Immigration secretary to Dutch imams: Learn Dutch

Mrs. Rita Verdonk, the Dutch immigration secretary, had a meeting today with several imams. The encounter produced some intriguing moments. For instance, one of the imams didn't want to shake her hand, citing religious taboo as the reason. You can view a small picture here. But the most interesting part of the encounter was when Mrs. Verdonk told all imams she hoped next year she would be able to speak Dutch with them. Today, Mrs. Verdonk had to use a translator to converse with several of the imams. Commercial broadcaster RTL Nieuws just showed two imams fully agreeing with Mrs. Verdonk. Both of them of course spoke Dutch already.

19:26

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Student beat up after presentation about Islam

This article was printed in the restricted edition of populist broadsheet De Telegraaf, so my knowledge of it is limited to what's been reprinted here.
A student of the Dalton Scholengemeenschap in The Hague was beat up after giving a presentation about Islam and the murder of Theo van Gogh, by a group of Moroccans who hadn't even heard the presentation. According to his classmates, they were acting on behalf of a girl who had, and who thought the lecture was insulting. Neither the classmates nor the teacher were able to identify anything offensive in the presentation.
If the opposite had happened, Dutch politicians would be all over the airwaves lecturing the Dutch on our responsibility, and they'd be right to do so. Where are the Moroccan community leaders lecturing their flock? Apart from the deputy mayor of Amsterdam, Moroccan-born Ahmed Aboutaleb, no one has yet stepped forward. That scares me more than the violence itself.

9:18

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Interview day at Geert Wilders' secret hideout

I guess I'm a little bit cynical since all of a sudden articles with MP-in-hiding Geert Wilders are popping up everywhere. Apparently, if you want to interview an elected representative these days, you have to wait until security deems it safe enough to bring you to him, along with a number of your colleagues so they can get it over with as quickly as possible and shield Mr. Wilders from the outside world once more. Mr. Wilders was interviewed on Dutch PBS yesterday night, talking about how it feels to live under constant threat. (Not too good.) He also gave an interview to the Associated Press, selected quotes from which can be found here. Money quote:

If in a mosque there is recruitment for jihad it's not a house of prayer, it's a house of war. If it's not a house of prayer it should be closed down.

8:35

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