News & Politics - Gunman kills Dutch film director - terrorist attack

Sabrina · 11-06-2004, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Dutch Murder Suspect Had Possible Islamist Ties

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The man suspected of killing a Dutch filmmaker critical of Islam was probably driven by extremist Islamist motives and was already known to the national security service, the government said on Wednesday.

Director Theo van Gogh, who angered some Muslims with a film that said Islam encouraged violence against women -- and who has also offended Jews and Christians with his blunt views -- was shot and stabbed as he cycled to work in Amsterdam on Tuesday.

Two knives were left in his body, one pinning a note to his chest, which NRC Handelsblad newspaper said called for an Islamic holy war. A 26-year-old suspect with Dutch and Moroccan nationality was arrested nearby.

Police have since arrested six Moroccans, one Algerian and a dual Spanish and Moroccan citizen after searching five homes in Amsterdam as part of their murder investigation, officials said.

"We are investigating if these eight people are connected to the murder of Van Gogh or connected to the main suspect in the murder," said Dop Kruimel, spokeswoman for the Amsterdam public prosecutor's office.

In a letter to parliament, Justice Minister Jan Piet Hein Donner and Interior Minister Johan Remkes urged calm amid fears the killing could worsen Dutch race relations, tense since the murder of anti-immigration populist Pim Fortuyn in May 2002.

They said the arrested man had already come to the attention of the AIVD national security service, but was not among some 150 Islamic extremists the service is monitoring.

They said the perpetrator might have acted out of a radical Islamic conviction.

HOSTILE

The Netherlands is home to nearly one million Muslims or 5.5 percent of the population. Recent surveys have shown that the traditionally tolerant Dutch are growing more hostile toward immigration and increasingly fearful of Islamic extremism.

Liberal politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee given Dutch citizenship after fleeing an arranged marriage, worked with Van Gogh on his film about abuse of Muslim women and received a new death threat on Tuesday saying: "You are next."
.

So the person that was murdered was working on a movie about Pim Fortuyn, a politician that was against immigration and pretty controversial in general. Turns out Theo Van Gogh, was murdered exactly 911 (9/11) days after Pim Fortuyn was murdered, so it was a terrorist attack.

Today they arrested people that were planning on bombing one of your cities.

***Jerry D*** · 11-06-2004, 11:58 PM

Man, what a shame. It really shows that no country is safe from terrorists.

*Ledi* · 11-07-2004, 12:42 AM

I am honestly scared that this "War on Terror" will never end. And that it'll just keep on getting worse.

**TheAngel** · 11-07-2004, 01:41 AM

Quote:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Nov. 6) - Europe's complex interplay with Islam appears to stand at a tipping-point, and the slaying of a Dutchman who made a movie critical of Islam could indicate one direction in which it is headed. "The Muslims say they're scared," said mourner Nicolette Toering. "No, we're scared."

AP
Muslims attend services at a mosque in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Dutch authorities were investigating whether the chief suspect, a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan man detained shortly after the attack, acted alone out of rage or had links to wider extremist networks.

A five-page letter pinned to the body of Theo van Gogh, brutally murdered Tuesday as he was riding his bike down a busy boulevard in Amsterdam, called for Muslims to rise up against the "infidel enemies" in the West.

Other messages - later left at the sidewalk shrine where the 47-year-old filmmaker's throat was slashed - dripped with equal venom against radical Islam. "Enemies live among us," read one missive in a bed of flowers, votive candles and crosses.

The attack has underscored the hard political and social choices that European leaders face about Muslims and the wider Islamic world.

In December, European Union leaders will decide whether to overlook widespread public objections and move ahead with membership talks with Turkey, a Muslim nation of about 70 million people and a galloping birthrate that could push it past Germany's population in a generation.

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European police agencies have sharply boosted cooperation against suspected Islamic terrorist groups following the March train bombings in Spain that killed 191 people. Washington's European allies in Iraq are reassessing their levels of military and commercial support following waves of attacks, kidnappings and beheadings blamed on Islamic militants.

EU officials last month signed the text of a proposed EU Constitution that still could face opposition from voters demanding a clear reference to Europe's Christian history.

But those big issues fade on the streets of many European centers. Here - even in places like tolerant Amsterdam - it's often expressed as a gnawing feeling that militant factions in Islamic immigrant communities are gaining ground and chipping away at values such as free speech and secular politics.

"There is a general feeling that a social collision is becoming inevitable," said Jan Rath, co-director of the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies at the University of Amsterdam. "People think it's been building for years and now finally coming to the surface."

Reuters
Filmmaker and newspaper columnist Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in Amsterdam.

The landmarks along the way included the 1989 death threat "fatwa," or religious edict, against British writer Salman Rushdie for alleged insults to Islam in "The Satanic Verses," the rise of neo-Fascist movements, the assassination of Dutch anti-immigrant politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002 and France's ongoing showdown with Muslims over a ban on headscarves and other religious apparel in schools.

