Dutch film maker and rights campaigner murdered by fascist
stop religious fascism | 02.11.2004 15:21
Dutch film maker and free speech campaigner who drew attention to the brutalisation of Islamic women murdered by neo-nazi.
A Dutch filmmaker who had received death threats after releasing a movie criticizing the treatment of women under Islam was slain in Amsterdam on Tuesday, police said.
A suspect, a 26-year-old man with dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality, was arrested after a shootout with officers that left him wounded, police said.
Dutch national broadcaster NOS and other media reported that Van Gogh's killer shot and stabbed his victim and left a note on his body. NOS said witnesses described the attacker as having an "Arab appearance."
A witness who lives in the neighborhood heard six shots, and saw the man concealing a gun. She said he walked away slowly, spoke to someone at the edge of the park, and then ran.
"He was walking slowly, like he was trying to be cool," she said, describing him as wearing a long beard and Islamic garb. "He was either an Arabic man or someone disguised as a Muslim," she said.
Another witness told Dutch Radio 1 the killer arrived by bicycle and shot Van Gogh as he got out of a car. "He fell backward on the bicycle path and just laid there. The shooter stayed next to him and waited. Waited to make sure he was dead."
The slain filmmaker was the great grandson of the brother of famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, who was also named Theo. In a recent radio interview, Van Gogh dismissed the threats and called the movie "the best protection I could have. It's not something I worry about."
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called on the Dutch people to remain calm.
"Nothing is known about the motive," he said in a written statement. "I want to call on everyone not to jump to far-reaching conclusions. The facts must first be carefully weighed so let's allow the investigators to do their jobs."
Balkenende praised Van Gogh as a proponent of free speech who had "outspoken opinions."
"It would be unacceptable if a difference of opinion led to this brutal murder," he said.
Police spokesman Eric Vermeulen said the attacker fled to the nearby East Park, and was arrested after exchanging gunfire with police. Both the suspect and a policeman suffered minor injuries.
"They were conscious" when taken to hospital, Vermeulen said.
In addition to his film, van Gogh also wrote columns about Islam that were published on his Web site, www.theovangogh.nl, and Dutch newspaper Metro.
The short television film "Submission" aired on Dutch television in August, enraged the Muslim community in the Netherlands.
It told the fictional story of a Muslim woman forced into a violent marriage, raped by a relative and brutally punished for adultery.
The English-language film was scripted by a right-wing politician who years ago renounced the Islamic faith of her birth and now refers to herself as an "ex-Muslim."
Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a member of the Dutch parliament, has repeatedly outraged fellow Muslims by criticizing Islamic customs and the failure of Muslim families to adopt Dutch ways.
A suspect, a 26-year-old man with dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality, was arrested after a shootout with officers that left him wounded, police said.
Dutch national broadcaster NOS and other media reported that Van Gogh's killer shot and stabbed his victim and left a note on his body. NOS said witnesses described the attacker as having an "Arab appearance."
A witness who lives in the neighborhood heard six shots, and saw the man concealing a gun. She said he walked away slowly, spoke to someone at the edge of the park, and then ran.
"He was walking slowly, like he was trying to be cool," she said, describing him as wearing a long beard and Islamic garb. "He was either an Arabic man or someone disguised as a Muslim," she said.
Another witness told Dutch Radio 1 the killer arrived by bicycle and shot Van Gogh as he got out of a car. "He fell backward on the bicycle path and just laid there. The shooter stayed next to him and waited. Waited to make sure he was dead."
The slain filmmaker was the great grandson of the brother of famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, who was also named Theo. In a recent radio interview, Van Gogh dismissed the threats and called the movie "the best protection I could have. It's not something I worry about."
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called on the Dutch people to remain calm.
"Nothing is known about the motive," he said in a written statement. "I want to call on everyone not to jump to far-reaching conclusions. The facts must first be carefully weighed so let's allow the investigators to do their jobs."
Balkenende praised Van Gogh as a proponent of free speech who had "outspoken opinions."
"It would be unacceptable if a difference of opinion led to this brutal murder," he said.
Police spokesman Eric Vermeulen said the attacker fled to the nearby East Park, and was arrested after exchanging gunfire with police. Both the suspect and a policeman suffered minor injuries.
"They were conscious" when taken to hospital, Vermeulen said.
In addition to his film, van Gogh also wrote columns about Islam that were published on his Web site, www.theovangogh.nl, and Dutch newspaper Metro.
The short television film "Submission" aired on Dutch television in August, enraged the Muslim community in the Netherlands.
It told the fictional story of a Muslim woman forced into a violent marriage, raped by a relative and brutally punished for adultery.
