Dutch film maker killed

[Guest guest]

Tuesday November 2, 07:48 PM

 

Theo Van Gogh was murdered today in the Netherlands in

retaliation for a film he made depicting the low status of women

in Moslem countries and the physical and mental abuse that

they experience. He made the film with a woman who

renounced her Islamic faith because of Islam's poor treatment of

women. Both of the filmmakers had received numerous death

threats and had police protection. Van Gogh had only recently

dispensed with his police protection because he mistakenly did

not believe the death threats. Details are below.

 

 

Controversial Dutch filmmaker shot dead

 

By Paul Gallagher and Marcel Michelson

 

 

 

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A controversial Dutch filmmaker

accused by Muslims of ridiculing their religion has been stabbed

and shot dead on his bicycle, shocking the Netherlands where

the murder was denounced as an attack on free speech.

 

Theo van Gogh, a distant relative of 19th century Dutch painter

Vincent van Gogh, stirred controversy with newspaper articles,

books and films voicing his contentious views on Islam after the

September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

 

 

Van Gogh, 47, was attacked near a park close to the centre of the

Dutch capital in the morning on his way to work in what could be

the second political killing in the country in two years after

anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn was shot.

 

Police arrested a man near the scene after an exchange of

gunfire in which the suspect wounded a police officer. The

suspect, who was wounded in the leg, was a 26-year-old man

with dual Dutch and Moroccan citizenship.

 

Police said the murder was clearly premeditated.

 

A note was found at the scene and, Dutch media said, it

contained lines from the Koran, the Muslim holy book.

 

Van Gogh, who branded imams women-haters and ridiculed the

Prophet Mohammad in his newspaper columns, was hailed as

a champion of free speech by some Dutch but others called him

an extremist, while Muslims said they found his work insulting.

 

He had received death threats but had rejected protection after a

recent television programme, called Submission, about

domestic violence in some Muslim marriages.

 

"Van Gogh was someone who joined the public debate with

outspoken views. He was a champion of free speech. The

Netherlands is a country in which people can speak their mind.

We must all stand for that," said Prime Minister Jan Peter

Balkenende, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

 

Security for politicians was stepped up after the killing of Fortuyn

by an animal rights activist ahead of a May 2002 election in

which his party took second place.

 

The Netherlands is home to nearly one million Muslims or 5.5

percent of the population.

 

NOISY DEMONSTRATION

 

Several thousand people demonstrated on Amsterdam's central

Dam square and railway drivers were urged to honk their horns

to protest the murder.

 

People banged on drums, pots and pans and blew whistles for

some 15 minutes, with some participants holding up signs

saying "Muslims against Violence".

 

Abdou Menebhi, of the Amsterdam Moroccan council, urged his

co-religionists to obey a minute of silence in the mosque in the

evening during regular Ramadan holy month prayers.

 

The UMAH association of Moroccan-Dutch academics said they

did not share Van Gogh's opinions but condemned his murder.

 

Police in the Hague, seat of the Dutch government, arrested

several people who had been shouting anti-immigrant slogans.

 

Immigration, integration and Islam are burning issues in the

Netherlands where outspoken parliamentarians such as Geert

Wilders, an opponent of Turkish EU membership, have received

death threats.

 

"In this country, nobody can be killed because of what he says,

that is not what we want," Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk told

the crowd.