Do Dutch academics really believe that quelling the truth will make a problem go away? Sweeping the dirt under the rug, not only doesn't get rid of it, but eventually brings on the maggots. 

The Netherlands, a country that prides itself as a bastion of European Liberalism, is now abrogating those very basic rights historical Liberalism worked so hard to achieve. The intellectual elite of the New Liberalism adjudicates only to itself the right to decide what is best, and what is to be considered as politically correct truth... facts be damned! What a shame that anything can be twisted, anything can be masked just to buy some time... What fools!   

Freedom isn't just the right to do as one pleases, freedom carries responsibility and maintaining freedom is a never ending job.

I find that it is quite ironic that many in Europe are seemingly doomed to repeat one of the ugliest eras of their history, even while they are riddled with guilt because of it.

Who, out there can explain this?  It is such a mystery to me.

Paul,

Your article is eye-opening, even after reading Bruce Bawer's book.  Bawer didn't tell us the half of it -- or maybe things are just getting worse by the week.  Reports like yours always jar two responses in my mind:  1) Now I know why American researchers have dominated the sciences for the past two generations.  We have an academic culture that respects a relatively free exchange of ideas. And 2) I grow more convinced every day that Europe is headed for civil war.  If the academic, journalistic, "religious," and governmental elites continue to dampen honest dissent, the masses will eventually turn to fascists or other bullies for guidance because their ugly rhetoric at least seems to reflect reality.  A fascist vs. Islamofascist fued seems inevitable.  And to whoever put the American Independence Day greeting on the top of the site, thank you -- that means more than you can know.  But I must admit that, as an American, I am committed to spending the remainder of my days fighting against any suggestion that the United States must come to Europe's rescue when the civil war begins.  It pains me to say this, but all the natural goodwill I would otherwise feel for fellow democratic citizens has been killed off since 1989.  How the European elites managed to do that is an amazing accomplishment.

@ Rudi

As you can see, it didn't take long before another intolerant character showed up.  This time it is a character called 'Miriam'. He/she comments on things he/she doesn't understand.  Like borrowing from the IMF, for instance.  And he/she likes to make gratuitous insults, like referring to Pakistan as "Fakistan". 

While it is true that some of the world's most "vicious terrorists" can be found in "Pakistan-occupied Kashmir", it is ludicrous to refer to Kashmir as "stolen from the Indians".  Things over there are a little bit more complicated than that.  It seems one can find 'Zhenghe-types on both sides of an issue. 

It is somewhat shameful that the brits had a hand in the messy quagmire of Iraq, India, and Israel. They left a whole lot of unifinished business and now Gordon Brown wants to dump dollars on African corrupt dictators all over again.

The only other bottomless money pit that I can think of, is Fakistan and Afghanistan. ...Instead of donating money for the quake in Gujarat and later Tsunami, Indians got almost no money from Int'l community. In fact, Colin Powell made them borrow money from IMF/WB in the most cruel and wicked manner.

If the regime change had taken place in Fakistan, we 'd all be happy. Balochi tribals within might have been freed from slavery, so the residents in Baltistan near Kashmir.

Did you know that the quake in Fakistan was in the territory originally stolen from the Indians? Yes, it is called PoK - Pakistan Occupied Kashmir!!! It is the abode of most vicious terrorists and yet we are pouring close to $15 on these shady characters. How sad.

@ rudi

I am well aware of Herman De Ley's intolerant 'Eurabian' tendencies at the (State) University of Ghent.  But even on this forum do the same intolerancies show up.  After all, Mr Trevino has expressed a desire of "barring" the parroting 'Zhenghi'.   I am not saying that there is here any moral equivalency, not even remotely.  But, clearly, 'barring and censuring' is not the way to go, if we want to avoid the unfree fate that is the lot of most moslems outside the west today.   And Mr Trevino lives in San Francisco.  I know that is one of America's most 'nutty' and leftist cities, but at least they have the First Amendment over there.   He should know better than that.      

@ Zhenghe

You can't be serious!  As if I didn't know that Assad is "secular".  I talked about Syria, not its Alawite government?  And I don't think that human rights were/are better protected under the secular likes of Saddam and Assad than under the 'islamic' likes of the Taliban or the Sudanese government or the coming Somali government, etc...  We are talking here about existing 'islamic cultures', not about the labels. I suggest you visit Sudan to get a grip on reality.

