Since February 2009 , this blog and Huib's 3 other Euroblogs are together at:

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Friday, March 17, 2006

Dutch anti-islamic hysteria: The Cross and the Mosque

My colleague Frans Groenendijk from the Dutch city of Utrecht, woke up from his resounding defeat at the city council elections of March 8, to justify his growing obsession with (political) Islam. What happened? An Amsterdam borough council considered the possibility of replacing a 2nd World War commemoration monument in the form of a white cross, with a less prominent Christian symbol.
The hypersensitive majority of the Dutch press saw here at first another bowing to invading islamism, and the usual public outrage of 1 day followed. The next day, it became clear, that the local Muslims had nothing to do with it. The second day, everybody concerned, agreed, that the monument would stand in its former shape. At the request of the Turkish Mosque, first of all!

But, somehow, Groenendijk missed the follow-up to this hoax, so that, today (March 17), he dramatically declares in his first post on his English blog:
Will people wake up now?
And next, he misses completely the point, as he mentions an incident with Moroccan youth of three years ago, that since then, by the vigilance of the local councillors and the local immigrant organisations, has led to an unique common commemoration ceremony by jews and muslims together, last year, and a lasting friendly relationship between local communities.

I replied as follows to the post:

This post shows again, how ignorant and biased you are:
1. The incident with the Moroccan youngsters happened in May 2003. By talking with the perpetrators and showing that Moroccan soldiers fought and died for Holland against the Nazis in 1940, the Amsterdam "Baarsjes" city council managed to have an impressive and worthy war commemoration in May 2004 and 2005. With full and active participation of the Moroccan inhabitants of the neighbourhood.
2. The cross is a Christian symbol, that has survived secularisation, as it got the meaning "death" and "mourning" for everybody, also for non-believers. Among the Jews and Resistance Members commemorated at this specific Amsterdam location, were few Christians. Amsterdam anti-Nazi resistance was mainly Communist and Socialist. Their children and grandchildren (and I happen to be one of them) are not attached to a cross as a commemoration symbol. We only want a monument that honours the struggle of our kinsfolk against fascism and racism. There is no question, that anybody, least of all the local Muslims, would have used the cross as a pretext to do away with the Monument. The necessary renovation of the Monument has been considered as a welcome opportunity to give it another shape, without cross, or with a less prominent cross.
3. You do not mention, that since this affair appeared first in the press, at the request of the organisation of the Turkish Mosque that is being built at the location, everybody has agreed, that the monument will return to it former place and in its old shape, white cross and all.
4. So, please, next time, be better informed, before you start to tell anti-islamic horror stories to an international public.
For Dutch readers, here the complete Amsterdam city press release of March 13, 2006 about the monument hoax:

Kruis komt terug op oude plek

13 maart 2006
Het kruismonument 'Aan hen die vielen' komt terug op de oude plek aan de Baarsjesweg, heeft het Dagelijks Bestuur besloten. Een nieuw vijfde monument in De Baarsjes krijgt een nieuwe plek. De Baarsjes reageert hiermee op de vele verdrietige en boze reacties uit het hele land over het verlies van het kruis.
Monument komt terug
Het kruismonument komt terug als de plek aan de Baarsjesweg in 2008 verbouwd is tot een nieuw plein. Tot het zover is, staat het kruismonument vanaf half maart op het Columbusplein, bij de adoptieschool. Waar het nieuwe extra monument komt, besluit het stadsdeel over anderhalf jaar, na consultatie van bewoners. Het nieuwe vijfde monument voorziet in het gemis aan een symbool, waarin alle herdenkers, ook de nieuwe, zich herkennen kunnen.
Herdenkers gezamenlijk actief
De gemeenschappelijke herdenking is twee jaar geleden begonnen, na de stilteverstoring op 4 mei 2003. Het probleem heeft de verschillende bewonersgroepen, moskeeën en synagoge bij elkaar gebracht, waardoor meer dan tien organisaties actief zijn in het locale 4/5mei comité en waardoor het aantal actief zichtbare herdenkers in De Baarsjes verhoogd is van vijftig naar ruim driehonderd. Scheidend stadsdeelvoorzitter Henk van Waveren: ''De motieven van ons comité 4/5 mei in De Baarsjes zijn volstrekt legitiem. De zoektocht naar een verbindend symbool hoort bij de nieuwe gemeenschappelijke herdenking.
Gemeenschappelijkheid is een kostbare verworvenheid.
Herdenken moet ook in de toekomst levend blijven. Daarnaast houden wij onze klassieke monumenten in stand. Als stadsdeel gaan wij in de toekomst voor vijf monumenten zorgen, in plaats van voor vier.'
4 mei kranslegging
Alle vier huidige monumenten - aan de Baarsjesweg, Postjesweg, Witte de Withstraat en in de kapel Nieuw Vredenburgh krijgen traditioneel op 4 mei kransen en dat blijft zo. Het hele jaar door worden ze verzorgd, schoongemaakt en zo nodig hersteld. Ook dat blijft zo.

