Netherlands, Land of Ne'er Do Well

You made me forget myself.
I thought I was someone else,
Someone good.
You just keep me hanging on,
You just keep me hanging on.

You're going to reap just what you sow,
You're going to reap just what you sow,
--Lou Reed

Hirsi Ali, the greatest (refugee) of all time, is being kicked from my old backpacking haunt of the beautiful country of the Netherlands.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the courageous Dutch politician, travels nowhere without protection. When she came to Canada last year to speak out against the adoption here of sharia (Islamic law), she was surrounded by armed guards. Islamic extremists have been threatening her life for years. For much of that time, she has lived in hiding, moving constantly from place to place.

But, in the end, it wasn't the Islamic extremists who drove her out of the Netherlands. It was her own neighbours -- those liberal, tolerant, peaceable Dutch.

[...]

Now all of the Netherlands is in an uproar over the affair. People think the immigration minister was too hasty, and parliament has demanded that she reconsider. The immigration minister is trying to backpedal, and now says Ms. Hirsi Ali is still a citizen after all. Her political career is in ruins.

But even if the Dutch change their minds, Ms. Hirsi Ali is gone for good. She simply can't live freely there any more.

Across Europe, dozens of politicians, journalists and academics are under police protection because of Islamist threats. The infamous Danish cartoonists are lying low, and Flemming Rose, the editor who decided to publish them, is thinking of moving to the United States, too.

Like Ms. Hirsi Ali, he says it's not the extremists who are driving him out. It's Europeans and their governments who are so willing to appease them.

That's right. They have a critical mass of Islamists surrounding the major cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with an awful tendency to kill rather than "promote dialogue".

But where are the Islamists' plane tickets home? If the police have credible threats from Islamists, chances are those Islamists aren't native born Dutch citizens. Where are the deportations of these individuals?

In most OECD/Western countries, the threat of an elected official means the authorities will apprehend the would-be killers saying "We're booting your motherfucking ass out of the country. But not before you spend 20 years in a tiny cell thinking about going home to Crazystan."

What the hell is wrong with Holland? It's so close to being the coolest country on earth, and it has to pull this? What a steaming hot nugget of shit.

I was once told
you get your freedom
by letting your enemy know that
youll do anything to get your freedom
then youll get it
its the only way youll get it
when you get that kind of attitude
theyll label you as a crazy *****
or theyll call you an extremist
or a subversive
or a setatus
or a red or radical
but when you stay radical long enough
and get enough people to like you
youll get your freedom
so dont rum around here
tryin to make friends
with somebody whos deprivin'
you of your rights
they're not your friends
NO.. they ya enemys
and treat them like that
and fight them
and youll get your freedom
and after you get your freedom
your enemy will respect you
--Snoop