"My impression is the European voices that say, `Everyone is equal, but we are more equal than Muslims,' are growing," Rath said.

The Netherlands offers a good vantage point to gauge changing attitudes toward Muslim communities across Europe - which have grown more than 100 percent in the past 15 years, according to U.N. reports. Some sources place the Muslim population as high as 13.5 million in Western Europe, or more than 2 percent of the population, in addition to more than 6 million native-born Muslims in the Balkans.

Unlike the French or Spanish, the Dutch long had little direct contact with Islam apart from a colonial presence in distant Indonesia that ended in 1949. Muslim immigrants began arriving following World War II as reconstruction labor - as they did in Germany and other countries.

The workers, mostly Turks, assimilated well into Dutch society. Moroccans and other North Africans began arriving in the 1970s and 1980s, when more lenient laws allowed men to bring in their families.

But the situation in Holland was getting tougher. Jobs were more scarce - especially for the Moroccan immigrant children - and some politicians began trying to connect the rising crime rate with the swelling Muslim community: now about 1 million in a country of 16 million people.

Last year, a parliament member, Geert Wilders, pressed for a five-year ban on immigration from Turkey and Morocco. Dutch anti-terrorist agents, meanwhile, have intensified probes into alleged radical recruitment among young Muslims.

Van Gogh - a distant relative of the famous 19th-century Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh - often tested the boundaries of free expression by denouncing Muslims in the most graphic terms. His last work, "Submission," a joint project with Somali-born lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, attacked the treatment of women under Islam.

The filmmaker's fans were as passionate as his detractors.

"He was trying to warn us about the dangers of radical Islam," said teacher Geert Plas as he visited the site where Van Gogh was ambushed. "Now maybe we'll listen. To me this is not just a small event. It's part of the World Trade Center and Madrid. We must see this."

The letter pinned to the victim's body also threatened death to Hirsi Ali, who has gone into hiding, and predicted the downfall of the "infidel enemies of Islam" in Europe, America and the Netherlands.

"The jihad (holy war) has come to the Netherlands," parliament speaker Jozias van Aartsen said.

The memorials that piled up on the dark brick sidewalk often crossed the line from sympathy to seething recriminations. "This is the true face of Islam," said a handwritten message. A framed poem called "Imam" ends with a stanza: "If you want to improve the world, start with yourself and your faith."

A banner waved from a fence: "Theo rests his case."

Christian prayer cards, crosses and biblical passages sat amid the flowers - a rare religious outpouring in one of Europe's most secular states.

"This doesn't just say something about the Netherlands," said Baukje Prins, assistant professor of social philosophy at Holland's Groninjen University. "It is an example of how international relations have become polarized."

At a mosque near the murder site, Friday prayers were dominated by talk of the slaying - sprinkled with worry about a possible backlash.

"We are in danger," a Moroccan man told a group of friends sitting in a circle on a carpeted floor.

"No, no," another man said. "We cannot give in to fear. This is our home now."

Moulay Idrissi listened and shook his head.

"I'm afraid. I can't deny it," said Idrissi, who emigrated from Morocco in 1978. "I feel respect for Muslims is falling away in Europe. When people have no respect, anything can happen."

A few hours later, suspected arsonists set fire to a mosque in the central Dutch city of Utrecht, but no injuries were reported.

A 22-year-old student, Abdul Salam, said he tries to tell Christian friends that Muslims have been in Europe since the Moors crossed into Spain in the 8th century.

"So I don't know what to think when people say I don't belong here because I'm Muslim," he said. "I was born here. I don't even speak Arabic. I am European. That's what I feel. That's what I am."

But Salam represents just one side of an internal struggle within Muslim communities in Europe, said Akbar Ahmed, a professor of Islamic studies at American University in Washington.

"Right now the West sees all Islam as a kind of monolith and wipes away all nuances," said Ahmed. "Some want to draw boundaries around Islam in Europe. Other Muslims want to deal with non-Muslims in a broad and tolerant way. It's not new to Islam. It's just new to Europe."

11/06/04 17:28 EST

It sucks how Islam is getting a bad name because of these extremists. But then they give every religion a bad name from Christianity to Islam to Hindu and everything else. Islam is an extremely peaceful religion, just like Christianity, it's just people perverting the sacred texts to become what they want them to be.

***Jerry D*** · 11-07-2004, 01:59 AM

I agree that it's a shame that a religion like Islam is being sullied by the actions of a few extremists, but that's happened throughout history, like when people were burned at the stake by Christian extremists, and it's amazing and extremely sad how peaceful religions can be twisted into something really distorted by terrorists such as these.

**TheAngel** · 11-07-2004, 03:38 AM

Yeah, I hate the way extremists give everyone that professes a religion a bad name. I'm a Christian and I have my values but I also accept the fact that other people have theirs. I suppose that people will always take things to the extreme. I suppose Islam is the new scapegoat religion now that Judaism is more widely accepted.

