Name: Theo van Gogh Age: The count stopped at 47 Nationality: Dutch Claim to fame: The enfant terrible of the Dutch film industry
To say that Theo van Gogh’s views were controversial would be putting it too politely, The Dutch filmmaker liked to provoke. A self-described “reactionary”, he caused incensed opinion across the Dutch political spectrum. Notorious for his anti-Islamic views, he delighted in using inflammatory language in his newspaper columns and had been fired from several jobs on that account.
All that came to an end on November 2 when he was shot and stabbed to death in Amsterdam by a 26-year-old man with dual Dutch and Moroccan nationality. The killer was arrested after a gun battle in which both he and a policeman were injured. Van Gogh — whose great-great-grandfather was the brother of the famous painter Vincent van Gogh — had been receiving death threats after his film Submission, about violence against women in Islamic society was aired on Dutch TV in August. The film had caused uproar within the Dutch Muslim minority that makes up fo about six per cent of the country’s population. Van Gogh’s last film Cool, which screened at the Toronto Film Festival, follows the antics of a gang of juvenile delinquents, mostly of Moroccan descent, in a reform school. Van Gogh used the film to explore the problems of ethnic marginalization, lack of opportunity and cultural assimilation. It has been banned in many cinemas in the Netherlands.
Van Gogh had been a close friend of Pim Fortuyn, a right-wing Dutch politician murdered by an animal rights activist in May 2002, and was in post-production on a movie about the flamboyant politician. The film was to argue that the assassination was orchestrated by shadowy figures within the Dutch government and secret service. While it seems apparent that the filmmaker’s murder was the work of a group angered by his hostile views on Islam, there are some suggestions that it could also have been prompted by those who didn’t want him probing too deeply into his friend’s murder.
Netherlands has been tense in the aftermath of his death as there has been an outpour of rage aimed mostly at the country’s Muslim minority. Suspected arsonists burned down a Muslim school in the southern town of Uden where someone had scrawled “Theo rest in peace” on the building. Generally considered Europe’s most liberal society, Netherlands has seen a rise in racial tension and hostility towards foreigners, particularly since September 11, 2001.
The western media, for its part, depicts a highly biased view of Islam and portrays all Muslims as fundamentalists and terrorists. And incidents such as these only increase such perceptions while people like van Gogh are lauded as champions of freedom of expression and free speech. Expression of hatred for Muslims and condemnation of Islam are now considered civil rights in the western world.
Outraged Muslims, on their part, react in violent manners such as this while Muslim leaders, who have it within their power to use more diplomatic means, are not bothered enough to do so.
To say that Theo van Gogh’s views were controversial would be putting it too politely, The Dutch filmmaker liked to provoke. A self-described “reactionary”, he caused incensed opinion across the Dutch political spectrum. Notorious for his anti-Islamic views, he delighted in using inflammatory language in his newspaper columns and had been fired from several jobs on that account.
