The alleged killer of notorious Muslim critic and Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh wanted an Islamic theocracy in place of the Dutch government, and was part of a group of "like-minded fanatics" aiming for holy war. This from prosecutors as Mohammed Bouyeri's trial opened yesterday. The AP report ads:
He and 12 others face separate charges in connection with an alleged plot to kill politicians and for allegedly belonging to a terrorist group known as the 'Hofstad' network.
Bouyeri's personal story is more than that of a reportedly wild-eyed ideologue, as noted in the Ian Buruma New Yorker article on the Van Gogh case, which I linked to in this post titled, "God Killed Theo Van Gogh." He might've turned out differently. But this report today nonetheless indicates Bouyeri started skidding off the tracks at least several years ago. He was sented to 12 weeks in jail in 2001 for assaulting police officers with a knife.
Meanwhile, a planned Sunday showing of Van Gogh's last film has been yanked from the Rotterdam Film Festival, where it was to be the centerpiece of a debate of free speech.
Submission Part One is a ten-minute film about a Muslim woman forced into an arranged marriage where she is beaten by her husband, raped by her uncle and finally accused of adultery. Explaining the decision to withdraw it, the film's producer Gijs van de Westelaken said: "We do not want to take any chance of endangering anyone else who participated in the film."
A Somali-born Dutch woman lawmaker and female genital mutilation victim named Ayaan Hirsi Ali with Van Gogh co-wrote "Submission," a previous film about cruelty to women under Islam. That work is what reportedly got him killed by Bouyeri. Hirsan Ali fled the country to an undisclosed location after Van Gogh's assassination, but has returned from hiding for the current session of parliament. She is under tight security.
Hirsi Ali is now calling for several other high-profile Dutch politicians who have also been previously targeted to join her in formulating a policy against Islamic extremism.
Brave woman. I hope she's not next.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 27, 2005 09:16 AM
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One by one, European countries will wake up to the meaningless violence of Islamo-fascism. After they run the course of blaming the US and Bush for their problems, they will start taking action ... one can only hope, anyway.
Posted by: Iguana at January 27, 2005 09:11 PMDead on, Iguana. And I think that's beginning to happen in Holland, France and England. As well, there IS actually some reportage, in those countries and globally, on all this.
One just must ferret it out, which of course, ANYONE can do now on a daily basis, thanks to Google News.
What's given short shrift in a local daily paper is (almost) always still out there for bloggers to find other links to, and prioritize on their own sites.
Which brings to mind the name of one Iranian blogger's blog, a name which says a lot about blogging, to me, "Editor: Myself."
As a professional freelance newspaper and magazine writer, I'm thankful for the wise counsel of the editors to whom I report. Seriously.
But there's also a lot to be said for laying out your own daily news tip sheet accompanied by your own editorial perspective, via your blog.
It seems as if weekly, Technorati's count of current blogs tracked grows. What is it now, 8 million-plus?
8 million plus? Good Lord, man! That many people shouldn't have THAT much time .... it will be interesting to see where it all settles.
Posted by: DeadManVoting (aka Iguana) at January 28, 2005 06:36 PM