Kneeling in the sodden, charred remains of the primary school, Hari Boukameans took a Stanley knife to a melted computer. He twisted and he gouged -- trying to recover the hard drive, hoping to salvage a little bit of the precious Dutch culture of live and let live from the flames of hatred that consumed his workplace. The Moroccan gave up. He slumped in the smelly, black mass of ashes. "This is really evil," he groaned. Spray painting a white cross and White Power slogans on to the grey brick walls of the Muslim school the previous night, Dutch racists had set the place ablaze. The fire gutted the school and traumatised this comfortable town of 40 000 in the middle of the Netherlands. "We never used to have problems here. Now everything is destroyed," said the computer engineer as teachers embraced in tears and strangers arrived from neighbouring towns bearing flowers and cards.Uden is in mourning for the loss of its only Islamic school. And the Netherlands is in mourning for the loss of its innocence and optimism after the murder by a Moroccan Islamist of the film-maker and Muslim-baiter Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam 10 days ago. "Normally you see this sort of thing on the television, from Amsterdam or from a foreign country," said Jacques Bonnier (39), a financial adviser in the town. "Now it's come to your own town and to your own life. What comes next?"
When thousands assembled to grieve for Van Gogh in Amsterdam this week, they pleaded to no one in particular: "Give us back our old Holland." But Boukameans fears that the old Netherlands he has enjoyed for 31 years lies buried among the cinders of Uden, where 120 Muslim under-12s no longer have a school to go to. "These fires and attacks are revenge for the murder of Van Gogh," said Stefaan, an 18-year-old student. "Ordinary people are looking for revenge, educated people are saying that's not the way we do things here. We prefer to make deals. But times are changing. It's a kind of war."