Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerance

In November 2004 Theo van Gogh was brutally murdered in the streets of Amsterdam. With the murder in 2002 of the prime-minister to be, Pim Fortuyn, the Netherlands was stunned by two horrendous crimes. Nothing comparable had happened in 300 years. Holland was such a peaceful little country, famous for its tolerance and liberalism. Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll - everything seemed permissible.Ian Buruma was raised in the nicer parts of the Hague. He has been active in Oxford, Tokyo and Washington. Since 2005 he lives in New York. Following the two murders he went back to the Netherlands to try to come to grips with this new situation in his native country. His inquiry resulted in this book. He knew some of the people he interviews from back then. With one of them he had been playing in the sandbox; the future professor of Philosophy, Herman Philipse, the guy who seduced Ayaan Hirsi Ali both to a personal relationship - and to Atheism. Buruma thought of him even then as a somewhat pompous child. I suppose you have to be Dutch to be able to picture him heaving a rubber spade in his Oxford tweed jacket...(note that I'm actually a fan of his).Ian Buruma tries to expose the background for the two murders. Historically he illustrates this with the famous `Regenten'- paintings by Frans Hals in Haarlem. `Regenten' were representatives from the republican merchant elite who opposed both the royal House of Orange and the Calvinist church. In these gloomy but superb paintings, we, as present-day tourists, are haughtily and coldly observed by these members of the board - men as well as women. Sends shivers down your spine.Pim Fortuyn was certainly no Calvinist and only a lukewarm royalist, but Buruma contrasts his populism with the might of the Left Church; social democrats, liberals and the Green Party. Fortuyn was friendly with Theo van Gogh who also wrote some of his speeches and used to call him `the divine baldy'. Van Gogh was an astounding enfant terrible. Unlike Fortuyn he grew up in an upper-class family. In high school he started a magazine which he christened the Dirty Paper. The topics were typically puberal in the toilet-humor vein. His partner in crime was a certain Johan Quarles van Ufford. The magazine only ever appeared twice, but it gives a nice idea of Van Goghs shock-tactics. He loved to provoke all and sundry. Some of his utterances are probably not fit for printing, although he would punch my nose for saying so, but they are of the caliber of describing Jesus as a `rotten fish' and famously - and fatefully - calling Muslims, well, something I apparently can't reveal here although it's all in the book. Many felt he actually deserved to die. But what about freedom of speech? Is it absolute and without any restrictions whatsoever? Isn't there something in the constitution about discrimination and harassment ? The law forbidding heresy had not been used since the sixties, when a well-known author portrayed God as a donkey. He was acquitted. Now this law has been revived and passions run high. The subtitle of the book is `Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerance' but Buruma only lightly touches on this. You would probably need yet another book to seriously address such an ambitious agenda.A scary thing I wasn't aware of, is how the soccer-fans of Rotterdam greet AJAX Amsterdam when they come to town. Apart from the customary `filthy Jews' or `cancer Jews', they collectively let out a hissing sound which slowly grows stronger. Buruma didn't know what to make of it until a friend explained: they are mimicking the sound of escaping gas.Who said that the Netherlands was so very tolerant?

This book depicts the social landcape of Holland thru the portraits drawn of several infamous celebrities who are representative of modern society: Theo Van Gogh (murdered), Pim Fortuyn (idem), or Ayaan Hirsi (wanted dead by many).Very well written, it is hard to put this book down. Looks like a painting of El Bosco. The author has a knack for revealing the personalities of his characters thru brief details of their lives and intelligent interviews. And he never seems to impose whatever position he may stand for; he's very objective, or that's the impression.Curiously enough both Theo and Fortuyn, who are not to win my simpathies at all, were murdered by an Islamist gone nuts, and a zoophile, personages quite apart, but it's a very telling illustration of the human landscape we have here. Because the 2 victims aren't simple Joes either. Theo was a spoiled brat, a punk; Fortyun a narcissistic sodomite turned politician (it reminds me of when the infamous Cicciolina, the italian meretrix, went into Parliament). Well, these people seem to be some kind of heroes/devils in Holland, and they are the talk of the town. Theo seemed to have been quite obnoxious and despicable as a youngster, fond of insulting anybody religious just to get a kick out of it. He got away with Christians, not with Muslims though. he seemed only to be able to love himself, as good narcissists do.These book was quite informative to me, as I didn't have this side of the picture I surely was given a partial impression by the media when the facts happened.The issues dealt with here are foreign to us Christians, because we are called to live in this world but not like the world, sinful. Both sides of the conflict, immigrants and their hosts, Islam and liberal Europe are spiteful, at least negligent and deaf to Christ and his gospel. We must have nothing to do with them.But it is easy to take sides while reading this good analysis. It seems like we ought to pick the better things of each side; that seems to be the solution at the end for a life together and a stop to the intolereance and hatred. Wrong choice. We would only get ourselves in the dirt too. Remember:"And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." (Matthew 24:6)We have in these pages interesting points of view of people who are lost. See page 57; Fortuyn puts on the same level Christianism and Islam. The reason? "Their moral principles are so high, it's not possible to live up to them." That is his excuse for being a sex maniac and a sodomite. Sin is sin. Each one chooses whom to serve, the Devil or the Lord.Modern, decrepit society only wants an alibi for keep living in sin. Modern society is so hooked up there's not enough will power to turn back. It's high time for a crisis. Islam bothers this comfortable generation only as long as it reminds them of certain moral standards that they would rather ignore (and can't). It doesn't bother them as much for its theology, or even violence against women, but for its Calvinistic puritanism. Isn't this quite revealing?This is a deep book; it recquires that you know yourself first, or else it will tell YOU who you should be. See the pillar in your eye, friend, before you point to someone else's moth.Thank you Jesus that we don't belong here. We are just passing by.

A very well-written book that takes the murder of Theo Van Gogh as its starting point for considering wider issues of tolerance and cultural diverity. It's written about the Netherlands but most of what the author says applies is highly relevent to other Western societies with significant Muslim minorities.The old cliche of a "warts and all" portraint certainly applies to this book. The negative side of affluent Holland is certainly well detailed; the horrors of the largely Moroccan "dish cities" in Holland are vividly portrayed. Theo Van Gogh certainly doen't emerge as a great hero from this book, in fact he seems pretty obnoxious. The Islamic radicals the author interviews are pretty scary, probably rather unbalanced. The author paints a colouful picture of Pim Fortuyn, and provides a persuaive analysis of his appeal.The author gives no easy answers but certainly makes the reader think. highly recommended.

All good,details of a terrible religiously -based crime and its motivation.

A journalistic investigation about Netherlands and the problem of islamic immigration in Europe

das Buch ist ja nun schon ein paar Jahre alt, aber immer noch sehr lesenswert, vor allem bezueglich der angehenden Integrierungsdebatten. Wer Ayaan Hirsi Alis Buch gelesen hat, wird einige Wiederholungen entdecken. Ich habe eine gute Einfuehrung in die Empfindsamkeiten unserer niederlaendischen Nachbarn bekommen und auch Parallelen zu unserer Gesellschaft gefunden. Liest sich zuegig und ist verstaendlich geschrieben.

This book isn't what I would necessarily describe as a "good" read and leave it at that. It is a serious thought provoking, and enlightening book that will stay with the reader long after the last page is read. If one is questioning the culture war that is taking place in Europe today, this book this book will answer some of those questions