The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance

[randy_byers]

Good review in Salon by Matt Steinglass of a new book by the Dutch writer Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance, about the murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh by the native-born son of Morrocan immigrants in 2004. The review does a nice job of giving a pocket view of the various issues raised in the book and in particular of highlighting a few of the interesting people the book talks about, from Theo Van Gogh himself, 'whose public persona was that of a fat, abusive, witty, politically incorrect buffoon, equal parts Johnny Knoxville and Michael Moore, the self-proclaimed "dorpsgek" ("village idiot") of the Netherlands,' to Pim Fortuyn, 'a bespoke-suited, flamboyantly gay university professor in a chauffeured Bentley who used the anti-Muslim card to upend the Dutch political landscape in two short years, becoming a favorite for prime minister before himself being assassinated, in 2002, by an environmental extremist,' and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 'a brilliant and stunningly beautiful Somali from a prominent political family who fled to Holland to escape a forced marriage, learned perfect Dutch, joined the left-wing Labor Party to advocate for abused Muslim women immigrants, and by 2002 was a Member of Parliament and rising star in the conservative free-market Liberal Party.'

Quite an interesting brief portrait of modern Holland and all its contradictions, not least the confrontation between Dutch "gezellig" or "nice" and immigrant Muslim alienation. I hadn't realized until I read this review that Ali was forced out of the country this spring and now lives in the US.