Echoes of Gunfire

While the rest of the world remains fixated on the U.S. elections, the Dutch were plunged into a drama of their own on Tuesday with what appeared to be the second politically-related murder to hit the Netherlands in two years. The enfant terrible of Dutch cinema and controversial TV presenter Theo van Gogh was shot dead while riding his cycle in Amsterdam around 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning. On Wednesday, police estimated that 20,000 people converged on Dam Square following the murder. And it emerged that the 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan arrested in connection with the murder has connections with extremist Muslim groups in the Netherlands.

Like the right-wing Dutch political leader Pim Fortuyn who was assassinated in 2002, van Gogh, 47, was a harsh critic of Islam. Although the motive for van Gogh's death is not yet known, there is growing consensus that he was killed because of these views. Van Gogh received several death threats since making the controversial film Submission, which depicted the text of the Koran on the naked flesh of young Muslim women. The film, shown on Dutch TV in September, was made in collaboration with the Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has been receiving police protection since its release. The film was directed and personally financed (€18,000) by van Gogh, the great-great-nephew of the painter Vincent van Gogh. His latest project was a film about the murder of Fortuyn, entitled 06/05, a reference to 9/11.

The Muslim community in Holland, almost one million in a total population of 16 million, has reacted with shock and anger at the attack as has rest of the nation.

Ayam Tomcam chairman of the Dutch Muslim umbrella organization: "It's unbelievable and unacceptable that something like this can happen in Holland again." He says Dutch society as a whole must bear the responsibility for the increasing polarization that has taken place in Holland since 9/11. "This was a tolerant, multicultural country but things have changed. It's become 'us and them' and extremists from both sides throw accusations at each other. But only a sick individual can do this sort of thing [commit murder]."

Yasmin Kaddour, a social worker in a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of Amsterdam, fears a new wave of antagonism against "the ordinary Moroccan citizen" similar to that experienced after 9/11 and the murder of Fortuyn. I am shocked, all the more because it has taken place during the holy month of Ramadan."

Van Gogh was murdered on a busy street in the east of the city during the morning rush hour as parents were taking their kids to school. A cyclist-a bearded man, eye witnesses say, was wearing a traditional Arabic robe-pulled out a gun and shot Van Gogh several times as he overtook him. He then used a knife to secure a letter to Van Gogh's body. No details of the letter or the language in which it was written have yet been released.

A second person, either an onlooker or someone who was with van Gogh, was slightly injured in the incident but managed to alert police. The murderer ran off into park and was cornered by police. He shot a police motorbike rider — who was not injured because he was wearing bullet-proof vest — before himself being shot in the leg by police.

Attendees at Tuesday's rally banged saucepan lids, banged drums, screamed and yelled into the damp autumn night in symbolic show of defiance to those who seek to destroy the right of free speech in the Netherlands. Passions ran high but the event ended peacefully. There remains, however, a palpable tension in the city and extra police have been put on the streets in Amsterdam and other cities to prevent a possible backlash on Muslims.

In The Hague 35 people were arrested following unrest in the city and the area around the parliament building was sealed off by the police as a preventive measure. Meanwhile, tens of thousands have already registered their condolences on special websites.

On Wednesday it emerged that the 26-year-old Amsterdammer arrested in connection with the murder has connections with extremist Muslim groups in the Netherlands, and may also have been a friend of an 18-year-old who is still in custody following his arrest this summer on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack in the country.

In a press interview the day after the killing, Labour leader Wouter Bos voiced the feeling of many when he said the murder of van Gogh could have an even more profound effect on Dutch society than the assassination of Fortuyn in 2002 if it indeed appears that van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim fundamentalist.