I’m afraid to turn on the TV or radio these days. Afraid that I’ll catch the news. This country has some very un-Dutch news nowadays. In fact, we have turned into world news! It’s incredible how one f*cked up fundamentalist can destroy the delicate peace between the ‘religious tribes’ of this country. Tolerance: we’re famous for it around the globe, but it’s a habit sadly fading into the past.
Since Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death as he cycled to work, a wave of arson attacks has targeted at least eight mosques, including one in my hometown! A Muslim school in Eindhoven was badly damaged in a small bomb blast on Monday and another one in Uden was set on fire last night. Graffiti on the last school indicated it was an ‘act of revenge’…
Some Muslims signaled they are ready to strike back. Fire bombs were thrown at two churches in the central Netherlands in the early hours of Tuesday. After the attacks on Muslim buildings, an Islamic group has threatened to strike this country. We had already been the subject of several threats by Islamic extremists due to the presence of 1,300 Dutch troops in Iraq… This time, the statement said: “Stop the attacks on our mosques, schools and the Muslim community in Holland…before you pay a heavy price!”. It is attributed to the Islamic Tawhid Brigades, which claimed responsibility for bombings last month in Egypt. (read more)
I just turned on the radio, hoping to catch a happy song or so to cheer me up. Big mistake. I heard the news about three Dutch police officers have been wounded in an explosion during an anti-terror raid this morning on a house in The Hague. There was a grenade blast and shots were also fired during the raid…
I can’t take this anymore. This is not the country I grew up in… This is not America, or some ‘religiously challenged’ country in the Middle East… I wish I still was that little girl, who woke up in the middle of the night, scared and disoriented and her Mommy told her that it’s all just a bad dream… ‘I don’t think, we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto’.