Sabrina · 11-07-2004, 08:10 AM

Yes I completely agree, this is just so sad. A few people ruin things for everyone.

I wonder if this will ever come to an end, or if this is just the beginning of what's to come.

**TheAngel** · 11-07-2004, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sabrina
Yes I completely agree, this is just so sad. A few people ruin things for everyone.

I wonder if this will ever come to an end, or if this is just the beginning of what's to come.

I think that depends on how you look at things. Will this get worse before it gets better? Yes, without a doubt. In the long run is it better to do anything we can to wipe violent extremests off the face of this planet? Probably. Can we do it? Who knows?

Nobody · 11-08-2004, 09:32 PM

It is a very bad thing that Theo has been killed.. Because they killed him for the reason he gives his opinion about non-dutch people (can't find the right word.) and how they threat the

**TheAngel** · 11-08-2004, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Niemand
It is a very bad thing that Theo has been killed.. Because they killed him for the reason he gives his opinion about non-dutch people (can't find the right word.) and how they threat the

It is similar to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. He wrote a book about the progression from banning books to banning knowledge in general and the restriction of personal freedoms, and then his book is banned. It's amazing how people prove their points, and quite ironic as well.

Nobody · 11-09-2004, 10:46 AM

Now is the hell open in the Netherlands.. near my village,in Amersfoort they have burn churges and moskees.. The radical moslims say on the internet, that if this don't stop, they will kill more people and/or politicians

ColorMist · 11-09-2004, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Wednesday November 10, 04:33 AM

Link

Hundreds of mourners gather at funeral of slain Dutch filmmaker

AMSTERDAM (AFP) - Hundreds of mourners gathered outside a crematorium as a funeral service got under way for controversial Dutch director Theo van Gogh, killed by a suspected Islamic radical in an attack that has shocked traditionally tolerant Dutch society and fueled ethnic tensions.

Only about 150 people -- relatives and close friends of the deceased -- were allowed inside the building while outside hundreds watched the proceedings on giant screens.

The service was also broadcast live on Dutch NOS public television.

"I came to express my anger and my frustration," said a businessman who traveled from the town of Groningen, more than 200 kilometers (120 miles) from here.

Van Gogh's mother was the first to speak inside the austere hall of the crematorium.

"We are here together because our son is dead, murdered," said the frail, grey-haired lady, her voice chocking with emotion.

"I fear for the future," she added.

Van Gogh, 47, was shot and stabbed a week ago on November 2 while cycling near his home in Amsterdam. His suspected killer, Mohammed Bouyeri, was arrested shortly afterwards.

Police say Bouyeri, who has dual Moroccan and Dutch nationality, left a letter on the filmmaker's body threatening several Dutch politicians and quoting from the Koran.

Since the murder, the Netherlands has witnessed a surge in attacks against Muslim targets. Three mosques were targeted by arsonists and two by vandals over the weekend, and early Monday a bomb exploded at an Islamic school in the southeastern city of Eindhoven. No one was hurt in the attacks.

But in a poll commissioned by several regional newspapers 90 percent of the respondents said they believed people would become more intolerant after the killing, the Brabants Dagblad reported.

Of the 1,857 people questioned some 80 percent said they hoped the recent events would lead to tougher immigration policies.

And a stunning 40 percent of the respondents, aged between 15 and 80 years, said they hoped Muslims would no longer feel at home in the Netherlands.

Together with the suspected killer, five other men, all of North African origin, are being held in the case.

The Amsterdam prosecutor said they were being held on suspicion of being members of a terrorist organisation which planned Van Gogh's murder and was preparing other attacks.

Van Gogh, a distant relative of the 19th century painter Vincent, was a filmmaker and columnist known for his criticism of Islam. He recently caused an uproar with his short film "Submission" which was highly critical of women's position in Islam.

Some 20,000 people showed up last week at a memorial gathering on Amsterdam's central Dam square to protest van Gogh's killing.

Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende condemned the attacks on Muslim places of worship and schools and called for an end to the spiral of violence.

"We must ... avoid a climate of radicalisation. An attitude of 'us against them' will not get us very far," he warned.

Some 900,000 Muslims out of a total population of 16 million live in the Netherlands.

The attacks could also have international ramifications as the self-styled al-Tawhid al-Islami group threatened to make the country "pay dear" for reprisals against Muslims.

"We will not just stand by in the face of what is happening at our schools and mosques in Holland," the group said in a statement on an Islamic website.

The group's authenticity could not be immediately established.

The communique, signed "Brigade of martyr Omar Al-Moktar, information department in Europe", asked the Dutch government to "stop Dutch television programs which are hostile to Muslims and which are being financed to hurt the reputation of Muslims presenting them as terrorists".

The Dutch authorities have not yet commented on the threats.

-[-*colormist*-]-

Nobody · 11-09-2004, 11:06 PM

damn.. in holland they call the murder Mohammed B, but in the US they say his exact name.. hmmz.. And as for as i know, Theo wasn't cycling, but stand in front of a shop..


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