Dutch Culture Wars

(Ellen Vroegh's banished painting)

There's a breed of stories coming out in the Dutch press lately with the theme "man, can you believe how backward those Muslims are?!"

Personally, I have my doubts about how accurate these stories are: they are suspiciously well-suited to a readership eager to be outraged by anything un-Dutch done by Muslims.

The most recent is the story (Telegraaf, Dutch) of how the city hall of Huizen removed the painting above because of complaints from "Muslim men."

A week ago, when there was a heat wave, there was a similar story (Telegraaf, Dutch) that said _ or so the story goes _ several Muslim men asked (white) Dutch construction workers not to wear t-shirts and shorts to work. Too revealing.

The foreman "said there was a complaint from Islamic neighbors. They thought our clothes were too naked and too short." The well-muscled men registered the remark (i.e. and didn't act on it).

-Construction worker Robin Willemsen, as quoted by De Telegraaf.

I guess somewhat surprising if true.

The Telegraaf's wording ("well-muscled men") ensured that the basic tone of responses (23 pages worth on the paper's website) would focus on the sexual undertone here: how Muslim immigrant men must feel worried that their women will be led into temptation by the sight of white male flesh.

Yeah, right.

Here are the two basic types of Dutch construction workers:

(flickr: malingering)

(flickr:geoff coupe)

Neither one of them is likely to pull a lot of Muslim chicks.

What if _ and I'm just speculating here _ one of the workers were taking a leak on the site, and that bothered the locals?

What I'm saying is, as surprising as it seems that Muslims were complaining about men in shorts on a hot day, I sure wish I could hear their side of the story, rather than reading a version derived 100% from the perspective of the construction workers.

More deconstruction:



On the removed painting:
Reading other reports fills out the picture a bit.

NOS writes that actually "several female employees also didn't feel comfortable" with the paintings either. But it doesn't mention what religion they were.

De Volkskrant (via ANP?) says there were actually two paintings, and they were moved from the main lobby. More interestingly, a city spokeswoman is quoted as saying complaints came from "a couple of Muslims, as well as people of other spiritual convictons."



I would add that Huizen is a small, politically conservative town where the Dutch Reform Church (Calvinists) is by far the largest.
I wish I could put a number on how many Muslims live there, but I can summarize it thusly: not many.

If this were just a plain old "some people are prude" story, would we even be reading it?

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Burka bans, "Burkini" bans

(photo:geenstijl)
Every several weeks for the past three years or so, the Dutch goverment or a right wing politician has proclaimed the need to ban burkas in the Netherlands.

An estimated 150 women wear them in this country of 16 million.

Anyhow, a side-plot to all this is the debate over the "burkini," which is basically a full body swimsuit.

"Muslim woman Liselotte Buitelaar was evicted from the 'Hanzebad' swimming pool in Zwolle Thursday. She had been swimming for five minutes with her 2 year old son Ilias when the 'bathmasters' came to tell her that there were complaints about her burkini."

-De Stentor

Aside number one: Ilias is an awesome name.

Aside number two: this is EXACTLY what used to be worn by 'western' women to beaches about 100 years ago.



Anyhow, I don't care if people wear gorilla suits in the pool, and it stuns me that people in Zwolle would feel any different. What if this were just a wetsuit? A lot of my friends in California used to wear them when practicing crazy dives into the swimming pool, because apparently it took away some of the sting of belly flopping.

More recently, top competitive swimmers like the Netherlands' own Pieter van den Hoogenband are wearing suits that are not that different.

(VDH nemesis Thorpe)

"Our regular customers found it objectionable," said pool director Hans Meijer. "We have to hold reckoning with that."




Aside one: Should I capitalize "Pool Director?"
Aside two: Is it legal to discriminate on this basis?

Similar cases where restaurant owners tried to ban women with headscarves were blown out of the water.

At least opponents of the burka have rational arguments against it; without going into the merits, those opposed said that it was a risk to public safety to have people whose faces could not be seen riding on public transport.

And the burka was a "symbmol of oppression." But one suspects the opponents really aren't that worried about the plight of Muslim women.

In any case, the burkini was an opportunity for religious Muslims to engage in a part of everyday Dutch life.

But no, management stepped in to block it.

Why? Customers found it "Objectionable" (Dutch: aanstootgevend).

Give me a break.

Meanwhile, 1 million Dutch _ that's out of 16 million men, women and children in the country _ watched Deep Throat, the movie, on Saturday.
Beaches are topless by default, and nude beaches are almost as common.

