The Dutch Jihad

One year after Theo Van Gogh was gunned down and half-decapitated in broad daylight, The Netherlands is a changed nation.

Now, many politicians, writers and artists are considered to be in such danger that they have permanent armed guards and are driven around in bomb-proof armoured cars. The Interior Ministry has set up a special unit assessing death threats from Islamic extremists and providing protection squads.

"In a democracy, strong opinion-leaders must be able to say what they want to say. Therefore, the Government will take the responsibility to protect them," a spokesman from the ministry said, refusing to divulge the number of people receiving protection.

In the parliament in The Hague, inside the airport-style security, two besuited bodyguards stand erect outside the office of Geert Wilders, Ali's political rival, checking closely anyone who has permission to enter. "I have been deluged with death threats," said the maverick right-wing MP, who has called for the deportation of Islamic extremists.

. . .

"In The Netherlands, terrorists want to threaten not only the public ... they also want to kill public figures, such as artists, academics and politicians," he said. "It is not special in terms of Islam -- in Iran, it is normal to kill people who criticise Islam, as in Egypt and Iraq. It is legitimised by Islamic political theology, which says it is all right to kill someone if they are an enemy of Allah. But this is happening in Europe."

Academics and authorities in The Netherlands are trying to understand why, in their country, Islamic extremism has gone down the path of assassination, while in Britain and Spain it has produced bombings [and riots in France].

Aw, isn't that cute, "academics are trying to understand." And they will continue to struggle, so long as they insist on inventing theories consistent with their Marxist training, all the while giving Islam a pass. There is a reason Muslim countries are lawless third-world backwaters; and as the EU imports millions of Muslim immigrants, it's showing symptoms of becoming one itself. It's not because they're poor or brown; it's because of what too many of them believe, and how they act on those beliefs. This ain't rocket science, people. But it does require making value judgments, a task apparently more difficult than designing rockets these days.