European History : Murder in Amsterdam The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance
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 Murder in Amsterdam
This goes into the situation in Holland preceding and after the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by Mohamad Bouyeri. It profiles Bouyeri, Van Gogh, another murdered Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn and the Somalian woman turned anti-Islam activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
While I support their commitment to free speech Van Gogh and Fortuyn don't seem particuarly heroic to me. The homosexual Fortuyn, who admitted that he enjoyed having sex with "Moroccan boys" before he was killed, only took an anti-immigration stance after seeing gays being hassled by Morrocan youth in Amsterdam. Van Gogh was one of these narcistic attention whore types that could only make himself the center of attention by being obnoxious and offensive. I think Fortuyn only saw the Muslims as a threat to his own personal hedonism and Van Gogh saw them as a threat to his eternal obnoxious infantilism. Neither one were exactly Blood and Soil types. They as well as the author of this book seemed to have a clue as to the real reasons for and who is behind this mass immigration into "the west", seeing it all as some grand accident that was accelerated by naive liberals. They were way too immersed in the Amsterdam scene and their own personal narcissism to see the big picture.
As far as Ayaan Hirsi Ali she comes off as self important and in love with being chauffeured around, pampered and recieving attention. I would imagine she's being funded by some Zionist neo-conservative faction of the new world order. I have no faith whatsoever in any of these right wing anti-Muslim political parties that in some cases have quite a bit of power whether it be Geert Wilders political party in Holland, the Dansk Folk Party in Denmark, the BNP, Le Penn in France, etc. Anti-Muslim sentiment is the one form of racism from white people that is tolerated by the world order as long as they get to control it, it serves their purposes and real root causes of the problem is not named.
This book is good for getting background information and basic history on the situation in Holland but at the end of the day the author and the people profiled in it are more or less clueless. I did learn that the Dutch are possibly more guilt ridden over WW2 than the Germans. Everytime the Dutch would make a step in the right direction or look out for their own self interests the Holocaust and Anne Frank are invoked. So if your white and your not celebrating the death of your culture and race then you must be an evil little Hitler.
An insider-outsider's perspective on immigration tensions in Europe
Ostensibly about the murder of Dutch celebrity Theo van Gogh by Mohammed Bouyeri, this interesting book is really much more. It focuses largely on social tensions the Netherlands, but Buruma is aware of similar issues elsewhere in Europe, and he makes occasional comparisons to the United States.
Buruma uses the van Gogh murder as a lever to pry open several topics. Of course he tells the stories of Theo van Gogh, Mohammed Bouyeri, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, individually and collectively. But he also explores broader questions of national identity, immigration, Dutch politics, and the social meaning of soccer. In fact, Buruma's ability to comment sensibly on soccer, or the social meaning of neighborhoods, really makes the book stand out.
Buruma is a native Dutchman who left as a young adult and became a professor of English in the United States. This gives him both an inside and an outside perspective on the country. I can also report that he writes like a reporter and not like a professor of English, so the book is lively and very readable.
 Complementary readings to this interesting book
There are already many good reviews, so I will only add that, for a better understanding of the Islam/West relationship (neither flattering one side nor biased against the other), I would suggest reading the following works, it is worth it: a) "The Cartoons that shook the world" by Jytte Klausen (as impartial as humanly possible); b)"Muslims in the West: Redefining the Separation of Church & State" by Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh (harsh but well argued); c) "Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think" by John L. Esposito & Dalia Mogahed (the political point of view of 1.3 billion Muslim people today); d) "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (autobiography of a courageous woman); e) "Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes" by Tamim Ansary (a dual perspective); f) "Understanding Jihad" by David Cook (relevant to know what Jihad means); and g) "The West and Islam Religion and Political Thought in World History" by Antony Black (superb comparative history of Western and Muslim political ideas).
Cultural turmoil
This book captured the current turmoil in Europe, which is almost exclusively cultural. It reads like a journal article and the writing flows very well. The research seems fair and honest. Even though their is always bias, this books seems to give the facts of each murder with very little person spin. I found this book very helpful in understanding the underlying tensions throughout Europe as a whole. In the Netherlands specifically it helped me to understand a lot of the anger and division that exists and was a great introduction to the political and cultural turmoil that exists there. I would recommend this to anyone who is living in Europe or travels there often and wants to understand current European tension.
The murder of a hero
The late Pim Fortuyn of Holland was no more an extremist than any other defender of Western democratic and civilized values. He was not anti-semitic, he supported tolerance and he was against Islamic terror, intolerance and barbarism. He was openly gay and proud of it, he naturally saw islam as THE threat against the openness of Western societies, and ever more active and hate-filled Muslims in western countries as an increasing threat - growing by each day.
Islam, as given in the Quran, wishes to make all territories that have a large muslim minority - or better yet majority - part of the Ummah - the Islamic continuum that is ruled by Shariah, in which non-Muslims either obey, or die. You doubt my words? Look at how all Arabic and Muslim states work, not a single democracy, and Christians, Jews and other faiths are constantly being attacked and persecuted. DO YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO LIVE THAT WAY?
Pim Fortuyn was also a great friend of Israel , which is a mark of moral distinction in my book. I believe that one's attitude to Israel is the defining moral issue. Those who are friendly to Israel are good and those hostile to Israel are evil!
Pim Fortuyn was brutally murdered in May , 2002 by a Communist gunman who was sympathetic to Moslem terrorists (the unholy alliance of the far left and Islamic extremists is the greatest threat to a civilized world today.)
Fortuyn's foul murder was preceded by his demonization by the Left in the Netherlands.
Here are some of the late 20th centuries greatest political leaders who where murdered by the Marxist-Islamic Axis of Evil:
Joseph Colombo Snr Italian community leader and leader of Italian-American Civil Rights League, was shot and put into a coma by a Black extremist terrorist at an Italian Unity Day rally in Columbus Circle onJune 28, 1971, died after seven years of living in a vegetative state in 1978.
Emperor Haile Sellasie : Emperor of Ethiopia. Deposed by the Marxist Dergue in 1974 and murdered by them in 1975.
Bashir Gemayel: Lebanese Christian Maronite Leader and briefly President of Lebanon , assassinated by Syrian backed Moslem terrorists in 1982.
Rabbi Meir Kahane: Jewish Nationalist activist , Torah scholar and founder of the Jewish Defence League gunned down by Moslem terrorists in New York in 1990.
Sifiso Nkabinde: democracy activist in South Africa and Secretary General of the United Democratic Movement. Had been demonized by the Marxist ANC and the media. Assasinated by vicious Marxist thugs in January 1999.
Rabbi Benyamin Ze'eev Kahane and Talia Kahane: Jewish Nationalist leader in Israel and his wife. Ambushed and gunned down by Palestinian terrorists in December 2000.
Ahmad Shah Massoud played a leading role in driving the Soviet army out of Afghanistan, earning him the nickname Lion of Panjshir. Many Afghans call him Âmir Sahib-e Shahîd, translating to (Our) Martyred Commander. Assasinated by the Taliban on 9 September 2001.
Rechavam Ze'evi: Former Israeli general , war hero and Minister of Tourism , assasinated in Jerusalem by the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , in October 2001.
Pim Fortuyn: Dutch Liberal political leader , assasinated by a Communist gunman in May 2002.
Jonas Savimbi: freedom fighter , leader of the pro-democracy UNITA in Angola. Assasinated by the Marxist regime of Angola-the MPLA in 2002.
Pierre Gemayel : Christian Phalange leader in Lebanon and key opponent of Syrian occupation of Lebanon and the terrorist-Nazi Hezbollah. Murdered by Hezbollah on 21 November 2006
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