| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
The Dutch Get Religion--Radical Islamic Style
“I know definitely that you, Oh America, will go down. I
know definitely that you, Oh Europe, will go down. I know
definitely that you, Oh Netherlands, will go down.” --- Excerpt
from a five-page letter of protest that was found spiked with a
large knife to the body of slain filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who
had made the mistake of being critical of Islam’s mistreatment
of women in a short film.
And Islamic jihad continues to spread like a contagion, even
to the tiny, inoffensive, tolerant and welcoming country of the
Netherlands. The murder of van Gogh a couple of months ago
by an Islamic extremist seems to have been the tipping point
that brought out local yokels to commit dozens of acts of arson
against mosques and Islamic schools. Very unbecoming of the
normally good-natured Dutch, but when people feel their way
of life being threatened by unassimilable outsiders with a
grudge against modernity and a taste for murder, they
sometimes get a bit nasty.
A few weeks after the van Gogh murder, a plot was
uncovered that involved a planned attack on Amsterdam’s
famed Red Light District. Muslim extremists who were
allegedly involved were said to be furious at the lack of morals
in the prostitution zone. No surprise there, the place being a
regular Fornication-A-Go-Go. On the other hand, how the
jihadists justify fornicating with virgins in paradise--and as a
reward for mass murder, no less--tends to make one question
their logical consistency.
Be that as it may, things have gone downhill so fast in the
small country that some Dutch politicians are saying things
like, “The jihad has come and . . . I hope the Netherlands will
now move beyond denial and do what is fitting in a democracy--
take action.” No one should be glad about these developments
in the Netherlands, but there is a delicious irony for the much
maligned Bush administration and its supporters who have
been in favor of aggressively fighting, rather than appeasing,
terrorists.
You may recall that ever since about 9/12, the far left, both
here and abroad, has been harping that 9/11 was America’s own
fault, that there had to be some logical reason why the
terrorists hated us, that we must have done something pretty
bad to drive them to such extremes. Even though history, as
well as the present day, is chock full of examples of irrational
hatreds by and between various groups, the far left, in its usual
open-minded way, has insisted that in this particular case the
hatred against America absolutely, positively has to be one
hundred percent justified, period, no argument, end of story.
In their minds it all stems from the fact that America isn’t
progressive enough, but is instead a vast, uncivilized outback
of red states sandwiched between two enlightened coasts, a
cultural and intellectual swamp where people drive around in
pickup trucks, drink domestic beer, worship nonexistent
supernatural beings and vote into office right-wing
warmongers who never fail to promulgate disastrous policies
both for America and the world.
The far left believes that if we want to avoid antagonizing
terrorists and bringing ruin upon ourselves and the rest of the
civilized world, then what we ought to be more like is . . .well,
Canada, for instance, our peaceful, unassuming neighbor to the
north. Or Sweden, perhaps. Or, if they could really have their
druthers, the Netherlands.
Now there’s a country to die for. With legalized drugs,
prostitution, same-sex marriage and euthanasia, it’s a regular
feel-good paradise where everybody is free to pretty much do
their own thing and society isn’t into laying judgment trips on
people.
Other pluses: there’s no military-industrial complex to
speak of, no meddling in the affairs of sovereign Middle Eastern
nations, and no overt support for the intolerable Jewish state
of Israel, which is the bane of every good Muslim’s existence
from Marrakech to Malaysia.
The Netherlands is, in effect, the perfect little geopolitical
laboratory of unbridled liberalism to test whether or not such a
society could steer itself clear of ever giving radical Islamic
terrorists an excuse for striking it. Well, a not-so-funny thing
happened on the way to utopian bliss and insularity. The jihad
arrived anyway.
But how can this be in what is perceived by some to be such
a near perfect society? A couple of reasons swoop right off the
top of the head. First, the Dutch--however liberal, peaceful and
non-meddling--are infidels just like any other non-Muslims
and that’s a strike against them. Second, radical Muslims view
the Netherlands’ liberalism and its libertine lack of morality as
a one-way ticket to hell, which isn’t exactly conducive to their
tolerance of it.
So, when a radical Muslim finds himself in a country where
every carnal sin that is condemned by Islam is not only
condoned but even commercialized, is it any wonder if he
commences to engaging in jihadic operations?
Any notion that Islamic terrorists only attack those
countries which have done something grievous to them should
now be blown to hell by events in the Netherlands. The notion
will still fly in places like Hollywood and the halls of Eastern
academia, which breed people like Michael Moore and the
college professor who wished for “a million Mogadishus,” but it
won’t fly in the vast flyover zone that exists between the two
coasts. For red state Americans, the beliefs of the coasts are
toast.
Whether you’re an unrestrained hyperpower like the United
States, or whether you’re just a small, unassuming liberal
outpost like the Netherlands, it’s all the same to Muslim
extremists. You’re all infidels and for that, you all deserve to
die.
