Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Understanding leads to a path : Multi-culturalism in the 21st Centuary, 6 Nov 2006
I think this is a book for anyone who wants to make a serious attempt at understanding the complexities of 21st Century multi-cultural life. Buruma is as non-judgemental as it is possible to be, instead he meets and interviews a number of people from all perspectives of the issue and sets out their feelings. He also sketches in the backgrounds of the key players in the specific incidents that occurred in Amsterdam and led to the murder of Theo Van Gogh.
He allows you at least see some of what lay behind some behaviour. To say what I found, would in some way defeat the object of this book, which is to allow its readers to come to their own stance or at least their own path of understanding. But if there are resolutions to be found, and there are, to the choppy seas of modern multi-cultural co-existence, then books like these are a very good starting point. I know I shall re-read this book with more rigour in the months ahead.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must read for anyone interested in radical Islam in Europe, 12 May 2007
Before you buy this book, you need to ask yourself just one question: am I interested in how radical Islam effects Europe in general and the Netherlands in particular? If yes, then this will be one of the most interesting books you ever read on the subject. There are very detailed and extremely revealing insights into the characters of the three main figures who have opposed radical Islam in the Netherlands, the people in question being Pim Fortuyn, Theo Van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Indeed, in each case a single event seems to have sparked their political transformation and confrontational stance towards radical Islam. In the case of Fortuyn, it was when a gay bar he was a patron of was attacked by radicalised Moroccan youths. In the case of Van Gogh, it was when he discovered that his uncle had been a resistance fighter executed by the Nazis. For Ali, it was watching a Western film where kissing and cuddling were considered normal.
The book also features interviews with a number of other figures, like a Belgian Muslim who wants to set up an explicitly Islamic political party in Europe, an Iranian Marxist refugee who cannot understand why the Dutch tolerate the radical Islam he fled from and the "foster" parents who took Ali in and taught her Dutch. There is even an interesting analysis of how radical imams may have contributed towards the death of Van Gogh, and how inter-Muslim differences exist in their experience of Dutch society, from Dutch-Turks who integrate very comfortably to Dutch-Morrocans who have more difficulties.
The book also puts forward the possibility that the Dutch values of forthrightness and decisiveness may have influenced Islamic radicals more than they care to admit, and that in the country where the Enlightenment began, there are signs that the Dutch are re-discovering these values, setting up a potentially fierce confrontation with radical Islam. The book is an entertaining read, and whilst reading almost like a travel book, the author largely keeps his own thoughts to himself, instead focussing on the key figures, as opposed to some travel writers who seem to constantly offer us their opinion. The book is a must for those interested in radical Islam in Europe.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wake up call, 1 Sep 2008
A fascinating critique of Dutch society - one which many of us have long-regarded as 'perfect'. Buruma strips bare what he portrays as a smug middle-class and affluent nation which has never really openly dealt with its problems. Be they decolonisation, immigration, sex, drugs and surprisingly religion. What's clear though is that of all immigrant groups, Moroccans - NOT Muslims - are the least welcome and the least integrated. Buruma lays the charge that it's not Islam that prevents their integration, but a mixture of Dutch arrogance and Moroccan village culture. The book has its faults, notably the author - himself Dutch - is quite smug and he often doesn't analyse, rather he relates. Still, this doesn't take away from an excellent account of the phenomena of political assassinations in the Netherlands.
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