Wednesday, October 25, 2006
New book: Murder In Amsterdam
I have just begun Ian Buruma's book, Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance
It was the coolness of his manner, the composure of a person who knew precisely what he was doing, that struck those who say Mohammed Bouyeri, a twenty-six-year-old Moroccan-Dutchman in a gray raincoat and prayer hat, blast the filmmaker Theo van Gogh off his bicycle on a dreary morning in Amsterdam. He shot him calmly in the stomach, and after the victim had staggered to the other wide of the street, shot him several more times, pulled out a curved machete, and cut his throat -- 'as thou slashing a tire," according to one witness.
Leaving the machete planted firmly in Van Gogh's chest, he then pulled a smaller knife from a bag, scribbled something on a piece of paper, folded the letter neatly, and pinned it to the body with thi second knife.
Van Gogh, a short fat man with blond curls, was dressed in his usual T-shirt and suspenders. Most people in Holland who watch TV or read the papers would have been familiar with this ubiquitous figure, known less for his films than for his provocative statements on radio and television, in newspaper and Internet columns, and in various courts of law, about everything from the alleged exploitation of the Holocaust by Jewish celebrities to the dangerous presence of a Muslim "fifth column" operating in Dutch society. He lay on his back, his hands stretched above his head, two knives sticking out from his chest, slaughtered like a sacrificial animal. Bouyeri gave the corpse a few hard kicks and walked away, without hurry, easy as could be, as though he had done northing more dramatic than fillet a fish.
Still calm, he made no serious attempt to escape. While he reloaded his gun, a woman who happened by screamed: "You can't do that!" "Yes, I can," Bouyeri replied, before strolling into a nearby park with several patrol cars rushing to the scene, "and now you know what you people can expect in the future." A shootout began. One bullet struck a policeman in his bulletproof vest. Another hit a passer-by in the leg. But then Bouyeri caught a police bullet in his own leg and was arrested. This was not part of the plan. Bouyeri had wanted to die as a martyr to his faith. We know this from statements he made later, and from the letter on Van Gogh's chest.
Later, after having been convicted of this crime, Bouyeri explained himself:
Mohammed Bouyeri also turned to Van Gogh's mother, Anneke, in court and told her: "I don't feel your pain."
"I can't feel for you because I think you're a nonbeliever," he said.
Bouyeri, 27, faces life imprisonment in the Nov. 2 killing of Van Gogh, who was found shot and stabbed. He has not mounted a defense.
"I did it out of conviction," Bouyeri said. "If I ever get free, I would do it again."
I imagine I will learn a lot about the Bouyeri case from Ian Buruma's new book, but I already know this: the criminal justice system, which depends on deterrance as its foundation, will not deter the jihadis and it will rarely interdict them.
6 Comments:
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Thu Oct 26, 03:06:00 AM:
According to a recent survey in China, 100 million citizens in the country suffer from mental illness. The same is probably true in the Muslim world. This killer is just one more nutcase.
By skipsailing, at
Thu Oct 26, 02:01:00 PM:
I am not persuaded by the insanity plea on behalf of muslims.
We are routinely subjected to outrages perpetrated by these "insane" muslims and I strongly doubt the validity of their claims.
The two recent killing sprees here in the states were both pertpetrated by Muslims both of whom subsequently claimed insanity.
If the chinese were shooting their version of alahu akbar as they flew planes into our buildings I would be more inclined to your position. I don't think this is individual insanity, I think it is a culture of death.
Sadly, this is absolutely true:
...I already know this: the criminal justice system, which depends on deterrance as its foundation, will not deter the jihadis and it will rarely interdict them.
By Jason Pappas, at
Thu Oct 26, 04:11:00 PM:
The sad thing is that he wasn’t a nut … he was devout. His example.
By Dawnfire82, at
Thu Oct 26, 09:25:00 PM:
Insanity my ass. This type of behavior is little different from kamikazes diving their planes into warships, or soldiers fighting to the death at the Alamo. They believe in a cause and are willing to die. Many are even eager, thanks to their religion telling them how they will be rewarded for doing so, and show visible and audible disappointment if they survive.
You can't deter someone who is eager to die with death, and you sure as hell can't do it by threatening to put them in prison where they get fed, clothed, and access to cable television to live out their pious days to Allah's embrace.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Thu Oct 26, 09:56:00 PM:
Meanwhile, the perennial tendency of college students to move to something new continues. The hip new thing among Muslim college students in Cairo, the cultural capital of the Arab world, is to say you're "not religious." The number of students who decided not to fast during Ramadan this year was noticeable.
By 
, at
Thu Oct 26, 11:08:00 PM:
There is only one thing to do with such a good Muslim: Bury him alive wrapped in pig skin.