“I know definitely that you, Oh America, will go down. I
know definitely that you, Oh Europe, will go down. I know
definitely that you, Oh Netherlands, will go down.” --- Excerpt
from a five-page letter of protest that was found spiked with a
large knife to the body of slain filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who
had made the mistake of being critical of Islam’s mistreatment
of women in a short film.
And Islamic jihad continues to spread like a contagion, even
to the tiny, inoffensive, tolerant and welcoming country of the
Netherlands. The murder of van Gogh a couple of months ago
by an Islamic extremist seems to have been the tipping point
that brought out local yokels to commit dozens of acts of arson
against mosques and Islamic schools. Very unbecoming of the
normally good-natured Dutch, but when people feel their way
of life being threatened by unassimilable outsiders with a
grudge against modernity and a taste for murder, they
sometimes get a bit nasty.
A few weeks after the van Gogh murder, a plot was
uncovered that involved a planned attack on Amsterdam’s
famed Red Light District. Muslim extremists who were
allegedly involved were said to be furious at the lack of morals
in the prostitution zone. No surprise there, the place being a
regular Fornication-A-Go-Go. On the other hand, how the
jihadists justify fornicating with virgins in paradise--and as a
reward for mass murder, no less--tends to make one question
their logical consistency.
Be that as it may, things have gone downhill so fast in the
small country that some Dutch politicians are saying things
like, “The jihad has come and . . . I hope the Netherlands will
now move beyond denial and do what is fitting in a democracy--
take action.” No one should be glad about these developments
in the Netherlands, but there is a delicious irony for the much
maligned Bush administration and its supporters who have
been in favor of aggressively fighting, rather than appeasing,
terrorists.
You may recall that ever since about 9/12, the far left, both
here and abroad, has been harping that 9/11 was America’s own
fault, that there had to be some logical reason why the
terrorists hated us, that we must have done something pretty
bad to drive them to such extremes. Even though history, as
well as the present day, is chock full of examples of irrational
hatreds by and between various groups, the far left, in its usual
open-minded way, has insisted that in this particular case the
hatred against America absolutely, positively has to be one
hundred percent justified, period, no argument, end of story.
In their minds it all stems from the fact that America isn’t
progressive enough, but is instead a vast, uncivilized outback
of red states sandwiched between two enlightened coasts, a
cultural and intellectual swamp where people drive around in
pickup trucks, drink domestic beer, worship nonexistent
supernatural beings and vote into office right-wing
warmongers who never fail to promulgate disastrous policies
both for America and the world.
The far left believes that if we want to avoid antagonizing
terrorists and bringing ruin upon ourselves and the rest of the
civilized world, then what we ought to be more like is . . .well,
Canada, for instance, our peaceful, unassuming neighbor to the
north. Or Sweden, perhaps. Or, if they could really have their
druthers, the Netherlands.
Now there’s a country to die for. With legalized drugs,
prostitution, same-sex marriage and euthanasia, it’s a regular
feel-good paradise where everybody is free to pretty much do
their own thing and society isn’t into laying judgment trips on
people.
Other pluses: there’s no military-industrial complex to
speak of, no meddling in the affairs of sovereign Middle Eastern
nations, and no overt support for the intolerable Jewish state
of Israel, which is the bane of every good Muslim’s existence
from Marrakech to Malaysia.
The Netherlands is, in effect, the perfect little geopolitical
laboratory of unbridled liberalism to test whether or not such a
society could steer itself clear of ever giving radical Islamic
terrorists an excuse for striking it. Well, a not-so-funny thing
happened on the way to utopian bliss and insularity. The jihad
arrived anyway.
But how can this be in what is perceived by some to be such
a near perfect society? A couple of reasons swoop right off the
top of the head. First, the Dutch--however liberal, peaceful and
non-meddling--are infidels just like any other non-Muslims
and that’s a strike against them. Second, radical Muslims view
the Netherlands’ liberalism and its libertine lack of morality as
a one-way ticket to hell, which isn’t exactly conducive to their
tolerance of it.
So, when a radical Muslim finds himself in a country where
every carnal sin that is condemned by Islam is not only
condoned but even commercialized, is it any wonder if he
commences to engaging in jihadic operations?
Any notion that Islamic terrorists only attack those
countries which have done something grievous to them should
now be blown to hell by events in the Netherlands. The notion
will still fly in places like Hollywood and the halls of Eastern
academia, which breed people like Michael Moore and the
college professor who wished for “a million Mogadishus,” but it
won’t fly in the vast flyover zone that exists between the two
coasts. For red state Americans, the beliefs of the coasts are
toast.
Whether you’re an unrestrained hyperpower like the United
States, or whether you’re just a small, unassuming liberal
outpost like the Netherlands, it’s all the same to Muslim
extremists. You’re all infidels and for that, you all deserve to
die.