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Arnold
Netherlands
3085 Posts
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 Posted-08 Dec 2002: 13:21:09  
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Restrictionist politician Pim Fortuyn murdered on eve of reaching power
Telling the truth about excessive immigration €” that it causes rapid overpopulation and social fracturing €” has not been a path to popularity in these politically correct times. The mildest suggestion that a policy that may have been beneficial in the 19th century has overgrown its usefulness immediately brings accusations of racism and xenophobia. Of course, even immigration lawyers know better than to advocate overpopulation, so hurling hateful epithets remains a basic strategy.
However, words have power and if someone is called a racist often enough, an impressionable mind may decide that saving the world from the latest Hitler will require that person's murder.
Some version of that scenario appears to have taken place in the Netherlands on May 6 with the political assassination of Pim Fortuyn, a rising star in Dutch politics who could possibly have become the next Prime Minister. A man identified only as an "animal rights activist" shot him down in the street near a radio station.
Certainly Professor Fortuyn's notoriety played a part in his being targeted. Both the media and Dutch politicians in the ruling party attacked him mercilessly in the most disparaging language. Prime Minister Wim Kok called him a fascist, as did the European press. Anyone who objects to massive Muslim immigration is branded automatically as a racist, xenophobe and fascist. Mr. Fortuyn was regularly compared with real right-winger Jean Le Pen, although aside from the immigration issue, the men had nothing in common.
Fortuyn Broke the Stereotype
Pim Fortuyn was a flamboyant gay man €” hardly a jack-booted fascist as the media sought to portray him. He condemned Muslim immigration because those newcomers to Holland refused to assimilate to the socially liberal Netherlands society, in which gay sexuality is as acceptable as straight. Problems have been stressful in highly impacted Rotterdam, Fortuyn's home city, where the Muslim population is estimated to be as high as 45 percent. Fortuyn stated, "I have gay friends who have been beaten up by young Moroccans in Rotterdam." His immigration philosophy derived precisely because of the socially tolerant nature of the Netherlands, a quality he treasured and wanted to preserve.
Like many in Holland, Fortuyn did not want to live in a northern extension of Morocco. A recent poll found that 50 percent of young Dutch people want no more Muslim immigration. As Fortuyn remarked, "in Rotterdam we have third-generation Moroccans who still don't speak Dutch, oppress women and won't live by our values." While campaigning on the idea of ending Islamic immigration entirely, he believed that the government should do more to aid assimilation to Dutch society of Muslims who were already there. Interestingly, the second-in-command person in the political party Pim Fortuyn's List was a black Caribbean immigrant, Joao Varela. Differences were understood to be about culture, not race.
An outspoken gay man professing concern over the loss of Western values apparently gave headaches to many in the press, who like their stereotypes as simple as possible. Some chose to ignore Fortuyn's clear message about the threat to socially liberal Holland from authoritarian Islam and continued name-calling even after his assassination. The most stubbornly politically correct insisted on describing him as "extreme right wing" and "fascist" for his restrictionist views about immigration. Newspaper columnist Prof. dr B. Smalhout reflected on the media's role in demonizing the man before his murder: "Pim Fortuyn was made an outcast by politically correct Netherlands He was depicted as a fake professor, a second Hitler€ a neo-Nazi, a narcissistic homosexual and a political outcast. Practically all the media took part, it was the fashionable thing to do, to have a go at Professor Pim."
Pim Fortuyn's Message
It is dangerous business to gaze into a crystal ball about what might have been. But a gay prime minister of a European nation who came to power on a platform of limiting immigration would have gotten major media attention in America, no doubt about it. And Professor Fortuyn was expert at presenting his views when given a chance. He was enormously popular among the Dutch, particularly the young. Numerous Dutch remarked that Fortuyn voiced sentiments that everyone had. Huge crowds appeared on the streets of Rotterdam after the assassination protesting the media and government's part in the death. (Despite many death threats, candidate Fortuyn was given no police protection.)
A prolific author and former sociology professor, one of his most popular books was the recent "Against the Islamicization of Our Culture." He called himself the Dutch Samuel Huntington, drawing attention to the similarity of views with those of the author of "The Clash of Civilizations," a book newly popular after the terrorist attacks, based on a 1993 Foreign Affairs article. Fortuyn remarked, "What we are witnessing now is a clash of civilizations, not just between states but within them."
The active presence of an elected Pim Fortuyn would have been enormously useful to refute the media stereotypes about the sort of person who supports immigration reduction. Fortuyn was certainly a social liberal in all categories other than immigration, favoring Dutch legality of soft drugs and euthanasia. Ever the independent thinker, he appreciated the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher.
Perhaps most importantly, Pim Fortuyn asked whether a society should welcome immigrants who disdain the culture of that nation and refuse to assimilate. Should women and gays, who have only recently received civil rights historically speaking, embrace millions who despise their freedom, even their existence? Why should citizens welcome a cultural group that threatens their rights and safety? As Professor Fortuyn observed, "I say multicultural society doesn't work. We're not living closer, we're living apart."
What a terrible pity that he is no longer here to voice such rare common sense.
€” by Brenda Walker
https://www.limitstogrowth.org/WEB-text/pim.html |
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Assassination Silences a Powerful Voice
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