Whose morals are more funky here, Muslims who want to cover up or Dutch who want to take it off?

And more importantly, what ever happened to the good old Dutch attitude of 'don't bother me and I won't bother you."?
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Stop the Islamization of Europe! And Clowns.

The "Stop the Islamization of Europe" movement got a permit to hold a demonstration on the Dam on Saturday, and journalists outnumbered the demonstrators by a factor of about 5-1.



You see, international media smell a "Danish Cartoon" controversy in the making if right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders' film about the Quran is as explosive as he hopes _ and the Dutch government fears _ it is.

Of course, intrepid pudgy American reporters were on the scene.

On one side of the Dam, the "Stop Islamization"-ists attracted quite a crowd of reporters and police. Here's me trying to understand their point of view:



(looking across police lines)

On the other side, behind a row of horse-mounted police officers, were the people protesting the protesters. This young man's message was clear:

("All Racists Out Of The Country")

Got that straight? Now, the third party in the mix was a bunch of clowns.



To try to give an idea of the layout, I climbed a light post. Unfortunately the clowns had changed location, but I think this still gives a fair overview. I label the participants "Fascists, Leftists and Clowns," just as a kind of shorthand:


More pictures, including hot clown action, after the "More"


This guy was convinced Geert Wilders should go to jail for hate speech. He had kind of a Malcolm X vibe.

Some other objects of interest:

Here's a young woman (I think it was a woman!) wearing a burka. The number of women who actually wear burkas normally in the Netherlands has been estimated at less than 100, so you would be tempted to say, either her presence was an incredible coincidence, or she may have intentionally put it on today to make a point. I remark without further judgment that she was wearing jeans underneath.

Nice photo, no?

Here are some undercover cops. See how seamlessly they blend in?



Here is Ehsan Jami. He said he just happened to be walking by...

He also had a subtle security guard (far left), who looked capable of kicking some fairly major ass if the need arose.

I'd post a clip of Jami talking, but he was speaking Dutch. Also noteworthy: I believe the woman who was interviewing him is Metje Blaak, head of the prostitute's labor union. I have no idea what she was doing with a cameraman and microphone, but I'm curious to find out. She asked Jami a sneaky "one last question" _ namely, whether he had a girlfriend or not. Jami gave a roundabout 'no.'

There were a few heated discussions, but no fights. Except among clowns...


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Ex Muslims

(photo: darkpatator)
Muslims around Europe are launching committees of "Ex-Muslims"
The idea is, they want to demand the right to renounce religion without facing reprisals from other Muslims. This is a sledgehammer to the worldview of people who see Islam as one monolithic block of radicals. Of course there's a huge diversity of opinion within people who live in or immigrate from Muslim-majority countries to the West, because they are a huge number of people. (indiepoprockJesse)

Possibly the most interesting part of the debate in the Netherlands has been about freedom of speech and whether it includes the right to insult. Obviously, freedom of speech has its limits (especially as regards hate speech), but it does include that basic right.

However, people who insult also offend, and (as Christopher Hitchens says) Muslims have proven themselves champions at avenging insults with violence. At least in recent years.

But who in the world DOESN'T get bothered by insults? That's the point of an insult, after all.

Last month, Dutch police sued and WON a suit against a guy who gave them the finger, saying it was illegal to insult an officer because it was damaging to his authority and reputation.
That was an extremely bad ruling, and wouldn't stand up in U.S. courts.

On the other hand, who is so stupid that he gives the finger to a police officer? Anywhere in the world, from Saudi Arabia to the United States to France to Japan, you are asking for trouble when you make an obscene gesture at a cop. You may not have done anything (else) wrong, but you are sure to be punished in some way; in my experience the kind of people who become police officers are often the same kind of people likely to enjoy wielding authority and bullying.

The previous Dutch immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, sued to prevent squatters from hanging a banner that read "Rita Mordenaar" _ which means, "Rita Murderer." Under her regime, a dozen immigrants were burnt to death while awaiting deportation in a hastily built prison. Is that insult not fair comment, especially for a public figure?

The squatters initially lost their case, and were forced to hang banners that read "Rita Molenaar" instead. That means, "Rita Windmiller" But it sounds almost exactly like "Murderer" in Dutch. Only hilarious. Is this really a society where all criticism of public figures has to take place through satire or allegory?

