Surrealism in the Low Countries

In the Netherlands, tensions are rising. Islamists and right-wing extremists seem to have lost their senses and set fire to churches, mosques and islamic schools. At least 25 attempts of arson have been reported. It ressembles a two-side mini-intifada. Dutch Justice and Interior Ministers are calling it a war. And it is. We can go on about what went wrong the last 40 years, but we will have to find a solution. And that is true for all of Western Europe.
Van Gogh was an insulting person, not only to Muslims, but also to Christians, Jews, members of the Dutch Royal House, etc. Justice Minister Donner (CDA) is looking at the current blasphemy laws and wonders whether they should be applied more. I don't think so. Religion is just another expression of meaning. Does that mean I can't say that I think it's ridiculous that Islam sees women as inferior? Because, maybe by saying so, I'm insulting Islam. (Btw, then I can call my whole views a religion and nobody is allowed to insult me anymore.) If we go that direction, and now I quote Dutch Integration Minister Verdonk (VVD), we're giving in to and rewarding Muslims' low threshold for being able to take an insult. Maybe Islamists do form only a small part of Muslim population in Western countries, but bad governance of our governments can result in a general intifada, since Muslim youths (seem to) have no future in our countries. We should set once and for all what is tolerable in a modern society. People that don't want to comply with that, should go to a country where such philosophies are allowed. We think it's barbaric to lapidate a woman for adultery, but if we say so, we are the intolerant ones. Christians are even not allowed to practice their faith in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and the Maldives, while the Saudis are sponsoring the mosques in our countries. There should be mutual respect and that means that if we tolerate mosques in the West, churches (and synogogs, ...) should be allowed on Saudi territory. Even moderate Muslims think general values of life should be different in the Middle East and here, because we are immoral, corrupt infidels and such attitudes cannot be tolerated in the heartland of Islam (see the discussion on Bjørn Stærk's blog.Which ever way you look at it, we'll have a clash of civilizations, if not now, in a few decades.

In the meantime the Belgian Court of Cassation (High Court) has decided to support the decision of Ghent's Court of Appeal about the racist character of the Vlaams Blok. That means the Vlaams Blok had to dissolve itself, in order not to make everybody who cooperates with it liable to punishment. It is unseen in the Western world that a country's biggest party (a quarter of the votes in Flanders - the last poll of Le Soir gave them 26.9%), which never propagated violence, has been outlawed. In order to do this, six laws and a change of constitution had to be voted and a decision of the Brussels Court of Appeal had to be repealed by the High Court. In times like these, it is just surreal to do. Every judicial act, every attack by the establishment has increased the Blok's number of voters. Anyway, the Blok has been dissolved and its successor, Vlaams Belang, was established today.
Ironically, this is exactly what the Vlaams Blok wanted. Thus, their indignation was just a piece of drama. They needed a new party (name) with a new, polished programme in order to become salonfähig in political circles. At the same time, they are telling their loyal voters nothing has changed. But... Now the famous cordon sanitaire doesn't exist anymore and none of the ruling parties in Flanders is about to renew it. The liberal VLD, the Christian Democratic CD&V and the nationalist N-VA will talk to the Vlaams Belang and in 2006, they will be in the governing coalition of some municipalities, most likely including Belgium's biggest city, Antwerp. And now they have their excuse to work together with a party they denounced for more than twenty years, governing Belgium and Flanders incompentently.