They're screwed. A single example illustrates the problem.
Chris Ripke is a well-known artist in the city. His studio is near a mosque in Insuindestraat. Shocked in 2004 by the murder of director Theo Van Gogh by an Dutch Islamist, Chris decided to paint an angel on wall of his studio and the biblical commandment "Gij zult niet doden," thou shalt not kill. His neighbors at the mosque found the words "offensive," and called the mayor of Rotterdam at the time, the liberal Ivo Opstelten. The mayor ordered the police to erase the painting, because it was "racist." Wim Nottroth, a television journalist, camped out on the spot in protest. The police arrested him, and his film was destroyed. Ephimenco did the same in his own window: "I put up a big white sheet with the biblical commandment. Photographers came, and the radio. If you can no longer write 'do not kill' in this country, then you are saying that we are all in prison. It is like apartheid, whites living with whites and blacks with blacks. There is a great chill. Islamism wants to change the structure of the country." For Ephimenco, part of the problem is the de-Christianization of society. "When I arrived here, during the 1960's, religion was dying, a unique event in Europe, a collective de-Christianization. Then the Muslims brought religion back to the center of social life. Aided by the anti-Christian elite."Civilization arises from married families. They pay the taxes, raise the productive members of the next generation and provide stability for society. Whatever its warts, Islam has married families. The secular Dutch have this:
Live it up, boys and girls. Your time is running out.
I'm not sure where you're going with this one. I think the original article was about intolerance, but you seem to be saying that intolerance is OK since they're breeding.
ReplyDeleteIs your point that an intolerant religion is better than no religion at all, or that the Dutch screwed up by letting a "good" religion get replaced by a "bad" religion?
Here's the point. Tolerance and secularism has led to an intolerant subculture overtaking the tolerant one. Demographics is destiny. If you read the article, the Moslems are a majority already in parts of the country. That's a trend that is continuing, not stopping. The Dutch may not know what it means to be Dutch, but Moslems sure know what it means to be Moslem.
ReplyDeleteThe secular, multicultural left is waking up to the fact that they've committed slow-motion suicide. While you want to use scare quotes to mock the notion that there is such a thing as value differences between religions, the Dutch are finding out that such differences do indeed exist.