Two arrested in Dutch filmmaker's slaying (Theo Van Gogh)

Two arrested in Dutch filmmaker's slaying
Associated Press

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Authorities have arrested two Chechen citizens in France and the Netherlands in connection with the November slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, prosecutors said today.

One of the suspects was arrested May 18 in Tours, France and was identified under Dutch privacy rules only as Bislan I., 25, prosecution spokesman Rob Meulenbroek said. The second suspect, identified as Marad J., 22, was arrested April 19 in Amsterdam.

Both are believed to have ties to a group of Islamic fundamentalists which prosecutors dubbed the Hofstad network, Meulenbroek said.

A 27-year-old Dutchman, Mohammed Bouyeri, is awaiting trial on a charge of murdering Van Gogh and belonging to the Hofstad network.

Van Gogh was shot and stabbed on an Amsterdam street Nov. 2. The filmmaker was an outspoken critic of the treatment of women under Islam and that was the subject of his last film "Submission." He also wrote a weekly newspaper column and hosted a TV talk show that he sometimes used to provoke and insult religious Muslims, as well as Jews and Christians...cont'd

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3199522

somali immigrant, intellectual, right wing parliament member.

she hates militant fundies more than van gogh did.

even more than i do.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cro1.htm

(Some doubts have also been expressed about the accuracy of her story in general. In the German magazine Der Spiegel she admitted living in Berlin before travelling to the Netherlands.) She studied political science (MA) at Leiden University.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali

A year or so ago, Ms. Hirsi Ali's case might not have attracted so much attention. But the mood in the Netherlands, as in much of Europe, changed after Sept. 11, 2001. In the month that followed, there was an unheard of backlash against the nearly one million Muslims living in the Netherlands, with more than 70 attacks against mosques. Sept. 11 also gave politicians licence to vent brewing animosities.

Among them was Pim Fortuyn, a maverick gay politician who was killed in May, apparently by an animal rights activist. He said out loud what had long been considered racist and politically incorrect — for example, that conservative Muslim clerics were undermining certain Dutch values like acceptance of homosexuality and the equality of men and women.

What Mr. Fortuyn did on the right, Ms. Hirsi Ali has done on the left. Many in the Labor Party, where she worked on immigration issues, were shocked when she told reporters that Mr. Fortuyn was right in calling Islam "backward."
http://www.racematters.org/ayaanhirsiali.htm

In 2001, before the attacks on September 11, imam El Moumni—popular with young Moroccans—condemned homosexuality as a disease and reckoned Europeans to be ‘lower than dogs and pigs’ because they condone homosexuality .<2> His comments, broadcast on national TV, caused outrage. The same period also saw the rise to prominence of Pim Fortuyn and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Fortuyn, flamboyant and openly homosexual, was thrown out of his political party for stating in a newspaper interview that ‘Islam is a backward culture’ (sic.). Hirsi Ali stated that ‘by the standards of our times, Mohammed would be regarded as a perverse man and a pedophile.’<3> The attacks of September 11, and the subsequent fierce and one-sided debates on Islam only exacerbated the already tense atmosphere.
http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=533

Pim Fortyn was a practicing pedophile,
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=1335
who was right miffed about a certain Muslim community keeping him away from their young sons.

So in 1999, Selma Schepel and Pim Fortuyn, the former modestly and the latter strongly, made out a case for a society in which children are no longer considered asexual creatures, and in which pedophiles are also allowed to live without the threat of a hyperactive judicial system and fearful parents excited by the media.
http://www.martijn.org/print.php?id=206072

Ayaan Hirsi Ali continues to campaign against allowing Muslims to immigrate or live peacefully within the Netherlands. And she has yet to clarify her position on pedophilia.

Call me suspicious but the man convicted of the murder of Pim Fortuyn does not, to me, appear to be guilty.
His girfriend and infant son were picked up and detained. It was at this point that he agreed to cooperate with police and sign a confession. The photographs of Pim lying on the ground are photoshopped. The story has many versions, most of them contradictory and incredible.
The death of Theo van Gogh has served only to further the agenda of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the people behind her.
Hmmmm.

pedophile. The links only indicate that he advanced the argument that pedophilia should be accepted under limited circumstances by society (something I personally strongly oppose). Is there any actual evidence that Fortyn has had sexual contact with minors?

I am concerned because your post appears to be an attempt to smear opponents of Islam. Should gay people feel threatened by a religion that teaches that homosexuality is unacceptable?

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But the article from the Liberator that you link only contains the rascally quote about Moroccan boys. This hardly indicates pedophilia to me: many people (gay men and straight women) playfully refer to men as boys.

Your point about Christianity and homosexuality is well-taken; as a gay Episcopalian I do not need to be reminded of what is in the Bible nor what some preachers say. (I believe that careful scholarship shows that the troublesome Biblical verses are either misinterpreted or cannot be expected to apply to modern people -- the Jesus I consider myself to be a follower of taught compassion, charity and peace-making.)

As far as Islam goes, I have always viewed that religion with apprehension, being under the impression that Islam is behind modern Christianity in openness and tolerance. Yet I hope there is a positive answer to the question posed near the end of the Liberator article you link to --

"... he signalled the paradox facing all people whose ideals are libertarism, tolerance and open-mindedness. What are we to do when intolerant, fundamentalist sub-communities take advantage of the freedom open societies offer, and start to threaten freedom and open(-minded)ness? Answering this question will provide perhaps the major challenge for European libertarism during the coming decade."

-- in fact I have Muslim friends (I'm an academic and have had Muslim colleagues for my entire career).

Cheers.

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Meulenbroek said fingerprints of one Chechen suspect were found on a suicide note Bouyeri left and fingerprints of the other were found on a cassette tape Bouyeri recorded shortly before the killing.

"We're looking for an explanation of how those fingerprints came to be there, and also whether this is related to the murder of Van Gogh," Meulenbroek said.

Bislan I. will be extradited to the Netherlands within weeks, Meulenbroek said.

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Quite a ways from their usual prowling grounds.