Last wednesday Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika was murdered in his hometown in Sweden.
Coincidentally next monday I’ll arrive in Sweden for a family visit. On that very same day a Swedish court will decide if they will continue prosecuting the murdered man for inciting ethnic hatred…
On several occasions he had burned a paper copy of the Quran.
Remember the Jester
It very strongly reminds of another murder and the even more disturbing things that happened the following days and weeks.
November 2, 2004 Theo van Gogh was shot down in Amsterdam and then the murderer attached a five page letter to his chest with a knife. Bouyeri then started slitting van Gogh’s throat and nearly beheaded him, killing him instantly.
The murderer, a young man of Moroccan descent, identified himself as jihadist. In the letter he made death threats against famous Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders.
‘Thou shalt not kill’ deemed offensive
Many deeply worrying things happened, two deserve mentioning here.
The second one was even more omenesque than the first.
On the day of the murder, artist Chris Ripken painted the text ‘Gij zult niet doden‘ (‘Thou shalt not kill’) on the outside of his studio.
His studio was near a mosque that was offended by the text.
Please let that sink in!
‘The police felt that this text had to be removed‘.
Please let that sink in!
People actually videoed the removal. Someone who did not agree stood in front of the panel with the text, after which he was arrested after several admonitions.
Later, someone who had filmed the events was forced by a police officer to delete part of the recordings. Former mayor Opstelten later personally apologized for the latter.
An article about the event was published in the New York Times –mind you!– at the time about the strange way in which freedom of speech is dealt with in the Netherlands..
Later ‘viceroy’ of the Netherlands pleads to fight ‘blasphemy’ more fiercely
Exactly two weeks after the slaughtering of Van Gogh Christian fundamentalist Jan Hein Donner -who at that moment was member of the government (Department of Justice)- ..
‘rejected the gross insult to the deepest convictions of the people. He also pointed to the possibility of dealing with ‘scornful blasphemy‘ by means of criminal law.
He gave some reflections in its annual report 2016 with the -probably intentionally- childish title: The Council in the state.
He was supported by his political party (Christian Democratic Appeal). Another member of the coalition-government -Mrs. Rita Verdonk- strongly protested.
Due to machinations by the board of her party (VVD), she did not become the party leader despite being supported by the majority of ordinary members. The board chose Mark Rutte. The same one who shortly after that became prime minister for many years and is now secretary general of NATO.
The seriousness of the threat could no longer be overestimated
Hundreds of thousands of Dutch people then had their eyes opened to the reality of the Mohammedan doctrine. For some of them, those eyes closed again over the years.
I myself started studying in preparation for writing my first book. In Dutch: Islamophobia? Yes, with a question mark. When it was published in 2020, I still had hope that my book could contribute to the debate in my native country.
Begin 2011 I wrote a text ((in Dutch) about Theo van Gogh, titled ‘Gedenk de nar’: Remember the Jester.
In the evening of that same day was that arson attack on Charlie Hebdo.
Nowadays people are still attacked or even murdered because of those ‘Danish’ cartoons.
Some years ago however A Penny Dropped. An important one.
So now I recently published my book ’49:49′; The Emperor’s old Rags
A book about ‘Abrahamic Religions’. A large part of the book is a mercilessly precise analysis of Mohammedan thought.
BUT there is also an afterword. That afterword – entitled ‘On Monotheism, goddesses and demigods of various kinds’ – takes up about 40% of the book.
The approach of this book is formulated in that afterword too; In the section ‘Believe in gods: an Absolutely Inalienable Right’.
So, although the writer of this book is an atheist, religious and spiritual movements, just like political movements are not one and the same to him. Not even those three ‘monotheistic’ religions, which together are sometimes referred to as ‘Abrahamic’: Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism.
The funding texts of those three do have similarities. Significantly more than many people think. Until just a few years ago the author was one of them. Those are also mercilessly portrayed.
Other religions are also discussed.
Salwan Momika knew he was going to be killed
He sacrifised his life.
In that magnificent movie Gran Torino the hero ensures that a dangerous, racist terrorist gang can be eliminated by sacrificing himself.
He makes a gesture as if he is picking up a gun while he is a real target.
His death and his killers are now well-depicted. Problem solved.
In that movie…
