EFL
TWO leading Dutch politicians known for their critical views of Islam have been taken to safe houses by police after receiving death threats after the murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh.
Mr Van Gogh, the great great grandnephew of Vincent van Gogh, was shot and stabbed in a "ritual killing" in broad daylight in an Amsterdam street on Tuesday. His throat was slit with a butcher's knife, and a five-page letter was pinned to his chest with another knife.
The police announced that they would prosecute Mr Van Gogh's suspected killer, a 26-year-old Dutch-born man of Moroccan origin, named Mohammed B., under antiterrorism laws, recognising the killing as the first recent terrorist attack on Dutch soil. Police have arrested eight other Islamic radicals over the killing, and have connected it with the terrorist bombing in Casablanca.
Whotta surprise!
It was the second murder of a public figure critical of Islam in the Netherlands, two-years after the anti-immigration populist Pym Fortuyn was shot by a left-wing activist.
Dutch leaders who have received death threats since the murder include Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee and former Muslim who made a film with Mr Van Gogh criticising the Koran for sanctioning domestic violence; Geert Wilders, a right-wing populist opposed to Turkey joining the EU; Rita Verdonk, the Immigration Minister; and Job Cohen, Amsterdam's mayor. Ms Hirsi Ali and Mr Wilders have both been taken to safe houses.
Dutch newspapers reported that police are worried that the threats — by telephone calls and e-mails — were evidence of a co-ordinated attempt by Islamic radicals to target politicians seen as "enemies of Islam".
Now that just might have given the pols enough of a scare to do something, when you have to be hidden in safe houses.. |