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| Dutch challenged on free speech |
Jan 31 2005
PARIS Can angry young Muslims dictate what is and is not
acceptable in the traditionally open-minded world of Dutch arts? In the
past few weeks, it appears, the answer has been yes.
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The main film festival in the Netherlands, now going on in Rotterdam,
canceled a short documentary denouncing violence against Muslim women
that was made by Theo van Gogh, who was killed in early November. An Islamic
militant is accused of the crime.
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The film's producer said he pulled the film on the advice of the police
after receiving threats.
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At about the same time, a Moroccan-Dutch painter went into hiding after
a show of his work opened on Jan. 15 at a modern art museum in Amsterdam.
The museum director said the painter, Rachid Ben Ali, had received death
threats linked to his satirical work critical of violence by Islamic militants.
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The two incidents have reinforced fears among many Dutch that fast-growing
non-Western immigration is having a negative impact on social attitudes
in the Netherlands. Newspaper columnists and members of Parliament have
warned in recent days that if people capitulated to intimidation, they
would only encourage Islamic militants. Some have pointed to the recent
events as signs that militants are trying to impose their agenda and are
undermining free speech in the Netherlands. A few people have quietly
asked if self-censorship might be acceptable to keep the social peace.
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"It would be very regrettable if we had to start accepting self-censorship,
if we could not show this kind of protest art," John Frieze, the
curator of Ben Ali's show at the Cobra Museum, said. "We've been
pleased with the show, not only because the work is good, but also because
it generated much debate with young Muslims attacking and defending it."
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The exhibition, part of a series of cultural events called "Morocco-Netherlands
2005," was opened by a prominent Moroccan-born politician in Amsterdam,
the alderman Ahmed Aboutaleb, who delivered a strong plea for freedom
of expression. But in a sign of the times, Aboutaleb was accompanied by
bodyguards and has had police protection since he received death threats
from Islamic militants.
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In Amsterdam, a city known for its ebullient cultural life, local people
say that threats to painters have not been heard since the occupation
by the Nazis during World War II.
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The Cobra Museum said it had no intention of removing any of Ben Ali's
work, about 40 recent paintings and drawings. The artist, who had been
criticized earlier by some Dutch-Moroccans for homosexual themes in his
work, has now apparently infuriated his critics with angry sketches that
include suicide bombers and what he calls "hate-imams," evil-looking
preachers, vomiting excrement and another spitting bombs.
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Since the opening of the show, the artist has stayed away from his home
and his workshop. "He has been very overwhelmed by the threats and
the controversy," Frieze, the museum curator, said. "His work
is very topical and controversial, but that is part of the nature of modern
art and we mustn't shy away from it."
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In Rotterdam, where the annual film festival devoted to young, independent
filmmakers opened this week, the anger over the withdrawal of the van
Gogh film continued. The film, titled "Submission," used words
of the Koran written on the back, stomach and legs of partly dressed women
to denounce women's oppression in the name of the Koran. It provoked widespread
Muslim anger when it was televised last fall.
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The author of the documentary, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a member of Parliament
who was already under police protection, was sped out of the country on
government orders. But van Gogh, who directed it, declined protection
and ignored threats against him. He was shot and killed on an Amsterdam
street, and his throat was slit.
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Mohammed Bouyeri has been charged with murder in the killing. The police
say he left a letter on his victim, listing others who would be targets.
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The Rotterdam film festival intended to show "Submission" as
part of a panel discussion Sunday called "Film-making in an Age of
Turbulence," involving filmmakers who had suffered censorship in
Russia, Indonesia and Serbia.
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But the producer, Gijs van de Westelaken of Column Films, said in an interview
that he had withdrawn the film because he did not want "to take the
slightest risk for anyone of our team."
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"Does this mean I'm yielding to terror?" he said. "Yes.
But I'm not a politician or an antiterrorist police officer, I'm a film
producer." The people behind the killing of van Gogh, he said, had
already achieved what they wanted, "to frighten the country."
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The withdrawal of the film has set off many reactions, among them a letter
from several members of Parliament to the mayor of Rotterdam asking him
to intervene. The producer said that the mayor had called him, but that
he was sticking by his decision.
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"This is not a freedom of speech issue," he said. "The
film has been shown on television, fragments have been replayed and the
text has been published. It's just the wrong moment right now."
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Hirsi Ali, who spent three months in the United States after van Gogh
was killed and is now back in Parliament, has announced that she would
not give up her criticism of the mistreatment of women in the name of
Islam. She said she was already writing a new film, "Submission Part
II," "and perhaps even three and four." .