Dutch Muslims Dismayed by Anti-Islamic Backlash.

They shouldn't have killed Theo van Gogh--and now their co-religionists are paying the price.

Actually, all of Holland is paying the price for too many years of deciding not to believe in anything, including themselves. This is what post-modernism brings. Post-modernism is the idea that truth is whatever any particular person believes. Even modernism, the idea that reason is the only god anyone need bow to, would be better than this. But another part of post-modernism is not being willing to criticize anything--except for Christianity. Well, the Bible predicted that such annoyances--and even outright persecution--will someday run rampant throughout all the inhabited world, and that Jesus Himself will handle it, not us.

Then a filmmaker named Theo van Gogh broke the rules. From a purely secularistic, we-know-no-God-but-reason viewpoint, he dared criticize Muslim treatment of women. A gang of Muslim men took exception to that, with the result we all know. And suddenly all that post-modernism stuff doesn't have the answers. Tired philosophy takes a back seat if you threaten someone with death. And make no mistake: the murder of Theo van Gogh was itself enough to constitute a threat to all Dutchmen who were not Muslim, even without the threatening note pinned to his body with the knife used to kill him.

The Dutch Muslims are now protesting, "But stuff like that movie doesn't happen in Holland!" Sorry, but that won't cut the ice. A strict reading of the Koran mandates that such shall be the lot of women everywhere.

While all this has been going on, the Dutch government has been facing head-on an issue they have too long neglected: the presence of terrorists in their territory. That, of course, is commendable as far as it goes. But what will Dutch society do next? All that the Muslims can now offer is a belated disavowal of militancy--which, to a Muslim, means a compromise of their faith. Somehow, I'm not sure that this will be trustworthy, or trusted for very long.