And, of course, in your warped worldview "the whole region was screwed up by European colonialists"!!  Let's take the example of Syria.  How long exactly were the 'barbaric' British colonialists there?  Thirty years, or was it forty?   And how long were the muslim turkish Ottomans there?  Two hundred years, or was it three hundred, or ....?   Hey, the Britisch were much longer in India than in Syria, and India is today the world's largest democracy.   How convenient it must be to always blame someone else for 'own faults'.   

The world does not consist of bad secularists and good 'muslims'.   People can call themselves what they want.  For me, 'muslims' are what muslims DO, and the same applies to other people as well.

Thus, the real division in the world is between 'democrats' and 'totalitarians'.  The former respect the rights of every INDIVIDUAL and tolerate differences, and the latter do not.   It just so happens to be that there are an awful lot among the 'totalitarians' who call themselves "muslim", irrespective of whether they live under a "secular" or an "islamic" tyranical government.  Now, why would that be so?    

@marcfrans
The Syrian government is largely secular, and few Muslims admire it very much. Remember that the whole region was screwed up by European colonialists, and due to reasons both internal and external, it's taking an awful long time to readjust.

@ Juan
It's not anti-semitic at all. First of all, the Arabs are Semites too. Second of all, I don't see the theft of Palestine as having much to do with Judaism, which in many ways is a fine religion. I see it as just another case of Europeans ethnically cleansing places of their indigenous populations and stealing the land, as they did in all of North America and South America, in many parts of Africa, and more recently in Bosnia. There are many jews both secular and orthodox who agree with this point of view-- are you saying they too are anti-Semitic?

@ Golblado

Indeed, 'Zhenghe' knows how to parrot "crap", of which a lot can be found today in the media of course.   At the time of the founding of (modern) Israel, and besides the "European zionists", there were (marginally) more jewish refugees from islamic countries streaming INTO Israel than arab refugees streaming OUT of Israel.  In those days the latter were not yet called "Palestinians" (after all they had been 'Jordanians and Egyptians' under Ottoman and British rule before).   

As to his notions about the relative "protection of jewish minorities" in European versus Arab countries, one wonders on which planet he has been living over the last half century.  It is true that there are still a few thousand jews left in non-arab Iran, and a handful of jews in some arab countries, under appropriate 'dhimmi' status of course.  But, these people have no genuine civil and human rights, and the same can be said of most arabs in most arab countries.  For instance, what exactly are the de facto legal protections of any 'citizen', say, in Syria?  In fact the only people with genuine "protected status" from governmental whimsy in the Middle East are the citizens of Israel (including the arab Israeli citizens). 

One shudders to think what must lie ahead, when there is so much misinformation floating around, and when many people seem to be incapable of observing the real world around them as it is.

ZhengHe's notion of "the theft of Palestine" grows out the very anti-semitism he is trying to hide.

Talk like that is merely demonisation.

But, please feel free to talk your talk. The more points of view are expressed, surely the harder it will be for governments to prohibit the expression of points of view.

Actually, the Muslim world has a far better track record of protecting its Jewish minorities than Europe does. There is currently some (wrongful) anti-Jewish sentiment in some parts of the Muslim world (just like Europe has its skinheads and Islamophobes), but this is politically motivated, having to do with the theft of Palestine by European Zionists (mostly atheistic Jews), rather than religion.

While my old friend Joshua will insist that the "West" as he defines it has gotten past such hatred, the fact is that it has simply shifted its focus from its hatred of one Semitic group (the Jews) to the hatred of another one (the Arabs). Joshua himself is a prime example of this, as he writes he long-winded (but rarely read) Islamophobic diatrabes in the vain hope that someone will actually take him seriously...

Anyone doubting the extent to which the Nazi heritage of anti-Semitism has been internalized in the Muslim world need only look to the evidence: the revival of Koranic rhetoric about the inhumanity of Jews; the bestseller status of Mein Kampf in the Arab world; or the broadcast of an updated Protocols of the Elders of Zion on Egyptian television.

For my part, I've seen it firsthand -- here and here; are photos I took of anti-Semitic literature openly for sale in Amman, Jordan, in winter 2004. Suffice it to say we've not seen this paraphenalia in the mainstream of the West since the Third Reich.