Lest We Forget...
...the true face of Militant Islam, Today is the one year anniversary of the brutal slaying of Theo van Gogh, by Dutch born Mohamed Bouyeri. This from the Peaceful religion of Islam.
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This post from Last November, on a previous incarnation of this blog...
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands Nov 2, 2004 --The Dutch filmmaker who had received death threats after releasing a movie criticizing the treatment of women under Islam was slain in Amsterdam on Tuesday, police said.
A suspect, a 26-year-old man with dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality, was arrested after a shootout with officers that left him wounded, police said.
Filmmaker Theo van Gogh had been threatened after the August airing of the movie "Submission," which he made with a right-wing Dutch politician who had renounced the Islamic faith of her birth. Van Gogh had received police protection after its release.
...[One] witness told Dutch Radio 1 the killer arrived by bicycle and shot Van Gogh as he got out of a car. "He fell backward on the bicycle path and just laid there. The shooter stayed next to him and waited. Waited to make sure he was dead."
The slain filmmaker was the great grandson of the brother of famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, who was also named Theo. In a recent radio interview, Van Gogh dismissed the threats and called the movie "the best protection I could have. It's not something I worry about."
...[Van Gogh's] television film "Submission" [that] aired on Dutch television in August, enraged the Muslim community in the Netherlands.
It told the fictional story of a Muslim woman forced into a violent marriage, raped by a relative and brutally punished for adultery.
The English-language film was scripted by a right-wing politician who years ago renounced the Islamic faith of her birth and now refers to herself as an "ex-Muslim."
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Anyone who wants to point to the Crusades or Inquisition in corroboration for Christian atrocities should note that both these "examples" are in the past, and that present concerns like Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo do not rise to the level that beheadings, and bombings that maim and kill innocents far more often than not, do.
There is something fundamentally wrong with an ideology that justifies such acts in the name of God-- or rather, Allah.
----
This post from Last November, on a previous incarnation of this blog...
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands Nov 2, 2004 --The Dutch filmmaker who had received death threats after releasing a movie criticizing the treatment of women under Islam was slain in Amsterdam on Tuesday, police said.A suspect, a 26-year-old man with dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality, was arrested after a shootout with officers that left him wounded, police said.
Filmmaker Theo van Gogh had been threatened after the August airing of the movie "Submission," which he made with a right-wing Dutch politician who had renounced the Islamic faith of her birth. Van Gogh had received police protection after its release.
...[One] witness told Dutch Radio 1 the killer arrived by bicycle and shot Van Gogh as he got out of a car. "He fell backward on the bicycle path and just laid there. The shooter stayed next to him and waited. Waited to make sure he was dead."
The slain filmmaker was the great grandson of the brother of famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, who was also named Theo. In a recent radio interview, Van Gogh dismissed the threats and called the movie "the best protection I could have. It's not something I worry about."
...[Van Gogh's] television film "Submission" [that] aired on Dutch television in August, enraged the Muslim community in the Netherlands.
It told the fictional story of a Muslim woman forced into a violent marriage, raped by a relative and brutally punished for adultery.
The English-language film was scripted by a right-wing politician who years ago renounced the Islamic faith of her birth and now refers to herself as an "ex-Muslim."
----
Anyone who wants to point to the Crusades or Inquisition in corroboration for Christian atrocities should note that both these "examples" are in the past, and that present concerns like Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo do not rise to the level that beheadings, and bombings that maim and kill innocents far more often than not, do.
There is something fundamentally wrong with an ideology that justifies such acts in the name of God-- or rather, Allah.
from the mind of... Eric | 12:16 PM
6 Comments:
I;m glad ive found your blog. Interesting articles i have found here as expected. However, Islam remains a religion of peace. Because there are those that will kill and refer to Islam, does not make Islam not a religion of peace. There is good and bad in every group.
Point well taken. I am just as prone as others to being carried away by my own brand of bias.
You write, "present concerns like Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo do not rise to the level that beheadings, and bombings that maim and kill innocents far more often than not, do."
