| Education
by Murder
By Daniel Pipes
"Education
by murder" describes the slow and painful way people wake up
to the problem of radical Islam. It took three thousand deaths to
wake up Americans --or at least to wake up the half of them who
are conservative. Likewise, it took hundreds of deaths in the Bali
explosion to semi-wake up Australians, it took the Madrid assault
for Spaniards and the Beslan atrocity for Russians. Twelve workers
beheaded in Iraq awoke the Nepalese.
But
it took just one death to wake up many Dutch. Indeed, one gruesome
killing may have done more to arouse the Netherlands than 9/11 did
for Americans.
The
reason for this lies in the identity of the victim and the nature
of the crime. He was Theo van Gogh, 47, a well-known radical libertarian,
a filmmaker, television producer, talk-show host, newspaper columnist,
and all-around mischief-maker who enjoyed the distinction of being
a relative of one of Holland's most renowned artists, Vincent van
Gogh. In recent years, Theo garnered attention by critiquing Islam
in a 2003 book (Allah Knows Best) and a 2004 film (Submission).
He
was murdered at 8:40 a.m. on Nov. 2 in his hometown of Amsterdam,
while bicycling down a busy street to work. In the course of being
shot repeatedly, Van Gogh beseeched his killer, "Don't do it.
Don't do it. Have mercy. Have mercy!" Then the killer stabbed
his chest with one knife and slit his throat with another, nearly
decapitating van Gogh.
The
presumed murderer, Mohammed Bouyeri, 26, a Dutch-born dual Moroccan-Dutch
citizen, left a five-page note in the Arabic and Dutch languages
stabbed to Van Gogh's body. In it he threatened jihad against the
West in general ("I surely know that you, Oh Europe, will be
destroyed") and specifically against five prominent Dutch political
figures.
Police
investigators quickly realized that the assassin was an Islamist
whom they knew well --and had been following until just two weeks
earlier; they also placed him in the "Hofstadgroep" network
and charged him and six of his associates with "conspiracy
with a terrorist intent." The authorities additionally asserted
that these had possible connections to the Takfir wa'l-Hijra and
Al-Qaeda terrorist groups.
That
a non-Muslim critic of Islam was ritually murdered for artistically
expressing his views was something without precedent, not just in
Holland but anywhere in the West. Dutch revulsion at the deed shook
the deep complacency of what is perhaps the world's most tolerant
society. Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, one of the five persons
threatened, publicly rued the country's having long ignored the
presence of radical Islam. "For too long we have said we had
a multi-cultural society and everyone would simply find each other.
We were too naïve in thinking people would exist in society
together."
Jozias
van Aartsen, parliamentary leader of the VVD party, went further,
warning that "jihad has come to the Netherlands and a small
group of jihadist terrorists is attacking the principles of our
country. … These people don't want to change our society,
they want to destroy it."
One
day after the murder, twenty thousand demonstrators gathered to
denounce the killing and thirty people were arrested for inciting
hatred against Muslims. Interior Minister Johan Remkes announced
that he could not rule out unrest. "The climate is seriously
hardened." Proving him right, the next two weeks saw over twenty
arson and bombing attacks and counter-attacks on mosques, churches,
and other institutions, plus some major police raids, giving the
country the feel of a small-scale civil war.
Dutch
attitudes toward Muslims immediately and dramatically hardened.
A poll found 40 percent of the population wanting the nearly million-strong
Muslim community no longer to feel at home in the Netherlands. Double
that number endorsed more stringent policies toward immigrants.
De
Telegraaf, a leading paper, published an editorial unimaginable
before the van Gogh murder, calling for "a very public crackdown
on extremist Muslim fanatics." Even left-wing politicians woke
up to the need to speak "harsh truths" about immigration,
focusing on the disproportionate criminality of Muslims.
Islamist
terrorism in the West is counterproductive because it awakens the
sleeping masses; in brief, jihad provokes crusade. A more cunning
Islamist enemy would advance its totalitarian agenda through Mafia-like
intimidation, not brazen murders.
But
if Islamists do continue with overt terrorism, the tough Dutch response
will everywhere be replicated.
Daniel
Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org)
is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Miniatures (Transaction
Publishers).
Email
the Editor |
