Nermin Aydemir JTW Columnist printable version send your friend message to author add comment ()

Friday, 9 January 2009

The murder of the controversial writer-director, Theo van Gogh, by Muslim immigrant with a Moroccan orig Mohammed Bouyeri, has made serious repercussions in the Netherlands. The rising opposition against foreigners, particularly against Muslims, living in this country has caused serious losses from the “tolerance” identity of the Dutch community. The responsibility of the murder has not been set over only the murderer himself, but on the whole Muslim community. Lots of offensive attacks took place against the Dutch Muslims after the murder of van Gogh on 2 November 2004. The Dutch society has encountered with the unexpected level of inter-ethnic tension afterwards van Gogh’s death. This newly faced social phenomenon has thrown the core values of the “liberal” Dutch society in turmoil. Even though it is very often argued that the opposition against “the Others” of the Dutch society began with the murder of Theo van Gogh, it would be a very short-sighted explanation. Indeed, the difference between the native Dutch and the immigrants, and the one between the West and Islam has been frequently pronounced in the Netherlands after the 11^th September. In this context, the racist leader Pim Fortuyn, and his party, LPF (Lijst van Pim Fortuyn, the List of Pim Fortuyn), is worth taking into consideration. It is really highly notable that an extreme right party founded on the grounds of anti-immigrant ideas managed to get above the 16% of the total votes in the parliament elections held in 2002 in a country which has been known as the centre of multiculturalism.[1] What is more the success of the LPF is not only restricted with its amount of votes in the election. Fortuyn’s party also entered the first Balkenende cabinet as one of the coalition partners. On the other hand, the LPF is not the only party, which is founded on the bases of extreme nationalism and anti-immigrant policies. Extreme racist parliamentary Geert Wilders has founded a separate fraction with the name of Group Wilders (Group Wilders) by departing from the VVD (Volks Partij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, Peoples Part for Freedom and Democracy) in the September of 2004.[2] Although Geert Wilders is the only member of his party, his thoughts have great effects, especially on the racist groups, in the Netherlands. That is to say, foreign opposing approaches can become highly popular in the Dutch political life, which have has been prominent with its tolerance for years. The Profile: Theo van Gogh Theo van Gogh, which is the nephew of the famous painter Vincent van Gogh from the 3^rd generation, stuck out in the Dutch society with his controversial ideas and sarcastic style. Van Gogh made insulting people who believe in any kind of religious affiliation a subject by its own almost in all of his works. Before the rising anti-Muslim tendencies in the 2000’s, van Gogh used to insult Catholics and the Jewish. It is highly considerable that he was charged from the law of blasphemy against God, which is a very rarely practiced law in the Netherlands.[3] Especially with the rising of anti-Islam trend after the 11^th September, van Gogh began to seriously insult the Muslim groups, living in the country. Theo van Gogh not only used to insult religious communities, but also used a really abusive language against Allah, the prophet of the Islam, the leader of the Muslim Association of the Netherlands and all the other Muslims in his weekly columns and vindicated all these actions under the right of “freedom of expression”. Van Gogh used to write his assaulting comments in Metro, a newspaper which is cost-freely distributed in the Netherlands and has a circulation of about 1.5 million a day. In other words, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim views of the highly controversial name particularly affected the Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands as van Gogh possessed all the necessary instruments in reaching the mass society. Van Gogh’s last film, Submission, was not an exception of his familiar insulting style. Just as van Gogh’s comments, Submission did not only considerably slander the Muslim belief but also reached the mass society quite easily as having been shown in the Dutch televisions. Meanwhile, it is worth taking into consideration that a Somali originated refugee, ex-Muslim VVD parliamentary Ayaan Hırsi Ali has taken place in the Submission besides van Gogh as the writer and actor of this short film. Hırsi Ali was playing a suppressed Muslim woman, with verses from the Quran on her naked body.

