Back on the issue of that horrific murder, I've just found this comment from the Washington Post.
"We hardly needed the reminder, but the brutal murder earlier this week of Dutch filmmaker and controversialist Theo van Gogh shows again that the enemies of the open society aren't disposed to spare tolerant societies by virtue of their tolerance. "
Blogger has just lost my incredibly interesting comment on this comment.... In summary, the Netherlands is nowhere near as tolerant as it likes to think it is. It's not an open society if you're a non-white immigrant.
"Any solution to the problem of radical Islamism will need to include heightened surveillance of suspected militants."
The guy who killed Van Gogh wasn't on the list of suspected militants. He was born and brought up in Holland, wrote perfect Dutch. His teachers had high hopes for him. He'd worked as a volunteer in the local community.
.."we will only become secure when all civilized nations unite to defeat the fascists."
Yes, but how do you define who's a fascist and distinguish between one type of fascist and another - before they commit a crime? The turning point for our chief suspect came three years ago after his mother's death. Seems that someone, some group, saw the potential in him and picked him up. By his actions, he's blown a great hole in the Dutch Government's integration policy - which concentrates on teaching Dutch to newcomers and 'oldcomers'. This chap was an educated, Dutch national.
"Even France will eventually be driven into solidarity with civilization."
Who are you trying to kid, Washington Post? The USA mire civilised than France? You must be joking...
3 comments:
The USA has a much better record of tolerance than France in many areas. Especially in recent times when you look the total chaos the Muslim population in France has caused.
They have a whole section of society that they cannot understand nor handle. This is why they have established the flawed policy of not allowing any display of religious affiliation.
Interesting comment. The USA was clever enough to consistently accept the best educated, most ambitious immigrants and that makes for a better chance of integration. In the Netherlands, we have whole families who've moved from the Turkish or Moroccan countryside. They've struggled with a different culture both in terms of religion as well as in terms of moving from a simple, agrarian lifestyle to the complexities of western city life.
I don't quite know what the situation is in France. Agree that banning headscarves and other religious symbols in schools goes against free expression - though I think they were right to ban ALL symbols across the board rather than isolating the Moslims further.
But having said that, I still can't see the US as more civilised than France!
Hmm, a Brit defending the French. Must have lived on the Continent too long...:)
Hi J.J.,
I suppose that part of the issue here is that we do not have any definition of what we call civilized (American spelling of course) ;)
Without that we will likely spend time circling around this way and that without coming to any conclusion.
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