November 2, 2004

Dutch filmmaker who criticized Islam slain in Amsterdam

Breaking news from Amsterdam. From SF Gate/AP: bq. A filmmaker who was the great-grandnephew of the painter Vincent van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death on an Amsterdam street Tuesday after receiving death threats over a movie he made criticizing the treatment of women under Islam. bq. A suspect, a 26-year-old man with dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality, was arrested after a shootout with officers that left him wounded, police said. bq. Filmmaker Theo van Gogh, 47, had been threatened after the August airing of the movie "Submission," which he made with a right-wing Dutch politician who had renounced the Islamic faith of her birth. bq. Police had kept watch on Van Gogh's house as protection immediately after the film's release, but it was dropped because there was no concrete evidence of a threat, public prosecutor Leo de Wit said. And his next film: bq. Van Gogh's next movie, scheduled to debut on the Internet in December, was titled "06-05" and was about the May 6, 2002 slaying of Pim Fortuyn. How many times will something like this have to happen before the people over there wake up. Who do you want for President - someone the terrorists support? Posted by DaveH at November 2, 2004 7:46 AM