So back to the Muslims. The founder of the Dutch ex-Muslam group, Ehsan Jami, says he's not anti-Islam, but he also says insulting things about the prophet Mohammed _ it's his right. And of course it's also his right not to be attacked on the street.
However, wouldn't he be more likely to win sympathy for his cause among Muslims if he just stuck to the point?
A rival group of Dutch Ex-Muslims (!!) has formed to protest for a less confrontational approach. They announced their formation in an Amsterdam mosque (!!!).
Jami argues there's no need to let Muslims play 'victim' and they should be able to take a few barbs. Nobody was murdered over "Piss Christ" in the U.S.

But again, why intentionally say things that you know are going to offend, when it's not even your primary goal?

I hope Jami lives to be older and wiser. Or that I do.
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Crime and Punishment

Hundreds of Moroccans march in Amsterdam, Jan. 21, 2005, to mourn the death of a young man.

Amsterdam's district attorney has decided to prosecute the woman who, in 2005 _ when the country was turned upside down because of the Van Gogh murder _ chased down a 19-year-old Moroccan guy who stole her purse, and crushed him to death with her car.

The question of whether this was an accident is now for a court to decide.

There's a sad logic to how it all happened: can't we just imagine her seeing red over having some punk grab her purse? What was her day like up until then? What crimes had she been victim of in the past?

And who doesn't sympathize even more with the young man and his family _ he was in the bloom of his youth, probably at a turning point between whether he would get through his delinquent phase and become a productive member of society _ or a career criminal _ and he paid for a petty crime with his life.

They say there's no more traumatic experience a human can have than for a parent to lose a child of that age.

The Guardian version.

I wasn't out snatching purses when I was 19, but I was certainly no angel at age 17. Who knows how this guy would have turned out?

I don't understand the spinelessness of the prosecutors, who have basically said "we're going to charge her with everything from murder on down to reckless driving, and let the judge decide what the penalty is."

They are prosecutors. After two years of investigating, it's insane to just come out with this kind of blanket accusation. Either they think she's done something seriously wrong, or they don't and leave her alone. Choose.

What's unforgettable is the politicians who took advantage of the opportunity to yell from the rooftops that that this was Ali el Bejjati's "Eigen Schuld" _ meaning, his own fault. There were votes to be had that way, no doubt.


I tried contacting her lawyer for a comment, without success. I saw him quoted elsewhere saying that Germaine just wanted to rewind her life to the day before this all happened. I can imagine.

The 'kicker' to this story, by the way, is that after the incident, Germaine C. reportedly went to school to become a driving instructor.


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Halal-Mart

An interesting group of Dutch artists called "Mediamatic" said last week they wanted to create an art project whereby they would do a mockup of "Hema," _ the Dutch equivalent of Macy's _ in Arabic style.
So, in typical corporate fashion, especially Dutch corporate fashion, Hema first freaked out, then started threatening lawsuits, drew a lot of attention to the project, and then (predictably) backed down.

"It is unmistakable that Mediamatic is unjustly trying to hook into the concepts developed by the Hema. This can confuse the public, and is completely unacceptable"
-Hema

I have a dream, and it's that someday, press relations 'professionals' will be forced to attend a class where they will be drilled on such damage control concepts as:

• 'Threatening Lawsuits Will Draw Attention You May Not Want'
• 'When Issuing A Press Release, Include A Contact Person and Phone Number'
• 'Make Sure The Contact Person Is Available Shortly After Your Release is Issued'
• 'Make Sure Your Spokesperson Has Been Prepped on the Topic of the Day'
• 'A Press Relations Officer's Primary Function Is To Communicate With, Not Hinder, The Press'
• 'When a Crisis Strikes, Hiding And Being Unavailable Doesn't Improve The Situation'
• Lying Is Not A Good Option'
  
oh yeah and

• 'Worst Out First'

Not that the above applies to Hema, but their reversal on this was highly predictable. The subtext of their initial panic was a desire to prevent their company being brought into connection with Islam in any way. Not out of prejudice, mind you, just out of mindless corporate fear of anything controversial.

After about three seconds of consideration, Hema might have realized that artists making an exhibit of what a store would look like after being Islamicized clearly falls under freedom of speech rules. If nothing else, it could be considered satire.

But in this case it seems like good old fashioned social criticism...

Another way Hema could have looked at the situation: FREE, HARMLESS PUBLICITY.

Another: Endorsing the project, and engaging in the public dialogue over integration and cultural exchange between different parts of the Dutch populace would not only be the right thing to do, but it might actually enhance the store's reputation.

Mediamatic has some more on the situation here. Their English is a little funky but they do great work...
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