Comparing headlines - and versions of reality
To give you some idea of the divisions in this country, let me compare two newspapers' front pages. The Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool this Saturday led with the headline "
Local politicians threatened". The story notes: "Ever more provincial and local politicians are threatened and now consider stepping down. Their addresses are spread over the Internet. The threats come from extreme right circles, but also from individuals disappointed in politics." Commisioner of the Queen Harry Borghouts (formerly Green Left) is quoted as saying: "Ultra-right rats are creeping from their sewers and trying to create a feeding ground of hatred" and pleading for a "tough and effective" government response. Officials "in most cases" don't register the threats with the police because "they don't want to throw oil to the fire", the party chairs of the regional Christian-Democrat CDA and right-wing liberal VVD note.
Above the story is a photo referring to another story: "Human chain around islamic school", noting how students of the islamic primary school that was set on fire in Eindhoven formed a human chain around it with parents and neighbours, as a symbol of their solidarity and disapproval.
The national daily the Telegraaf, however, which doesn't carry the story of the burnt Helden mosque at all, has a different frontpage story. "
MUSLIMS SHOULDN'T WHINE", it calls out, citing Minister of Integration Verdonk (VVD), whose argument in a TV programme last night "comes down to" saying that "muslims in the Netherlands need to learn how to put up with stuff and stop taking on a victim role whenever they are criticized." The muslim community should stop saying "Terrible, but we can't do anything about it" [every time something happens], Verdonk is quoted as saying. She also said that previous governments have been much too naïve and soft and as a result now "people are living in the Netherlands without investing in this country."
(The VVD made waves a year or so ago when it wanted to punish immigrants who sent money back home, "investing" in their country of origin "instead of here" - a sign of failing integration, in its view. Others noted the irony of the VVD proposing this, since the VVD generally represents the interests of small and big business and investors, many of whom, of course, habitually invest their capital abroad.)
Christian-Democratic and liberal government parties clash: freedom of expression vs. respect for religion
The Verdonk quotes are notable because they signal a serious division, for the first time, within the government itself. The last two or three years the Christian-Democrat CDA and the right-wing liberal VVD have agreed on almost everything, from far-reaching market reforms to a strict line on asylum-seekers. But the aftermath of the murder of van Gogh has apparently uncovered a nerve.
I already observed in
this post how, in the shadow of the wider outrage over the murder and the panic over the arrival of Jihad, a debate was started about "common decency" and how much you
can actually say, how far one should be allowed to go, in general - with an incipient alliance of christians and socialdemocrats cautiously suggesting that the last few years may have been all too rampant.
Well, this weekend CDA Minister of Justice Hein Donner has unleashed a conflict around exactly this point when he announced, on Saturday's CDA Congress, that his ministry will research whether it can more quickly launch judicial proceedings against blasphemy and the insulting of religious groups. This way, it can be judicially determined what can and can not be said about religion. "You can not insult people into the depth of their [religious] convictions," Donner anticipated, "insulting someone to the bone is something else than discussing things." He proposed to revive a 1934 law originally drafted to protect the Jewish community, which makes it punishable to practice "humiliating blasphemy" that is hurtful to someone's religious feelings. "Blasphemy and the insulting of groups has gone too far in the Netherlands," he submitted.
Donner's point was underscored by PM Balkenende (also Christian-Democrat), who yesterday visited a mosque in Eindhoven and on Saturday at the party congress appealed to all Dutchmen - and especially fellow-politicians, opinion leaders and critics "who in the media have the loudest voice" - to deal with their freedom of expression in a responsible way and think twice before insulting others: "We have to realise that words can injure too".
It was this point that the VVD, in the person of Ms. Verdonk, reacted to so fiercely. It would only lower the resilience [the capacity to put up with things] of Muslims, she said, and "that can not be the goal": "If [Donner] wants to do something about insults on the basis of religion, then he should also do something about other basic rights. Think about the subordination of women and gays in the muslim world".
New political faultlines?
Verdonk was joined in protest by prominent stand-up comedian Hans Teeuwen, who said Donner's remarks "could almost be seen as a prostration before Mohammed B." Together with other comedians [who in Holland have a degree of societal prestige] and friends of Theo van Gogh, he has now drafted a petition that raises a list of questions against the idea, such as "Who actually went too far here?" and "Why make a difference between religion and other convictions?". In the left-leaning Volkskrant, jurist and columnist Afshin Ellian also calls the idea questionable, "both from a political and judicial perspective."
The political faultline that is hesitantly emerging here is very interesting, by the way. The Democrats, the small (and militantly secular) left-liberal party that's a junior partner in the government, joined its right-wing brethren of the VVD in summarily dismissing Donner's idea. But Wouter Bos of the opposition Labour Party's declared his agreement. Instead of the normal left-right polarisation, we thus see a only partially overlapping opposition between individualist liberals (who are sometimes blamed for the loudmouth gimme gimme culture of the last decade) on the one hand and the communitarian "old" parties of the center (who are sometimes blamed for covering up all problems in a swamp of consensus, letting it fester on) on the other.
(Dunno what the Green Left's position is
its nonconformist tradition means it's usually had little up with notions of respect for religion or authority or self-restraint, but as the most prolific proponent of intercultural respect the tables might be turned now ..).
Communities try to recover - with mixed results
On the bright side
in the Hague neighbourhood that was cordoned off with the arrests last week, de Volkskrant reports, the neighbourhood's Turkish Muslim congregation invited their Dutch neighbours to celebrate Suikerfeest with them. Unfortunately only 1 Dutchman came, though 32 at least took the trouble of calling off
the same happened in the neighbouring Schilderswijk, where only 3 Dutch neighbours came. More successful however was the initiative of the mosque here in the Utrecht neighbourhood of Zuilen, which was the victim of an arson attack last week and in response decided to hold an "open day", inviting everyone from tehe neighbourhood. Over 300 people came, writes the Utrecht Nieuwsblad, to drink tea, be shown around, discuss and sign a petition that said "Don't let threats lead to division or hatred. Show that Zuilen is a community."
In another Utrecht neighbourhood, Hoograven, the islamic community distributed five thousand leaflets to condemn the murder of Theo van Gogh on the occasion of the end of the Ramadan, citing the Koran to argue its condemnation. The leaflet was drafted by the imam with local Muslim youths, and will be the basis for a neighbourhood meeting organised together with the neighbourhood's churches and the residents' association.
Looming self-censorship?
Ally Derks, director of the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (the largest in the world, will take place this month) meanwhile announced that the festival will pay attention to the topic of "looming self-censorship". It's a wider theme in our small society where directors are dependent on subsidies from the various public broadcasters and therefore tend to only make movies they think one or the other of them will like - it means we "don't have" someone like Michael Moore: "Not anymore. The only one who could have done it, is dead. I think it's become impossible to make a critical film about Islam. You run the risk as filmmaker of getting your throat cut off. It's become a dangerous subject."
