TX Bull,
And I just got off the phone with Renaat, the friend who called from Amsterdam last week to tell me of Van Gogh's killing.
There was a terrific report on NPR (National Public Radio) the night before last about Moslems in Amsterdam. It seems that in The Netherlands and in France this clash of cultures is posing huge problems. The Dutch want Moslems to assimilate their culture and many Moslems refuse, in fact are educated to be antagonistic toward western culture in general. Renaat and I talked about art, human nature and our mutual friends and I forgot to ask him a bunch of questions I had regarding this issue. Many are equating it with the black civil right's movement in America but I see little, if any similarity.
There's a Moslem woman who is guarded around the clock by Dutch police for speaking out regarding the way Moslem women are being treated in Holland by their families while Islamic Fundamentalists insist they have a right to behave as their culture deems fit. For speaking out against her own people she is receiving perpetual death threats, threats of public beatings and rapes by Moslems living in Holland. She's in constant danger yet persists. It's amazing. And many liberal fundamentalists naively endorse the fight for religions to continue their practices outside the laws of the countries they reside in. They see it as somehow prejudicial to force western ways down the throats of the followers of Islam. Wow. The right of religious practive over human rights. Interrestingly horrifying topic. As I've said before, if I spoke plainly about how I feel I'd be banned from this board.
Hoople