Bouchira Ismaili, a Moroccan-born Labor party councillor from the city of Rotterdam, fired off a very angry email to a Dutchman, Jos Parbleu. It said in part: "Drop dead", "convert to Islam", "You are the migrants here", and "You are a miserable devil worshipper" (full text down below). So what prompted the angry email in the first place? Jos Parbleu sent an email to Ms. Ismaili and hundreds of others about two worrisome quotes by Okay Pala, the local leader of the radically Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir, and published in the Turkish-Dutch De Telegraaf (more on this at Islam in Europe). Mr. Pala had said: "We reject freedom of speech, because we reject democracy," and "What you need is a heavy bomb attack".
But instead of attacking Mr. Pala or those quotes, she went after Mr. Parbleu for telling us about it!
Here is the full text of her email and its formatting (translation from multiple sources)
Listen well, dirty madman, WE'LL STAY HERE, hahahahahahhahah, DROP DEAD. I am a dutch moslem, and I shall stay one until my death. I feel pity with your kind, you must live with hatred, really sad. My father and mother have worked hard to help build this country, and I have nothing to do with what others think or say. You are a miserable devil worshipper!!! You have sold your soul!!! Rather bizarre, to believe in the devil and his entourage, and to negate God the almighty and ruler over heaven and earth. Your kind are the worst terrorists, you have been terrorizing our lives for years here in Holland. But fortunately, you are few only, and most dutchmen are developed and tolerant. You are the migrants here!!!! With Allah by my side, I fear nothing and nobody. I AND MY CO-MOSLEMS ARE LIVING, your kind is being eaten up by hatred. A piece of advice, if I may, convert to Islam and find tranquility in your heart. Hatred eats you up and makes your heart stay empty. You have only a limited time in your life, go get a life and enjoyment, soon it's all over. We are living.......................You are trying to make something undone, to influence the lives and fates of others. Freemason hahahaha, you are not free, you are a slave of the devil. You think you're a kind of god, really sad, go and have yourself checked! If you're a man with BALLS, let me know who you are, let us talk. You can always talk to me. I know, you're empty inside, and sometimes you feel you wouldn't exist. You want to be seen and heard, but you're simply ORDINARY, a gray mouse and a pathetic little person, one of those billions walking around on this globe. But I hear your cry of emergency. I hear your cry for attention. I shall also have time for you, despite of the fact that I'm fully busy to make Holland a more beautiful, clean and safe country, where people can develop and live in freedom and democracy, no matter what color, origin or faith. Where, for all I care, even devil worshippers have a spot, for who am I ultimately to judge. This I leave to the judges' judge, ALLAH A RAHMAN OU RAHEEM!!! [Allah the most merciful]
The original text of the email in Dutch can be seen here.
Mr. Parbleu and others forwarded the email to Mrs. Ismaili's party head and Gates of Vienna has his response, in which he tries to dismiss the problem away and simultaneously change the subject:
Dear People,
I wouldnÂ’t give this too much attention.
Ms. BouchraÂ’s response is understandable but maybe a bit offensive to some, and we as PvdA would not like to be held responsible for it. For example, Jos Parbleu (the constituent in question - translator) posted on the blog mores-mores a reply to an article written by Alain Caruba, a US citizen, as he presents himself. He added an article supposedly written by a Freemason. This article is completely bogus. According to this article Freemasons are out to rule the world. Nothing is further away from the truth, as I, being a Freemason can testify.
Ms. Bouchra assumes in her response to Jos Parbleu that he is a Freemason. Wrongly, as he never suggested it.
Just let it rest.
Her "response is understandable" and "maybe a bit offensive"??
Anders Wellebeeke at The Dutch Daily points out something else:
I must admit that Ismaili is right about one thing: The ethnically Dutch are rapidly becoming foreigners in their own cities. Today, 36 pct of the Rotterdammers are of non-Western origin, i.e. Surinamese, Turkish or - like Ismaili - Moroccan. Under the age of 21, however, this percentage has risen to approximately 53 pct.
Since I believe very strongly in free speech, I'm not sure if she should be censured for her remarks, although they do sound very much like threats to me. But beyond this, there are two other things that disturb me: 1) If a white Christian politician sent out a similar email, Muslim groups would be up in arms calling for his resignation, and making death threats (but here they are rather silent), and 2) It disturbs me that this is not some anonymous phone caller or an imam during a sermon, but an elected official, which my most definitions would mean that she is supposed to be as assimilated as a immigrant could be expected to be.
Am I still considered an "islamophobe" or a right-wing alarmist if I say that the Netherlands really has a problem?
For some similar problems in the Netherlands in the recent past, look here and here.