Dutch soldiers tried to protect supplies against Iraqi looters. The military tribunal dismissed all charges, and even then the guy appealed the verdict.
So yeah, this is a perfect time to do some proper cleaning. Something about forging iron when it's hot, or as the Dutch say, castrating the bull when his testicles are already stuck in the barbed wire fence.
(I made that one up.)

11:36

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Update: formal declaration of Dutch war on terror

Friday evening, several counter-terrorism measures were announced:

• More money for the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD
• More legal possibilities to combat terrorism
• A thorough review of existing counter-terrorism laws to see if they need to be amended or supplemented
• A new law which will make it possible to take away Dutch nationality from a terrorist who has both the Dutch and a second nationality
• Better government protection for people who may be at risk of a terrorist attack.

Could it actually be that more than two years after the brutal assassination of Pim Fortuyn, who was a columnist at Elsevier News Weekly (the same magazine I have contributed to since long before his murder), we've actually learned something?

Update 19.47: Expatica has an English language article.

0:25

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Denial and that river in Egypt again

After Islamist terrorist suspect Samir Azzouz skipped a few weeks of school to be able to attend military training in an Islamic camp in Chechnya, Dutch teachers prepared a special remedial course so he'd still be able to move to the next grade. Teacher Cor Meijer: 'This week I have wondered if perhaps we've been too naive.'

Gee, you think?!

I need something which is 80 percent proof at least. (80 percent proof chocolate will do, too ;-))

0:06

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