Thou Shalt Not Kill

Last year, Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh directed a short film called "Submission," which portrays Muslim women struggling to reconcile their faith in Allah with Islam's brutal treatment of them. On 2 Nov 2004, Van Gogh was slain in broad daylight in an Amsterdam street by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-Moroccan and a member of the Hofstad Group.

A document purporting to be an unclassified Norwegian-Dutch joint intelligence report "makes the case that the murder of Van Gogh was a terrorist attack implemented by an al-Qaida inspired radical Islamist group within the framework of global jihad, and not an act of religious violence by a lone fanatic."

The report also describes the murder in detail:

"Muhammad Bouyeri attacked Theo Van Gogh as he was riding his bicycle in Linaeusstraat near the Oosterpark in central Amsterdam. The assassin cycled up to his victim, stepped off the bike, drew an automatic pistol, and shot Van Gogh several times. He fell off his bike but managed to cross the street heading towards a public building for shelter while begging for mercy.

However, Bouyeri was determined, and even beforehand he had written an answer to the filmmaker’s final plea on the five-page letter written in Dutch he pinned to the victim’s body, 'There will be no mercy for the wicked, only the sword will be raised against them.' The killer followed Van Gogh across the street and shot him several times, and then he slit his throat and attempted to decapitate him with a butcher’s knife, before he stabbed a smaller knife through the two letters he had brought with him, and into his chest. He then walked slowly away from the murder site and headed for Oosterpark.

Police from a nearby police station followed him to the park, and there was a shootout in which one police officer, the assassin, and one bypasser were wounded. Muhammad Bouyeri was taken into custody, body searched and interrogated. It turned out he was carrying a 'last will' in his pocket, strongly indicating that the attack was planned as a suicide mission. The letter read, 'So these are my last words… riddled with bullets . . . baptized in blood . . . as I had hoped.' It seems Bouyeri wanted to be shot by the police and thus become a martyr."

The report concludes that Hofstad is basically a Dutch subsidiary of Al Qaeda. That's nice, but it misses the broader point. Communist expansionism had ideological underpinnings and political goals, and no one was afraid to discuss them.

So why are we so terrified to look Islamism in the eye, and discuss the ideology and goals? For example, we should ask why beheading is so often a central feature of Islamic terrorism. It wouldn't have anything to do with "when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks" (Qur'an 47:4), would it?

UPDATE: A chilling video suggesting what's in store for the Netherlands. Mostly in Dutch, but words are hardly necessary.