Roel du Pree

22 years ago today, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh (pictured) was cycling to work in Amsterdam. He never made it because he was assassinated by Mohammed Bouyeri, a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan Muslim man, who was offended by Van Gogh having dared to make a short film that criticised the treatment of women in Islam. Bouyeri shot him multiple times, slit his throat, then pinned a 5 page jihadist manifesto to his chest. The manifesto was primarily a direct death threat against Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the scriptwriter of the short film (‘Submission’). It called her a heretic and an ‘unbelieving fundamentalist’ who would be ‘smashed against the hard diamond of Islam.’ It also threatened Dutch politicians, labelling them under the control of a ‘Jewish cabal’, and called for the death of ‘unbelievers.’ To this day, Ayaan Hirsi Ali still faces persistent death threats and requires ongoing security protection. Throughout this period, rather than standing resolutely with her (and others like her) against the ideology that threatened her life and claimed Theo’s, swathes of the liberal establishment, and almost all so called ‘anti-racist’ and ‘feminist’ progressives, labelled her an ‘Islamophobe’ and, in essence, echoed the censorious dogma espoused by the jihadists. This crime, though not the first, was a harbinger of what was to come. It is not receiving much attention today, but it should. (P.s. Apologies, I accidentally deleted the first version of this post).