The
last thought to cross the mind on seeing a black
person running in Amsterdam is that a UVF racist
gang from Donegall Pass might be in hot pursuit.
The city seems so cosmopolitan with a great mix
of peoples. They say that Chinese food in the Dutch
capital is, unlike Belfast, authentic otherwise
the large Chinese population that lives and works
there would not eat it. Ersatz Chinese cuisine is
okay for Europeans but for the Chinese only the
real thing will suffice. Walking through Amsterdam
is an experience comparable to being at an international
food fair. Restaurants abound. Succulent Buenos
Aires beef and Monte Video steaks caress the palate
as readily as Bombay duck or Bangkok chicken. For
the unimaginative there is always KFC, and for the
politically non-correct, McDonalds. Yet the embrace
of those not of Dutch origins shows signs of weakening,
particularly so in the wake of the murder last month
of Theo Van Gogh at the hands of a theocratic fascist.
As a consequence the country's large Muslim community
of almost one million people faces a bleak future
in which its security is under threat.
The
widespread revulsion at the murder has formed a
backdrop to a wave of violence directed against
Muslims, their sites of learning and their places
of worship. The town of Uden lost its only Islamic
school, torched by arsonists. It provided for 120
under-12s. The resentment that will surely flow
from that is hardly something the Dutch Ku Klux
Klan factored into their Neanderthal considerations.
Persecutionist
zeal has raged through parts of the country. No
longer high on dope some Dutch are high on hate.
White Power and Nazi graffiti have been daubed on
the walls of mosques. Many more white Dutch, 47%
according to one television opinion poll, admitted
harbouring sentiments of greater intolerance toward
Muslims since the slaying of van Gogh. Left of centre
politicians have taken to speaking of 'harsh truths'
that need to be faced regarding the country's growing
Muslim population. One of their claims has been
that 'foreigners' are responsible for most of the
country's crime. The governing bloc, having declared
'war' on Islamic extremism, has promised to deport
25,000 illegal immigrants and make language classes
compulsory. Prayer leaders in mosques will be compelled
to undergo tuition in Dutch culture.
These
measures suggest that some in policy-making arenas
think the best way to extinguish a fire is by dousing
it with petrol. The fascist murderer of van Gogh
lived on a drab Amsterdam housing estate. The community
he hails from hardly stands at the ready, mobilised
to rush off, Koran in one hand and a butcher's knife
in the other. But it does face greater levels of
poverty and unemployment than white Dutch communities.
Draconian measures specifically designed to hound
Muslims in a country where it is anticipated that
15% of the population will soon be Muslim seems
a recipe for civil war, and Muslim housing estates
poor in social amenities and opportunities may suddenly
become the source of rich pickings for the theocratic
fascists. 'These fires and attacks are revenge for
the murder of Van Gogh ... ordinary people are looking
for revenge. Educated people are saying that's not
the way we do things here. We prefer to make deals.
But times are changing. It's a kind of war.'(1)
These aggressive thoughts of Stefaan, an 18 year
old Dutch student, find eerie resonance in the defensive
posture of, Samir, a non-practicing Muslim teenager:
'we are hated now. Whatever we do will be wrong,
everything we say will be wrong, everywhere we go
will be wrong.'(2)
Those
disappointed at a seeming collapse of the legendary
400-year-old Dutch culture of tolerance would do
well to remember that it was from Holland that some
of the world's worst racists in living memory could
trace their ancestry. The Dutch had a certain pernicious
talent for withholding their tolerance from the
majority black population of South Africa. Is apartheid
ready to go back to the land of its forefathers?
A
sign at the site of van Gogh's death which merely
says, 'Theo rests his case', while possessed of
much truth should inspire others to make an even
stronger case, one that seeks to show that multiculturalism
is not a failed experiment. Islam did not kill van
Gogh, theocratic fascism did. But without a vigorous
debate on multiculturalism accompanied by a willingness
to listen to the concerns it generates more than
just multiculturalism will fail. Sections of Dutch
society accused of being racist are not such per
se, but do harbour serious concerns about the intolerance
displayed towards gay, humanist and feminist culture;
a hostility they believe flourishes within Muslim
communities. They must be free to vent their apprehensions.
Of what possible use is a multiculturalism that
can only be sustained by what Anthony Browne calls
'curbs on free speech and democracy'? How multicultural
is any perspective that marginalises the all-important
culture of dissent, including the right to dissent
from multiculturalism?
In
an era of growing intolerance in the Netherlands
the Independent injects words of wisdom into an
otherwise frenzied debate and has urged the Dutch
to 'do everything in their power to preserve their
traditions of free speech' and 'not allow institutionalised
Islamophobia to be the price they pay.' Holland
can never really claim to have held the line against
theocratic fascism if it submits to the urge to
become a cold house for Muslims.
(1) Dutch
liberalism stares into a troubled future as anti-Muslim
backlash grows
(2)
The
murder that shattered Holland's liberal dream