Theo van Gogh's Murder
Nov. 9th, 2004 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsI asked Omaha about this last night, and she didn't know anything about it. So, here are the details.
Filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered in Holland in daylight on a public street, with more than a dozen witnesses watching. His assailant pulled up in a car, got out, shot him several times, and when van Gogh refused to die from his wounds, walked up and sliced through his neck while van Gogh begged "Don't do this. Have mercy! We can still talk about this!" van Gogh was nearly decapitated. The murderer then thrust the knife, with a note, to van Gogh's chest and fled the scene.
van Gogh was the subject of death threats because of a short film he had made recently, which is available via BitTorrent, depicting an Islamic woman making prayers, while flashbacks show her non-consensual arranged marriage, rape at the hands of her brother-in-law, and punishment for "adultery". The woman is lightly veiled, and through the veil one can see her naked body, and written on her skin are the verses of the Q'ran which give men "dominion" over women.
van Gogh was only the director. He collaborated with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a prime minister of the Dutch Parliament. She is an ex-Islamic and a fierce critic of the way Islam treats women. At least two documents-- one of which the note pinned to van Gogh's body-- have said that she is next on the hit list. Ali is being sued by a Moroccan national living in Holland for "dragging Mr. van Gogh into the danger zone of her apostacy." This led one blogger to comment, "Come to Amsterdam! Our weed really is this potent!"
The Dutch police have arrested his assailant and eight others who are believed to have conspired with him. All nine were members of the El Tahweed mosque, a European sect of Islam infamous for its stated goals of creating a European caliphate and wiping out secularism. The murderer himself was apparently well-known in his community for helping young people and being a volunteer, was well-educated, spoke and wrote Dutch better than most Dutch. There is good evidence that members of El Tahweed recruit into Takir Wal Hijira, a terrorist group that specializes in sleepers, people who "look and act non-Islamic" until it is time to carry out their mission. Their goal is to create havoc by turning "the ordinary boy or girl next door" into an object of suspicion.
Since the incident, Arabic websites have published death threats against several members of parliament and other critics of the non-integrationist portions of the Islamic community in Holland. Meanwhile, Dutch television shows have argued about whether on not Mr. van Gogh "went to far in using his freedom of speech," somehow implying that he deserved it. And in a man-on-the-street interview, a reporter somehow found a Muslim fellow to admit "in my community, such murder is normal. How could it not be?"
The letter stabbed into van Gogh's chest was long and rambling, accusing the Dutch of being in "sway to the lying Jews" and a bizarre reference to pregnant camels, which I'm sure is a parable understood by Q'ranic scholars, but the letter ends with a death threat against Miss Ali and this:
I know for sure that you, Oh America will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh Europe, will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh Holland, will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh Hirsi Ali, will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh unbelieving fundamentalist, will go under.
I think that one thing we should have learned from terrorism: when they tell you that their objective is the overthrow of the state and the death of everyone not in accordance with their ideology, believe them.
Filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered in Holland in daylight on a public street, with more than a dozen witnesses watching. His assailant pulled up in a car, got out, shot him several times, and when van Gogh refused to die from his wounds, walked up and sliced through his neck while van Gogh begged "Don't do this. Have mercy! We can still talk about this!" van Gogh was nearly decapitated. The murderer then thrust the knife, with a note, to van Gogh's chest and fled the scene.
van Gogh was the subject of death threats because of a short film he had made recently, which is available via BitTorrent, depicting an Islamic woman making prayers, while flashbacks show her non-consensual arranged marriage, rape at the hands of her brother-in-law, and punishment for "adultery". The woman is lightly veiled, and through the veil one can see her naked body, and written on her skin are the verses of the Q'ran which give men "dominion" over women.
van Gogh was only the director. He collaborated with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a prime minister of the Dutch Parliament. She is an ex-Islamic and a fierce critic of the way Islam treats women. At least two documents-- one of which the note pinned to van Gogh's body-- have said that she is next on the hit list. Ali is being sued by a Moroccan national living in Holland for "dragging Mr. van Gogh into the danger zone of her apostacy." This led one blogger to comment, "Come to Amsterdam! Our weed really is this potent!"
The Dutch police have arrested his assailant and eight others who are believed to have conspired with him. All nine were members of the El Tahweed mosque, a European sect of Islam infamous for its stated goals of creating a European caliphate and wiping out secularism. The murderer himself was apparently well-known in his community for helping young people and being a volunteer, was well-educated, spoke and wrote Dutch better than most Dutch. There is good evidence that members of El Tahweed recruit into Takir Wal Hijira, a terrorist group that specializes in sleepers, people who "look and act non-Islamic" until it is time to carry out their mission. Their goal is to create havoc by turning "the ordinary boy or girl next door" into an object of suspicion.