Look, I despise Islamic terrorists. But your point eludes me. Is it that our government is better than terrorists and so we shouldn't be angered by its actions? We shouldn't care if our country is right or wrong, as long as it's not worse than these assholes? Sorry, I didn't vote for bin Laden or al-Zarqawi. They do not act in my name and cannot betray my trust. Only my own elected officials can.
If we become like the terrorists to defend our country, then what, exactly, makes us better than them?
I meant only that humiliation and degradation are less *severe* than beheadings. Naturally, the idea that a few bad apples within our military deliberately targeted prisoners under their charge for "recreational torture" doesn't sit too well with me. We should expect better. We demand better.
And I honestly can't point to anything that makes American's better than Iraqis. We are far more powerful. But that doesn't make us better. America's poor, in government run slums, have more than most Iraqis. But that doesn't make us better. We don't treat women as chattel, or actively pursue policies of ethnic cleansing and/or persecution. But none of this makes us "better". We all have within us the same seed of propensity we find so abhorent in radical Islam... And we call that seed, "Evil" -- for lack of a better name.
If we can be said to be *better* in anything, I'd say we [those of us in the West... not Christians, per se] are more tolerant of diversity, more willing to let each man and woman choose for themselves which direction their lives will take, holding them each accountable for how they treat others along the way.
The struggle we now find ourselves in is, in essense, an attempt to teach the unruly how to rule themselves... to the standards the West requires for inclusion into "polite Society."
The difficulty we face is Religion, and the nature of Muslim society in the middle east. Identity for Muslims is granted at birth. It is focused and refined through their schools, their mosques, through marriage. A Muslim lives his religion from the moment he/she is born to the day they die. The same cannot be said about those of us in the West. And this is why the West does not understand the Muslim. It is why we are quick to point and call them evil.
Then again, beheading civilian contractors, and stoning adulterous women is barbaric. Sending your sons and daughters with bombs strapped to their bodies into crowded marketplaces, is madness. I don't expect to ever understand this, which is why I choose to speak our against it.
Islam, or "Radical" Islam, needs to understand that if it expects to be treated with consideration, tolerance and acceptance, it must be willing and able to offer the same in return. The Murder of Theo van Gogh, however justified in the mind of Mohamed Bouyeri, is simply not acceptable behavior in civilized society.
""the idea that a few bad apples within our military deliberately targeted prisoners under their charge for "recreational torture" doesn't sit too well with me.""
It's more than a few bad apples, and it's in Afghanistan too. The C.I.A. is operating secret detention centers in third countries. Cheney is arguing to maintain the right to torture detainees. Yes, we should demand better, mainly because it is the right thing to do, but also because stories like this are strategic disasters.
"America's poor, in government run slums, have more than most Iraqis. "
Government run slums? Nice way to sneak that in there. And I'm not sure your assertion that our poor are better off than the average Iraqi (pre-invasion) is true. Saddam was a monster, but we haven't exactly improved the lives of Iraqis, nor are they likely to improve significantly anytime soon.
"We don't treat women as chattel, or actively pursue policies of ethnic cleansing and/or persecution... [we] are more tolerant of diversity, more willing to let each man and woman choose for themselves which direction their lives will take, holding them each accountable for how they treat others along the way."
Hmmm... these sound suspiciously like liberal values to me. Interesting.
"Islam, or "Radical" Islam, needs to understand that if it expects to be treated with consideration, tolerance and acceptance, it must be willing and able to offer the same in return. "
I'm not sure they are going for acceptance.
to Jamal: I am trying to get that log out of my eye. Your site, and your comments here are very instructive. In short, I am willing to be enlightened.
One question: Am I wrong to assume "Radical" Islam is NOT representive of Mainstream Islam? It is not my intent to slur Peace-Loving "ANYones".
to Gunther: Staunchly conservative here. The Welfare State IS a Gov't run slum, and you're right, "Acceptance" is not Radical Islam's goal.
Thanx for both of your perspectives. They are both appreciated.
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