It seems to me that efforts at cross-cultural understanding havecome at the expense of homeland security.
By James P. Pinkerton
January 06, 2005
Can a threatened society rally to its own defense? Or will politicalcorrectness paralyze the survival instinct? Those are questions beingasked here in the Netherlands, where an experiment inno-questions-asked multiculturalism is coming to an end.
My first inkling of how permissive Holland is came when nobodychecked my passport when I got off the train from Belgium. My secondclue was that in days of wandering around the downtown Zentrum Ididn’t see a single police officer on the street.
Within a few blocks, I passed by “museums” for tattoos, fortorture, for hashish – and, of course, for sex. Did I mention theprostitutes on display? Or the 258 registered “coffee shops” thatallow marijuana smoking?
But Amsterdam’s problem isn’t too much tawdriness. Instead,traditionally, it’s been too much tolerance – for the intolerant andfor the intolerable. The crisis in Holland came to the world’sattention on Nov. 2 when Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh –great-grand-nephew of the painter – was fatally shot and stabbed,allegedly by a Dutch Muslim. There’s little doubt about the detailsof the murder because the man, Mohammed Bouyeri, confessed to thekilling. Many in the Dutch Muslim community, mostly hailing fromMorocco, were conspicuous in their refusal to condemn the crime.
In the aftermath of the killing, there was a spasm of anti-Muslimviolence. About 20 mosques and schools were vandalized. Fortunately,no serious injuries resulted. But then the Dutch reverted to theirstandard touchy-feelyness. Students at a high school held a “grouphug” as a “tonic against hate and violence in the country.”
And although the churches here are notoriously empty, the NieuweKerk has been jammed. Why? Because of a Moroccan culture exhibit thatlets ethnic Dutch empathize with their new countrymen.
It seems to me that efforts at cross-cultural understanding havecome at the expense of homeland security. All the group hugsnotwithstanding, ethnic problems seem to be getting worse, as arecrime and chronic unemployment. Of the million or so Muslims here inthis country of 17 million, only a few are openly hostile, but manyare poorly assimilated into Dutch culture.
Shouldn’t there be a serious effort to get to the heart of theproblem, and to crack down where necessary? Muslims loom huge inHolland’s demographic future. In the cities, more than half ofschoolchildren are Muslim, and new immigrants are steadily tricklingin. Ethnic conflict is real, and it can’t be solved by hugging.
In recent months, the right-of-center government has imposed newlaws; since Jan. 1, for example, anyone over 14 must showidentification to authorities if asked – although, of course, it’s amoot point if there are no cops to do the asking.
But that’s changing too: The Dutch equivalent of the FBI is hiring500 more functionaries. Significantly, the political left is mostlysupportive of these stern measures.
A socialist party leader, Wouter Bos, says the Dutch were “naive”before Nov. 2 but now they recognize that the threat of Muslimviolence is “an international phenomenon that will long be with us.”
These are positive developments. Today, the most compelling figurein Netherlander politics is a woman who was born a Muslim and whoworked with Van Gogh on a documentary critical of Islam. Ayaan HirsiAli, an immigrant from Somalia, was genitally mutilated as a girlaccording to cruel tribal custom. Now she is a right-tilting memberof parliament.
Hirsi Ali offers Holland its best hope for peaceful accommodationthrough tougher-minded assimilation – in other words, an end tonaive multiculturalism. Unless, of course, one of the many deaththreats against her is successfully carried out.