NETHERLANDS BIGGEST LEFT WING GROUP: "calling for the end of the failed model of Dutch tolerance"

WOW. It must really be horrible if the leftards are crying uncle. Wilders is vindicated (at the very least).

From the left, a call to end the current Dutch notion of tolerance International Herald Tribune (hat tip Atlas readers)

AMSTERDAM: Two years ago, the Dutch could quietly congratulate themselves on having brought what seemed to be a fair measure of consensus and reason to the meanest intersection in their national political life: the one where integration of Muslim immigrants crossed Dutch identity.

In the run-up to choosing a new government in 2006, just 24 percent of the voters considered the issue important, and only 4 percent regarded it as the election's central theme.

What a turnabout, it seemed - and whatever the reason (spent passions, optimism, resignation?), it was a soothing respite for a country whose history of tolerance was the first in 21st-century Europe to clash with the on-street realities of its growing Muslim population.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, the Netherlands had lived through something akin to a populist revolt against accommodating Islamic immigrants led by Pim Fortuyn, who was later murdered; the assassination of the filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, accused of blasphemy by a homegrown Muslim killer; and the bitter departure from the Netherlands of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali woman who became a member of Parliament before being marked for death for her criticism of radical Islam.

Now something fairly remarkable is happening again.

Today in Europe Russia aside, Georgia chief is pressed at homeAs German neighborhood changes, raunchy shadow lingersCzech Republic faces challenges with EU presidencyTwo weeks ago, the country's biggest left-wing political grouping, the Labor Party, which has responsibility for integration as a member of the coalition government led by the Christian Democrats, issued a position paper calling for the end of the failed model of Dutch "tolerance."

It came at the same time Nicolas Sarkozy was making a case in France for greater opportunities for minorities that also contained an admission that the French notion of equality "doesn't work anymore."

But there was a difference. If judged on the standard scale of caution in dealing with cultural clashes and Muslims' obligations to their new homes in Europe, the language of the Dutch position paper and Lilianne Ploumen, Labor's chairperson, was  exceptional.

The paper said: "The mistake we can never repeat is stifling criticism of cultures and religions for reasons of tolerance."

Government and politicians had too long failed to acknowledge the feelings of "loss and estrangement" felt by Dutch society facing parallel communities that disregard its language, laws and customs.

Newcomers, according to Ploumen, must avoid "self-designated victimization."

She asserted, "the grip of the homeland has to disappear" for these immigrants who, news reports indicate, also retain their original nationality at a rate of about 80 percent once becoming Dutch citizens.

Instead of reflexively offering tolerance with the expectation that things would work out in the long run, she said, the government strategy should be "bringing our values into confrontation with people who think otherwise."

There was more: punishment for trouble-making young people has to become so effective such that when they emerge from jail they are not automatically big shots, Ploumen said.

For Ploumen, talking to the local media, "The street is mine, too. I don't want to walk away if they're standing in my path.

"Without a strategy to deal with these issues, all discussion about creating opportunities and acceptance of diversity will be blocked by suspicion and negative experience."

And that comes from the heart of the traditional, democratic European left, where placing the onus of compatibility on immigrants never found such comfort before.

Comments

[jj]

pamela:

this is remarkable, and oh, so very, very welcome.

the next step is "we must repair this situation."

i am praying that it shall not be too long in taking this next step.

goodness, this is welcome news, and of vital importance.

maybe the violence unleashed in europe by islamic reaction to the israeli defense to hamas's aggression will finally have the attention of the euro's, and maybe they will conclude that they have to rise to their own defense.

if so, what a wonderful side effect to the brave defense of the israeli's.

a good day, for the good guys.

john jay
milton freewater, oregon usa

[JewishOdysseus]

" she said, the government strategy should be "bringing our values into confrontation with people who think otherwise."

Just beautiful...And DITTOES to what JJ said!

[Carlos Echevarria]

Traveled to Holland in February, it was crazy the amount of Islamic immigrants everywhere, even selling hard drugs in the Red Light District!!!

The Dutch themselves, even the most liberal ones I met, the majority, all were recoiling at what is happening in their country after they tried to be PC over the years....