On the other hand, Submission is not the only sample of van Gogh films, in which a politician took place. Gerrit Zalm, who is today the vice president of the second Balkenende cabinet, acted in Cool, which was directed by van Gogh, in 2004.[4] In this context, one of the most depressing factors is that van Gogh’s racist and anti-immigrant thoughts were supported by prominent figures in the Dutch politics. Furthermore, Dutch politicians did not only support van Gogh’s controversial ideas but also used his murder as a tool in their anti-immigrant policies. In fact, vice-president Zalm, declared war against extremist Islam after the death of van Gogh just as US president did after the 11^th September attacks. Furthermore, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration, Rita Verdonk’s approach on the night of 2^nd November in Amsterdam, in the protest held in order to condemn the murder of van Gogh was entirely far away from being inclusive to different parts of the Dutch society. After the Murder of van Gogh The act of killing a human being can neither be accepted nor be justified by any means. On the other hand, when analyzing the murder of van Gogh, it is highly important to give the entire scheme of the picture. Showing the victim completely innocent is not something very impartial. The Muslims, living in the Netherlands perceived the racist, provocative saying of van Gogh as a war against all their values. Van Gogh expressed his excluding political approach towards different ethnic and religious in a seriously sarcastic attitude during all his “art” life. In fact, van Gogh was on the way to his work to complete a film about the racist leader Pim Fortuyn, to whom he was personally close, in the morning he was murdered. On the other hand, the fact that van Gogh was killed by a Morocco-originated Muslim immigrant provided the foreign opposing groups the necessary base for legitimizing their excluding actions and ideologies. The brutal killing of the famous director did nothing but “justified” all the hostile actions against Muslims of the Netherlands. It is highly thought provoking that the murder of van Gogh is frequently regarded as the 11^th September of the Netherlands. Meanwhile, the murderer of the extreme nationalist politician Pim Fortuyn was a native Dutch and the murder of Fortuyn absolutely was away from providing “enough” impact in the Dutch public opinion according to the extreme nationalists. After the death of van Gogh, the Dutch media and especially politicians, who are prominent with their anti immigrant thoughts made all their evaluations in a quite partial and even in a provocative manner. When talking about the murder, van Gogh was identified with the adjectives like innocent, poor and victim. Many generalizations have been made and as it is mentioned before, the responsibility of the murder has been set over on all the Muslims instead of solely accusing the killer. When talking about the case, concepts such as namaz (praying), fasting and Ramadan has been unconsciously or deliberately shown activities belonging not to Muslims but to terrorists. Mosques have been shown as centers of terrorist attacks. It is by no means an innocent behavior to only use the first name of the criminal during nearly all the comments made about the murder. The name of the prophet of Islam has been constantly pronounced when talking about the brutal act. Despite all these, there were also people acting in common sense in the confusion after the murder of van Gogh. 4000 people came together in a protest in Uden, where an Islamic school was set into fire by racist groups. Attendants claimed that, the Netherlands would keep its core values no matter what happens. In addition to this, the Dutch queen Beatrix, visited a youth centre of the Moroccan society and stated the importance of maintaining the multicultural structure of the country. The Dutch prime-minister Jan Peter Balkenende visited the blasted Islamic school in Uden, and celebrated Muslims’ religious festival in his sincere visit to a mosque in the city of Eindhoven after a few weeks of the incident. Nonetheless, the aggressive acts of the extreme nationalist groups, largely throw all these constructive endeavors into the shade. Concluding Remarks When the general picture is evaluated, the Netherlands is currently encountered with highly serious problems. The integration process of the EU brings many difficulties by itself, almost in many aspects of social life. Furthermore, the terrorist attacks of the 11^th September and the neo-conservative approach made “the clash of civilizations” the primary concept of International Relations. Increasing opposition against foreigners and particularly against Muslims in the West also has serious implications in the Netherlands as well as many other countries. On the other hand, the presence of a substantial minority population (more than 17% of total population)[5] makes the situation much more difficult in the Dutch society. Namely, the Netherlands is today face to face with a very difficult situation. Nonetheless, trying to solve all these problems by excluding the “Others” is something very dangerous. Such an attitude escalates the present tension in the society quite dramatically and not only hurts the foreigners of this country but also harms the whole population and damages the core values of the society. The solution of the problem is neither to manipulate the society against different ethnic and religious groups, nor to accuse the Islamic religion due to a single murder, which is committed by an individual. As a matter of fact, the humiliating behaviors of van Gogh did not only destroy the harmony in the centre of multiculturalism, but also prepared a terrible death for him. What is expected from the Netherlands is to bring all the different parts of this multicultural society together in a constructive dialogue, and by this way to maintain the perception of being the centre of multiculturalism and tolerance. Nermin Aydemir
naydemir@usakgundem.com