As religious strife swirls, Dutch doubt their tolerance

UDEN, Netherlands - The brazen daylight murder of a filmmaker who criticized Islamic fundamentalism has shattered the fabled Dutch tranquillity.

A wave of attacks on mosques and churches - and a firebombing at a Muslim elementary school - are raising questions about Dutch society's relations with a large and increasingly restive Muslim minority.

Marion Cappendijk can't understand the outburst of violence. "We are so tolerant here," she said Wednesday as she looked at the smoldering rubble of the school, the 14th Muslim building attacked by arsonists, bombers or graffiti sprayers in five days.

The Nov. 2 killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, allegedly by an Islamic extremist, unleashed powerful resentments that have shaken many Dutch.

"Extremism is reaching the roots of our democracy," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende warned Parliament on Wednesday.

Van Gogh's murder and the ensuing attacks are only the latest signs of ethnic turmoil.

For the Dutch, it's evidence of a painful loss of innocence they are now tracing to the assassination two years ago of Pim Fortuyn, a gay, populist politician who won a following by campaigning against immigrants, especially Muslims.

Van Gogh, a distant relative of painter Vincent van Gogh, was killed while bicycling on a busy Amsterdam street. A 26-year-old Muslim militant, Mohammed Bouyeri, allegedly shot the filmmaker several times, stabbed him and slit his throat. A letter threatening a Dutch politician who wrote the script for van Gogh's film Submission was driven into van Gogh's chest with a knife.

The detention of Bouyeri and five others also believed to be members of a radical Islamic terrorist group has been followed by what seems to be a cycle of retaliation between Christian and Muslim extremists.

Molotov cocktails caused minor damage at churches in Rotterdam, Utrecht and Amersfoort after a half-dozen similar attacks on Muslim buildings. An Islamic school in Eindhoven was bombed Monday night, and the one in Uden was burned down Tuesday. No injuries were reported.

On Wednesday, a brawl broke out between ethnic Dutch youths and ethnic Turks and Moroccans in the first direct racial confrontation since van Gogh's murder. About 30 people tangled before police with dogs broke up the fight, witnesses said.

Mohammed Sini, chairman of national Muslim organization Citizens and Islam, said this week, "There's a risk that we'll have an unbridgeable "us and them' opposition between parts of the population."

About 6 percent of the country's 16-million people are Muslim, and the proportion is well over 10 percent in major cities.

"Natives and immigrants in the Netherlands cannot look away and excuse radicalism," Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk said Wednesday.

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