Why so much ado about something as ephemeral as this?
Because it has become a trend among Dutch people to show themselves off as victims of an Islamic invasion. A friend of mine, living in the US, met a Dutch national in Dallas, who told everybody, that a majority of radical Islamists was taking over the big Dutch cities. If you did not believe him, you were a "Dhimmi". There exist some interesting psychopathological explanations for this national attitude, but I will not dwell on them now.

The usual reaction of people woken up so rudely, as happens here, from their comforting victim-dreams, is to scold the messenger. That will be me. So I may expect some victimhood for myself here, too.
We, the Dutch, we'll never escape victimhood, neither way....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

(I'll bet you won't post this in full....) Amazing. Unbelievable. Hello???? So we talk about the great "religion" of Islam that is such a "great" "religion" of "peace" and "tolerance". Supposedly that includes "tolerance" of other religions??? Other religious symbols??? (Read the Koran...follow the news...you'll see that tolerance does not quite exist...there's a reason they wanted the cross taken away...and if you read the Koran...you'll realize that reason is not an excess of "tolerance"....) No hysteria here, dear friend. I can read.

If you want to keep up daily with what is going on around the world...mainline newspapers...non "hysterical" news each putting out a small piece of the big puzzle. Check out: http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/

The puzzle is there to be seen...if you want to look. Wilders apologize for criticizing relgion?????!!!!! With that type of "freedom of expression" Luther would fallen just as every other "heretic" did to the Catholic church. Kant??? Hmmm...800 pages to try to prove God doesn't exist...offensive to relgion??? Who cares! WE NOW HAVE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AS A RESULT. (At least up until now.) But you'd just rather get rid of that...I mean, like, people's "feelings" and "psyche" could be hurt if people raise questions about any beliefs!!! OH MY!!!!

Apparently, Islam and the Muslims in Europe, though they've moved to someone else's country, can't tolerate their new country's small marble symbol of people who died horrible deaths due to -- IRONICALLY -- hate, intolerance, lack of freedom of expression, and genocide. And those people who died happened to be Christians...God forbid!!! Apparently, Islam and Muslims in Europe, though they've moved to someone else's country, can't tolerate symbols of one of those many relgions and peoples that it supposedly "tolerates", oh, so well. Even a symbol of the national history, culture, and religion -- of the people of the Netherlands. A symbolic memory of “AAN HEN DIE VIELEN” (THOSE WHO FELL) during the worst case of hate, intolerance, lack of freedom of expression, and genocide ever experienced in Europe...well other than the Islamic invasions and forced conversions in Europe in 700 AD and 1400 AD. What??? So tolerant they kept part of it...and took another part...Cyprus in 1972. So let's reward them. Hmmmmm. I like tolerance.

And so, according to you everyone who finds it IRONIC...that a "religion" of "peace" and "tolerance" can't tolerate a small, 60 year old monument that itself memorializes a rejection of hate, intolerance, forced and self-censorship, and genocide and that ripped apart of continent and country. Sad. Sick. A shame.

