AHMED ABOUTALEB

Two recent postings of mine indicate jaundice in my view of Europe.

But, as usual, there are also positive things; things that must in fairness be noted.


One of them is Mr. Ahmed Aboutaleb, labour party (PvdA) member of the city council in Amsterdam.
[And yes, as can be guessed from the name, he is of Moroccan extraction. Let me also mention that he has received death threats because of his politics, and has been under police protection for a few years. It isn't easy being a Dutchman. ]

Website: http://www.amsterdam.nl/gemeente/college/ahmed_aboutaleb



Wethouder Ahmed Aboutaleb warns of growing anti-Semitism, as mentioned in an article in today's Volkskrant online: http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/1138255731885.html


Some lovely quotes:
"In het publieke domein heb je respect voor elkaar. Je dient met je poten van elkaar af te blijven. Punt uit."
[In the public domain, you respect one and other. You keep your paws off each other. End of discussion]

"Het kan niet zo zijn dat je zegt: ‘‘ik ben moslim en dit moet je wel doen en dat niet’’. De straat is van iedereen."
[It cannot be that you say 'I am Muslim and you have to do this and not that'. The street belongs to everybody.]

"In Nederland is er geen religie die dominant is, dat zullen we ook nooit aanvaarden."
[In the Netherlands there is no religion that is dominant, nor would we ever accept it.]

"Hoe kun je respect voorop stellen, als je weinig bereid bent anderen te respecteren?"
[How can you demand respect, if you aren't prepared to respect others?]


Recently, in a discussion with youths of Moroccan ethnicity, he asked "Je wilt niet dat je vader wordt bespuugd als hij in djellaba naar de moskee loopt, maar je mag dus wel een keppeltje van het hoofd van een joodse meneer trekken?"
[You don't want your father to be spat on when he goes to the mosque wearing a djellaba, but somehow it's okay to yank the kippah off the head of a Jewish gentleman?]
Apparently there was no answer to this.


He thinks that anti-Semitism is extraordinarily dangerous, and said:
"Die ideeën heersen onder de bevolking en zijn veel gevaarlijker dan we denken. Het wordt nu weggepoetst onder het mom dat antisemitisme alleen leeft onder de allochtone onderontwikkelden. Maar let op: het gevoel heerst ook onder hoog opgeleide autochtone Nederlanders. Laat je niet in slaap sussen."
[Those ideas are out there and they are far more dangerous than we think. Now we pooh-pooh them by pretending that anti-Semitism only has currency among the uneducated immigrants; but beware - those beliefs are also current among well-educated Netherlanders. Don't let yourself be fooled.]

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Please note that these quotes do not give a full sense of the pungency and point that they have in Dutch. Certain idiomatic ways of speaking cannot be translated, and much eloquence is consequently lost in translation. You may have noticed the same problem in some of my previous posts.

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There aren't many living Dutchmen I admire, but I just added one more to the list.