Amsterdam On Edge
The news media is working overtime to outdo each other in the cliche department in regards to Van Gogh's death. In describing Amsterdam they 'reveal' "Nothing will be the same", "Dutch Struggle with Tolerating Intolerance", or describe the "Eerie Silence".

Okay, this is not a crossroads for the Dutch or anything of the sort: The sound you hear on a Saturday morning in Amsterdam is the whir of a million bicycles around the city. It isn't an eerie silence and it is definitely not a struggle. This is newspapers selling newspapers. Two years ago after Pym Fortuyn died, the Dutch woke up to the fact that there is a cultural war going on, and this event probably only reinforced this view. The Netherlands are aware of what is going on: it is only the *outside* world that continues to be shocked by this murder. The Dutch know. They know what has gone on in Finsbury Park and the outskirts of Paris. And they know that Turkey's membership looms.

Is this a problem with Islam? No, not necessarily. In countries like the US or Canada, the Muslim communities (as a whole and yes there are exceptions) have been well integrated into society. They aren't marginalized like in Amsterdam or Paris. I cannot say it surprises me that there are serious Algerian terrorist groups operating within France, and why? It is not poverty, as recent surveys and common sense would tell you.

It is political repression. And the muslims on the outskirts of Paris and Amsterdam are marginalized, un policed, un heard and uneducated. They are a permanent, non french speaking underclass that is about as calm as a bomb. They are susceptible to the calls of Imams telling them to live/die for a purpose. Live or die for the one thing they have left.

Disclaimer: this is just what is rattling around in my head today. Feel free to cut it down or tell me I am nuts.

PS: One other thing...this is just a quick aside. I was in a coffee shop in Amsterdam last summer and watched something interesting. Some young arab men came into the shop, laughing and joking with each other- Then they noticed the owner. The owner/bartender of the shop was also Muslim and warmly said "Salem" and other words of greeting to the young men. Immediately, the young arab men stopped laughing and looked down, ashamed.

From what I overheard, they were ashamed to have been 'caught' by another Muslim and secondly, they were more than a little embarrassed to see a Muslim running a Coffee Shop (The little decadent havens that they are).

Not sure what this has to do with my rant above, but it is an observation of Amsterdam last summer.