Since the incident, Arabic websites have published death threats against several members of parliament and other critics of the non-integrationist portions of the Islamic community in Holland. Meanwhile, Dutch television shows have argued about whether on not Mr. van Gogh "went to far in using his freedom of speech," somehow implying that he deserved it. And in a man-on-the-street interview, a reporter somehow found a Muslim fellow to admit "in my community, such murder is normal. How could it not be?"
The letter stabbed into van Gogh's chest was long and rambling, accusing the Dutch of being in "sway to the lying Jews" and a bizarre reference to pregnant camels, which I'm sure is a parable understood by Q'ranic scholars, but the letter ends with a death threat against Miss Ali and this:
I know for sure that you, Oh America will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh Europe, will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh Holland, will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh Hirsi Ali, will go under;
I know for sure that you, Oh unbelieving fundamentalist, will go under.
I think that one thing we should have learned from terrorism: when they tell you that their objective is the overthrow of the state and the death of everyone not in accordance with their ideology, believe them.
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Re: What it looks like from a Dutch(ish) perspective
Date: 2004-11-09 10:54 pm (UTC)Islam wishes to go the same path. A pox on both their Kingdoms - but mass death by radiation seems rather more extreme than religious intolerance.
With this perspective, are you still eager to nuke the world?
Re: What it looks like from a Dutch(ish) perspective
Date: 2004-11-09 10:59 pm (UTC)The Caliphate is one of them.
Re: What it looks like from a Dutch(ish) perspective
Date: 2004-11-09 11:04 pm (UTC)But you don't have to buy the rhetoric - certainly not at the price of the whole world being nuked. (You have the power - you're the sovereign of the sole superpower, the nuclear overlord; I take the threat very seriously.) Nor do you have to roll over and accept that fate. But, hey, easy on the red buttons, will you?
Re: What it looks like from a Dutch(ish) perspective
Date: 2004-11-09 11:49 pm (UTC)The muslim world still resents the smashing (their view, in more honest terms, it collapsed under it's own weight) of the last Caliphate. The reason why so many Muslims supported Saddam, despite his secular stance, was he was the last great hope for a risen Caliphate.
With the right intonation, the word means the ideal Caliphate, the one that completely spans and covers the entire globe, a World Govenment, worshipping Allah and imposing Shar'i everywhere.
That's a fate worse than death.
Re: What it looks like from a Dutch(ish) perspective
Date: 2004-11-10 12:10 am (UTC)Saddam was a secular leader. He added Arabic text to the flag of Iraq rather recently (after Gulf War I? I don't recall when, offhand) by way of trying to align himself with a growing population turning to religion in their desperation.
The meaning you ascribe to Caliphate (context, not intonation, being the key element) is identical to the Christian notion of world domination. Worshiping Jesus all around. Ask any missionary about their goals - you'll get the straight dope.
The Sharia (not Shari, as far as I know, that's a North African river) is actually a flexibly code of law, based on precedent, much like the system we're under. It has been horribly abused, but so has every system of law (the selection of Bush for his first term comes to mind). The Soviet Union had a constitution that sounded far loftier and more benevolent than ours.
How laws and systems are worked out in practice is about people and cultures, not words and how they're arranged on pages.
Re: What it looks like from a Dutch(ish) perspective
Date: 2004-11-10 01:17 am (UTC)Big Difference.
Re: What it looks like from a Dutch(ish) perspective
Date: 2004-11-10 01:20 am (UTC)All I've been trying to say is: there are other options beyond nuking the planet or acting randomly against groups based on their religious beliefs.
Re: What it looks like from a Dutch(ish) perspective
Date: 2004-11-10 01:51 am (UTC)LJ sucks, sometimes
Date: 2004-11-10 01:54 am (UTC)I had a wonderfully written and clarified reply, and lj ate it.
I had a short, terse entry stating that, and lj ate it.
I am now too upset to say much else. I am utterly amazed at how efficiently computers help us lose data, with nary a trace. *sigh*
Re: LJ sucks, sometimes
Date: 2004-11-10 01:56 am (UTC)Re: LJ sucks, sometimes
Date: 2004-11-10 08:50 pm (UTC)I tend to give most computer systems two strikes, assuming what I'm trying to say isn't important, or one strike if what I'm trying to say is rather long. Or longer than I want to re-type, anyway.
FYI.