The English-language film was scripted by a right-wing politician who years ago renounced the Islamic faith of her birth and now refers to herself as an "ex-Muslim."
Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a member of the Dutch parliament, has repeatedly outraged fellow Muslims by criticizing Islamic customs and the failure of Muslim families to adopt Dutch ways.
stop religious fascism
Comments
Hide the following 7 comments
Fits in nicely with current media trends ..
02.11.2004 17:30
Not a good time to be a muslim perhaps ..was there ever a good time ?
Etruscan
fascist?
02.11.2004 19:33
As for saying that the killer is a neo-nazi or fascist, this seems to me to be drawing conclusions before anything is actually known about him apart from his age and nationality.
jen
does art allows inhumanity!¿¿
02.11.2004 22:31
freedom of speech fair enought..
but when provocation is made for pure porpouse of self affirmation ?asnti islamic in all aspects not only for brutaly of women de clytorization...₧ welll... i woulkd call him,,ior i would had called him dçannuzio server of the power to get yourself a piece of the shit,innit¡¡
lotta people in amsterdam think he was an asshole ....its was a victim of violence perpetuating it..... ´
thats wher we r trying to stand out,,, no spit which party is this or the other ..they were both of extreme cases of power trips...
mari
Theo van Gogh and Aymaan Hirsa Ali
03.11.2004 00:14
Aymaan Hirsa Ali is not right wing, as it states in the article. She is a liberal politician and former refugee.
A Muslim neo-nazi committed this crime. He wanted everyone to know that he acts as a stormtrooper of his sickening, bastardised perversion of Islam. The majority of Muslims in Holland are expressing outrage.
While the rest of the world remains fixated on the U.S. elections, the Dutch were plunged into a drama of their own on Tuesday with what appeared to be the second politically-related murder to hit the Netherlands in two years. The enfant terrible of Dutch TV personality Theo van Gogh was shot dead while riding his cycle in Amsterdam around 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
Like the right-wing Dutch political leader Pim Fortuyn who was assassinated in 2002, van Gogh, 47, was a harsh critic of Islam. Although the motive for van Gogh's death is not yet known, there is growing consensus that he was killed because of these views. A 26-year-old Amsterdammer with dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality has been arrested in connection with the murder. The name has not yet been released.
Van Gogh received several death threats since making the controversial film Submission, which depicted the text of the Koran on the naked flesh of young Muslim women. The film, shown on Dutch TV in September, was made in collaboration with the Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has been receiving police protection since its release. The film was directed and personally financed (€18,000) by van Gogh, the great-great-nephew of the painter Vincent van Gogh. His latest project was a film about the murder of Fortuyn, entitled 06/05, a reference to 9/11.
The Muslim community in Holland, almost one million in a total population of 16 million, has reacted with shock and anger at the attack as has rest of the nation.
Ayham Tonca chairman of the Dutch Muslim umbrella organization says: "It's unbelievable and unacceptable that something like this can happen in Holland again." He says Dutch society as a whole must bear the responsibility for the increasing polarization that has taken place in Holland since 9/11. "This was a tolerant, multicultural country but things have changed. It's become 'us and them' and extremists from both sides throw accusations at each other. But only a sick individual can do this sort of thing [commit murder]."
Bou
There are innumerable films exposing domestic violence in those contexts!
04.11.2004 00:06
None of the directors of the numerous films about domestic violence in non BME cultures have been shot and stabbed to death by white supremacists or male chauvinists.
Secondly, domestic violence is not socially acceptable in British or Dutch culture. It still goes on, but it isn't ignored and there are many good people fighting to ensure it will never be acceptable again. Domestic violence is not explicitly approved and encouraged by the state as it is in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iran, to name a few.
When making films about domestic violence perpetrated by white Christian men is routine, why does one single film about domestic violence perpetrated by men of Arab Muslim origin result in a DEATH SENTENCE?
cineaste
films and life
04.11.2004 01:09
secondly, domestic violence may be not socially acceptable in "westwern culture"....... BUT STILL GOES ON IN INCREASING FIGURES DAY BY DAY. point
when making films on a deliberated biased focus charging an universal problem over "the other side", you are not making art, you are making only propaganda
and of course is wrong and unaceptable shot and kill the oponents
.....hummmm ....
unless you dressed in camouflage denim and have a "joint venture" with a regular army ? dnt,u?
pim rembrandt
pim rembrandt
Theo van Gogh: his views; and after
08.11.2004 18:30
Theo van Gogh: his views; and after
Freedom of speech - 08.11.2004 17:48
Theo van Gogh, murdered in Amsterdam. Was he a hero, anti-Semite, misogynist, or Islamophobe? To find out, we have to look at his own words, translated for English speakers. What will be the consequences of this murder?
nn
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