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18 July 2007
The Dutch Labor Party (PvDa) surrenders to Islam
In an interview with Trouw (www.trouw.nl) reporter Cees van der Laan, Ella Vogelaar, Labor Party minister in the present coalition government, said that Islamic culture is so deeply rooted in Dutch society that in the long run one can talk of a country whose tradition is 'Jewish-Christian-Islam'.
Vogelaar, Minister for 'Living, Districts and Integration', went on to say that she hoped to end the negativity towards and fear of Islam. She wanted to help Muslims feel at home in Holland. She had no problem with the local government giving support, including financial support, to the religious institutions of 'new Dutch people', 'as long as one is subsidising social purposes and not religious activities.' One wonders what the fine distinction is here. Surely you are subsidising religious activities if they are part of the religious institution.
This, van der Laan remarks, is giving an entirely different signal to Muslim groups from that given previously by various political figures. From the Balkenende government in 2002 onwards the message was 'adapting to Dutch norms and values'. Although the minister does not want (contradictorily) to end the obligation to assimilate and learn Dutch, she is speaking now of a 'mutual process' in which the cultures influence and stimulate each other. It's important, she said, that a big group takes root in Dutch society. The minister compared the proposed settlement of Muslims and Islamic culture in Holland with the integration of Jews in Dutch society several centuries ago. 'The Netherlands is a country that has been formed by Jewish-Christian traditions', she said.
This analogy is so weak as to be negligible in the discussion. It is the sort of woolly, inaccurate self-justifying argument that you expect from a person who has lost all sense of her own history and culture. The Jews were a relatively small group with a religion and culture that migrated with them in their travels, a culture and religion that did not conflict with the prevailing political structure and climate in Holland.
There were no Jews prepared to hack off the heads of infidels who insulted Jewish belief. There were no Jews willing to kill innocent women and children in order to advance and establish their cultural framework, to which others would be forced to submit or face death. The Jewish people, already centuries in Europe before groups from Spain and Portugal migrated to Holland, integrated into Dutch society, maintaining their culture and religion. The major reason for this is that Judaism did not conflict dramatically with Christian civilisation, in spite of the cultural antagonism that is grossly exaggerated these days for political purposes.
Judaism cannot be compared with the powerful social, cultural, political, religious framework that occupies a large part of the earth's surface and counts into the millions. Judaism does not compare with a framework that is in many respects incompatible with European civilisation. In brief, Islam could only assimilate through its destruction. This is something that many Muslims realise and is source of the enormous enmity one sees coming from the Islamic world.
Minister Vogelaar and her Dutch supporters are woefully deluded about this. And no doubt this delusion, the delusion essentially of the politically correct class, will be exploited by Muslims.
Minister Vogelaar, barefeet in de El Mohsinin Mosque in Den Haag, during a working visit earlier this year. |
Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com