BCITORGB wrote:

Wilko: thank you very much for your insight into what happened in
holland. horrible as it was, i audibly laughed when i read "People like
Theo van Gogh, who used openly hostile remarks towards muslims, like
calling them
"goat-****ers" ". while there is, of course, nothing to laugh at in the
statement i found myself thinking -- and i mean no offense to you --
that the dutch language does not lend itself well to subtlety and
nuance. dutch must be the most direct, honest language around.

Dunno about honest, too many politicians speak Dutch, you know, but the
Dutch do have long standing a reputation for being direct and to the
point. Might have something to do with the trader's mentality and living
so close together with so many people that you need to let off steam
without being worried about the other person bashing your head in, I think.

like you say "which IMHO is more disturbing than the so called
anti-islamic violence rising, is that the openness of our society has
changed." this, too, is the impression i got. however, reports of these
things in the media tend to concentrate on the sensational rather than
the background.

As is the case with most news, I think that it's about the drawing of
viewers rather than reporting what is really important to most people.

when we talked about the future of denmark, she expressed only
one concern: radical islam! she was not concerned about the fact that
they were either arabs or persians. even though she was an atheist, she
did not mind the islamic faith in moderation. but what she saw, and
what she abhorred was the growing militancy of the radical muslim
refugees/immigrants.

That's been an issue here as well, although the scale at which it's
happening is not so big. Considering the percentages, that's actually a
very small minority.

wilko says:
===========
Because muslims are tolerated and left to do what they as long as they
bother no-one, we expect them to respect others and not try to force
their beliefs onto others as well. Alas, a few of them fail to
understand that.
===========

alas, i fear that is the problem with radical fundamentalists: they
don't know when they've pushed far enough. they fail to understand that
tolerance has it's limits. they fail to see that the line in the sand
is the very tolerance that gives them their liberty. by all mean, "do
your own thing", but don't think you can define what "my thing" is!

It's just a pity that those (religious) fanatics have a way of pushing
people from the moderate center into the extreme, forcing them to admit
colour, even if the people don't want to chose. For me the particular
religion doesn't matter so much, as long as it's advocating using force
to further its own goals it's pretty much a threat to most people, in my
view.

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilko(a t)dse(d o t)nl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://wilko.webzone.ru/