On an autumn day in 2004, an event occurred on an Amsterdam street corner that came to symbolize a clash between two ideologies. An artist, the ultimate symbol of the Western concept of freedom of expression, was murdered by a Muslim fundamentalist, for making a film that told the awful truth about Islam.
Film maker Theo van Gogh had insulted the prophet and called Muslims ‘goat-shaggers’. But it was generally assumed that he was murdered for his co-operation with Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali in making her film Submission, in which Koran verses were projected on naked and tortured female bodies.
After the murder, an emotional debate about Islam and the freedom of expression erupted in the Netherlands. A series of incidents kept this debate alive over the years: the international row about the Danish Mohammed cartoons and in the Netherlands the statements of the anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders who called the Koran a fascist book and the prophet Mohammed a barbarian warlord.
On the one hand there are the critics of Islam and militant defenders of the freedom of expression. They feel that their democratic freedom is threatened by invading hordes of Muslim migrants. The freedom of expression, they claim, is absolute and also includes the right to insult. Look at the Dutch writer Gerard Reve, they say, who caused a row in the 1960s by claiming that he had met God in the shape of a grey donkey. That’s how we deal with religion in the Netherlands! Muslims better get used to it and stop being so over-sensitive. It is healthy to fiercely debate Islam and tell each other the truth.
On the other hand there are those who say: If you talk to Muslims that way, you’ll only alienate them. The Islam critics, however, are allergic to such objections. “Our freedom of expression is being limited!”, they cry. But is that really the case? Slander and sowing hatred is prohibited by law; but within those boundaries no one denies them the right to insult. The issue is not a legal but a moral one. The question is not whether it is allowed, but whether it is a good idea to insult Muslims. Whether this is the way we want to debate with each other in public.
It is therefore no surprise that the ‘fierce debate’ the Islam critics long for has not come off the ground. The Dutch ‘Islam debate’ is a debate between indigenous Dutch in which Muslims hardly participate. The fierce criticism of Islam does not tempt them to respond. On the contrary, the majority withdraws thinking: “They don’t want us.” Radio Netherlands
THE FILM ‘SUBMISSION’
Submission’ includes some prayers in the Arabic language. These prayers are subtitled in Dutch. The Arabic writings shown are quoted from the Quran. The rest of the spoken word is in English. Read a transcript here.
THEO VAN GOGH: His death
THE JIHADIST WHO MURDERED VAN GOGH
Scaredofislam says
Didn’t he die 17 years a go?
BareNakedIslam says
Yes, 2004. The post I used is from 2009.
Andrew+Blackadder says
So if muslim men demand that women cover themselves up from head to toe in a black garbage bag so that the men are not excited and inclined to rape the women, then I guess these muslim men are admitting they are all indeed… rapists…
What happened to Van Gogh all these years ago and yet still today in 2021 the Europeans are falling over themselves to bring even more of these savages into Europe and even arresting other Europeans that wish to stop this invasion.
So do ”leaders” like Merkel really have a secret hate for Germany and Jews as she brings a few million people into Germany that both hate the Western World and its values and for sure seem to hate Jews for being Jews.
I have lost German friends, from the 1970s when I lived there, because I asked them why do they want to bring people into Germany that despise the Jewish people, and have done so for longer than the Nazis did, and as they all seem so full of guilt about what their forefathers did 80 years ago, it makes even less common sense, but then common sense just aint too common these days.
BareNakedIslam says
Andrew, I always find it amusing when Merkel speaks out against rising anti-semitism in Germany, while never saying who is behind the rise.
Az gal says
Seeing that Mr Van Gogh died for this movie (basically), I realized I should watch it. That part one looked kind of weird, though.
It is so wrong, Muslums getting away with their slaughter. It would be much more deserving to see a Mohammedan instead, with a barbecue fork & knife sticking out, crumbled on the sidewalk.
ROY F QUE-HEATH says
Looking at my mother in laws shaggy Bichon Poodle, it occured to me, why does not someone take the mo doggie theme a step further and hold a mohammad look alike dog grooming contest. Entrants would bring reasonably shaggy dogs that had beem trimed and dyed to resemble the prevo prophet, a true son of a bitch.