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After Theo Van Gogh's Murder by Thom Morgan  A recent article in The New Republic entitled 'Right Turn' charted the supposed rightward, authoritarian drift of the famously liberal and relaxed Netherlands. Where the Dutch once took a very liberal view of immigration, promoting 'integration, whilst maintaining [cultural] identity', today new questions are being asked, and old boundaries are being redrawn. Tolerance is the touchstone, or rather, the tolerance of intolerance, or more exactly, the Dutch will no longer tolerate those who are intolerant of their famous tolerance. If cultural differences and the of religious fanaticism are the crux of the problem, then the tipping point was the murder of prominent Dutch filmmaker and provocateur par excellence, Theo Van Gogh. By now most are familiar with the details of his death, and likewise the symbolism of said events is impossible to miss. Forgive me the details (both graphic and tragicomic), for they are unavoidably pertinent: On the morning of November 2nd, 2004, Van Gogh was riding his bike to work, when he was shot by Mohammed Bouyeri. As Van Gogh lay bleeding, Bouyeri approached and slit his throat so violently that his head was almost severed. Van Gogh's last words were reportedly "Wait, don't do it! We can still talk about this!" Sadly, his plea fell on deaf ears. A knife pinned a note to his chest; a threatening letter to the Muslim apostate Hirsan Ali that also called for the destruction of Holland, Israel and America. Need a line be drawn? The quintessential Dutchman, riding his bike to work, shot and killed by a religious zealot. Further police investigation confirmed that Bouyeri did not act alone, but rather, a terrorist cell had planned the attack, in line with other attempts to assassinate high profile targets. Van Gogh was yet another victim of a terrorist attack. A disturbing picture of Bouyeri was also emerging; he was primarily influenced by Takfir wal-Hijra, was so extreme that in 1996 they considered assassinating Osama Bin Laden because he wasn't significantly militant. Likewise, they considered the Taliban to be insufficiently fanatical. Again, note the disparity. A free speech loving artist, who went so far as to call himself a free speech fundamentalist, killed by an ideologue whose theocratic mentors were duly unimpressed by the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. Surely then, this would be beyond the pale for the artistic community. The cultural and political (and perhaps even geopolitical) ramifications of Van Gogh's murder have been extensive, and are ongoing. Much has been said about the changing face of Europe and the Netherlands in particular, especially in such a charged political climate. Commentaries from outside the Netherlands have focused on the supposed shift in the political and cultural dynamic of an ostensibly progressive country, whilst some Dutch commentators have suggested that such rhetoric is overblown and unnecessary. Whether such events become the Kulturkampf of 21st century Europe remains to be seen, but at the very least they have been pernicious to the Dutch liberal tradition. However, we are concerned here with artistic, rather than political ramifications. Whilst there is unavoidable overlap between the two, the artistic response has been in some senses more peculiar, and less tied to the political orthodoxy. For those who have had the least to say about Van Gogh's murder, along with those who have said the most unusual things, have come from within the artistic community. Want to read more? Subscribe to POLYSEMY. Click here to preview more articles. ©2006 POLYSEMY. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. |