U.S. Pundit: Netherlands Finally Waking to Radical Islam's Threat
by Chad Groening
March 3, 2005
(AgapePress) - A pro-family activist and former presidential candidate believes the people of the Netherlands have had a real wake-up call about the kind of intolerance that is being promoted by Islamic extremists in their midst.Recently the Dutch Immigration Ministry announced it is moving toward expelling three Muslim clerics accusing of spreading radical Islam at a mosque in the Netherlands. It is the first step the government has taken to deal with extremism in the wake of the murder of Dutch filmmaker and columnist Theo van Gogh, whose 2004 documentary, "Submission," criticized the treatment of women in Islamic culture.
Officials in the Netherlands arrested 13 Muslims on terrorism charges following the murder of the Dutch artist-activist, who was ritually slaughtered -- both stabbed and shot -- in Amsterdam November 2. Van Gogh, who also did work as a television producer, publicist and actor, was allegedly murdered by a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan assassin, apparently in response to the filmmaker's work and public criticisms of Islam.
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Gary Bauer |
Gary Bauer of the group American Values says the international public should not be surprised by the Immigration Ministry's move to expel the three accused Muslim radicals. He feels the Dutch authorities' reaction is understandable, and says, "There's no doubt that if you're in a country like that and you see a major cultural personality murdered in broad daylight on the streets of one of your major cities -- and, literally, this individual is decapitated by an Islamic extremist -- it concentrates the mind."Bauer believes the violent incident has raised an alarm that is still reverberating throughout Netherlands society and beyond, resulting in what he calls "a real wake-up call there" as well as in other parts of Europe. "I think there's been a real awakening among the Dutch people," he observes, "about what kind of cancer may be growing inside of the country with some of these radical imams, and what it is they may be teaching in some of those mosques."
Not long after van Gogh's murder, Dutch politician Geert Wilders was quoted in the media as saying that the Netherlands has been too tolerant to intolerant people for too long and that a mosque used to recruit for jihad is "not a house of prayer, it's a house of war" that, as such, "should be closed down." In reaction, Bauer remarked that it is unfortunate it required the horrific slaughter of the filmmaker by a suspected extremist to "enlighten" the European Union's progressive leadership about the danger posed by radical Islam.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a news reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