Yet you think it's a bunch of "Islamaphobes" who are the only people who care about this???? Get serious...there are very few Islamophobes or any other kinds of "phobes" in the West. Thankfully, there are, however, a few people who -- though open to other peoples -- won't let other people run over us, our history, our culture, our language, yeah, and even our religion. You, me, and our neighbors in the Netherlands and other Western European countries are the ABSOLUTE most OPEN people on the face of this earth. Islamaphobic...ridiculous garbage to stifle the free expression of normal, average, kind, loving, open people...who maybe want a small cross to stand where it always has. Doesn't mean we don't exist...or should pretend we don't exist. Why do you think they're moving here instead of us moving there???? If their culture and religion ARE, in fact, so open...why don't you try to emigrate to their country???? Because you wouldn't find it comfortable...or at least not for very long. Or, if you did stay, you'd have to swallow so many things you didn't like that you'd explode. Oh, and by the way, don't think about bringing your manger set or Christmas tree...and, for sure, leave your Bible at home. That's not allowed there. You could actually go to prison or be punished for that!!! Oh, but they're "tolerant".... Yeah, right.

If Muslims are so "tolerant"??? Let's see it. If they're so concerned about people in their relgion who express hate??? Let's see it. If they're so concerned about that allegedly very "small minority" who are violent and who reject the values of the countries they've come to??? Hey, let's see it. If they embrace the values of Western society...such as freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and freedom of expression???? Let's see it. If they're disgusted by that "very small minority's" bigoted treatment of women????? LET'S SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let's see them fill the streets and get upset about those issues. Fact is they don't. Fact is they won't. And as long as they don't and won't??? They don't even deserve to live in or be in any Western country.

If it's only a "small minority" of extremists...was it that "small minority" in the Morrocan and Turkish communities that wanted the little cross removed??? If so, why did anybody listen to them?? Since when did we start listen to "small minorities" of extremists??? Blogger, your heart is in the right place.... Fight intolerance and discrimination whereever you find it until the day you die. Just make sure you fight A-L-L forms of it. You're so blinded by your own open, trusting, and tolerant culture that you yourself can't even see shades of closed-mindedness, mistrust, and intolerance in any person who doesn't look like you. Somone needs to wake up...I'm thinking maybe it might be you.

Though we should treat individuals of all religions and cultures equally and not discriminate, the truth is all cultures and all don't believe that. And the ones that don't believe that...well, they can't wait to use our rules and institutions to make THEIR world OUR reality. What you're claiming you protect...you're actually doing away with.

Read the below essays and maybe you'll see the point.

http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2007/02/the_perils_of_m.html

and

http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2007/02/blunting_the_se.html

P.S. I'm as liberal as they come...and I too respect people from every religion and background...difference is...I DEMAND the same respect for myself...and I won't censor myself or others...no matter how crazy or offensive any person or their opinions may be...especially not in MY country and as to MY (sometimes painful) history and culture. We FOUGHT and DIED for democracy, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion. So cartoons or plays or MOVIES or writings or a small marble cross that's been standing for sixty years shouldn't really be a problem. But apparently it is....

What's diversity? What's TRUE DIVERSITY? Not Benetton advertising Diversity.... Let's see 15,000,000 Dutch and over 1 Billion Muslims, 1.2 Billion Indians, 1.25 Billion Chinese, nearly 1 Billion Hispanics. Does the world become more diverse or less diverse by filling a small country with a small language of only a few million with people who number in the billions? What about flooding 4.5 Million Danes with peoples who number in the Billions? Norway? Sweden? Canada? Belgium? Iceland? France? Germany? Diversity...yeah, right. I must not understand math too well...and the dictionary on my shelf must not have defined "diversity" correctly. So in Bio-Diversity, where there's a small habitat that has a small population of, say, humming-birds...to create more bio-diversity they fill the small habitat full of, say, blue-jays. Right??? No...they don't???? Oh!!! What's diversity mean again then????

Best wishes. Keep fighting. Just make sure if your going to fight...your fight doesn't do away with the rules and institutions that gave you the right to fight, speak, write, paint, perform, pray, vote, or be an educated female who doesn't believe she needs to be covered up to please God (and every man on the street -- if she can go out unaccompanied by a male) and, oh yeah, and avoid being stoned to death.... Asalamalaikum...the peace of the (murderous, war mongering, child-marrying, wife-stealing) prophet be upon you...get used to hearing that...you won't have a choice in a few years. And if you find that offensive...read the Koran...it's all there...or should we just ignore that and wonder why the "religion" of "peace" and "tolerance" has a problem with murder, war mongering, child-marrying, multiple wives still today??????? Coincidence???? I think not....

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