Our Dutch correspondent H. Numan sends this report on the latest cultural enrichment news from The Netherlands, especially as it concerns public swimming pools.
Reality is showing its ugly face
by H. Numan
Let’s start in the past. When I was a young man, the first cohort of young ‘Dutch’ muslims was growing up in The Netherlands. They were mainly Turkish boys, at that time much more of a problem than Moroccans. Public swimming pools were becoming unsafe for girls, because those muslim boys grabbed them where they shouldn’t. What was done? Why, nothing, of course! Pretty soon after that Moroccans proudly carried the banner of being the most unruly, violent community. Muslims started to realize they could gain political power — for themselves. Pim Fortuyn was murdered and Geert Wilders appeared on the scene.
We had a minister of justice, Piet Hein Donner. He said — or more accurately, lied: “If 75% of the Dutch population wants shariah law, then there is nothing to stop democracy from becoming a shariah society”. Let’s start here. The Dutch population has absolutely no say in it. It’s parliament (Second Kamer or congress and the First Kamer or senate) who decide that. Yes, I’ll grant him that this is next to impossible.
Legally, shariah must be presented as a law. Both houses have to vote on it, and pass it with a 75% majority. After that the government and both chambers resign and new elections are called. The next government will bring the law again in motion. Only if again 75% of both chambers vote ‘aye’ is shariah law valid in The Netherlands. Next to impossible, in other words. If you were do it the democratic way, that is.
Now, how democratic our bearded fiends are? Not at all. It’s a blasphemous concept to them. Erdogan himself said openly ‘democracy is the train we take towards shariah’. How difficult is it to put serious pressure on 150 members of parliament and 75 senators? Their family members? Friends and relatives? Or their party superiors? We as a nation simply haven’t got that many police available for their protection. That’s the first attempt. They won’t rest if the vote were to be ‘no’. That means another round of voting and violence. We have to protect the new MPs and senators and their families and their friends and their party officials as well.
May I remind you of 1572, the start of the Dutch revolt? It started with a bang, with the Beeldenstorm or Great Iconoclasm. Catholic churches were ransacked, and craven idols removed. At that time about 65% of the population was Roman Catholic. Of the remainder, the vast majority were Lutheran. Only 7% were Calvinists. Both Roman Catholic and Lutheran Dutch were open for negations with the king of Spain (Phillip II).
Now, the king was somewhat inflexible. For him, either you were catholic or you were barbecued. No other options. But compromises are usually possible, even with one party being inflexible. It was the 7% Calvinists who started the open revolt, and later gained control of the country. That was with 7% extremists in our population. Currently the inflexibles are at least 9%.
Calvinists aren’t exactly the first thing on your mind when thinking about extremely violent religious zealots. They have mellowed somewhat over the ages. The same goes for Christianity in general: even the Westboro Baptists are well behaved choirboys compared with the average muslim. In the 16th century, however, they were the Al Quackies of the age.
Which brings us to the news from today. The Dutch news is full with stories of young muslim boys raping girls in swimming pools, preferably the ‘tropical swimming resorts’. Not fondling. Not ogling, but raping. Young is relative here. We’re talking about gangs of boys of all ages, up to and including adults.
Wilders, who cannot easily appear in public due to threats against him by Islamists, relies heavily on Twitter to communicate with his supporters. He has 811,000 followers, second only to Prime Minister Mark Rutte among Dutch politicians. 
