Gay cultural critic Bruce Bawer writes in a New York Times op-ed
titled
Tolerant Dutch Wrestle With Tolerating Intolerance:
The Dutch had the world's most tolerant, open-minded society, with full sexual equality and same-sex marriage, as well as liberal policies on soft drugs and prostitution; but a large segment of the fast-growing Muslim population kept that society at arm's length, despising its freedoms....
Dutch officials (like their counterparts across the continent) churned out rhetoric about multicultural diversity and mutual respect. By tolerating Muslim intolerance of Western society, was the Netherlands setting itself on a path toward cataclysmic social confrontation?
Belatedly, in the wake of the murder of Theo Van Gogh for making
a film critical of the treatment of women under Islam, some Dutch
liberals are now discovering that perhaps Western Civilization
is worth defending.
More Recent Postings
11/07/04 - 11/13/04