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Dutch retreat from the Netherlands
Yesterday I found grounds for optimism in a poll finding that 40 percent of the Dutch hoped that Moslems would not feel at home in the Netherlands. However, even as some Dutch seem to be abandoning the usual liberal attitudes toward immigration and getting ready to stand up against the Moslem influx, others have decided to flee from it, by emigrating to countries such as New Zealand and Australia. It’s not just the fear of Moslems, but a profound shift in the Dutch way of life, with increased population (a tenth of the Dutch population is now foreign born) leading to increased crowding, stress, and loss of remaining green spaces. While few of the people who are planning to emigrate will say openly that Moslem immigration is the cause, travel agents point out that interest in emigration surged after the Moslem ritual slaughter of filmmaker Theo van Gogh on an Amsterdam street last year. [“More Dutch Plan to Emigrate as Muslim Influx Tips Scales,” New York Times, 2/27/05]
Let’s assume for the moment that the primary factor driving this emigration is the increase of the Moslem population, rather than general crowding and stress. Why don’t these unhappy Dutch fight for their country instead of giving it up? True, we think of the Dutch as peaceful, Hobbit-like creatures. But back in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, one of the longest and most savage wars in European history was fought between the Dutch and their Hapsburg Spanish overlords, ending finally in Dutch independence and the Dutch Golden Age. I know it was a long time ago, but if the Dutch were willing to kill and die to free their country from Spanish and Austrian Catholics, is it too much to hope that their present-day descendants would also be willing to fight, and, yes, even kill and die if necessary, to free their country from African and Mideastern Moslems? Email entry |