Sullivan's Hate Crimes Post Misleads

Andrew Sullivan takes the opportunity to bash Bush and Christianists in this post on pending hate crimes legislation. His argument is entirely moot, but he doesn't link to the evidence of that. Sullivan uses a large image of the face of a male colleague who was gay bashed in the Netherlands to gin up his readers emotions.

Perhaps making these logical arguments is futile. The reason for this veto is quite simple. Christianists simply regard homosexuality as an evil and a sickness. Any law that implies that being gay is an identity and deserves equal respect and protection as other identities is anathema to them. Implicit in their worldview - and absolutely implicit in the position of the president - is that it's okay to attack gays in a way that it's not okay to attack, say, Jews or blacks. This is the core position of the Christianists - which is why I refuse to call them Christians.

Putting aside that his friend was bashed by radical Islamists, the real problem for Sullivan is that the Netherlands already has more stringent laws than anything being considered here in the US. He neglects to point that out along side his provocative example of Islamist Gay bashing. The laws did absolutely no good. And the original source for his quote was a letter - text below, railing against radical Islam. Read that after this. Clearly Sullivan has the wrong -ist on his mind. Preface it with Islam next time, Andrew, people might find it a bit more honest.

As it happens, I tempted fate one too many times in arguably the "gay-friendliest" place on the planet. By almost any measure, the equality movement in the Netherlands was won years ago. There are laws protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation, there are hate crime laws, and Holland is one of only a handful of countries where gay couples can legally marry.

What's more, there are few times of the year more welcoming than Queen's Day, not so named for the gays who flock by the thousands to Amsterdam for the holiday, but for the Netherlands' Queen Beatrix, who last Saturday celebrated a quarter century on the throne. In her annual address to the nation, she said she was disturbed by a rising tide of intolerance in this most tolerant of countries. Early Saturday morning, I got a firsthand look at what she meant.

Original posting from which Sullivan excerpted but didn't link, or it was lost in archiving.:

My friend Bruce Bawer, conservative literary critic and astute commentator, now lives in Norway and knows northern Europe well. His emails about the growth of Islamo-fascism get more and more worrying. He gave me permission to reproduce his latest. Here it is, prompted by a gang of Moroccan youths who gay-bashed a friend of mine and a leading gay journalist, Chris Crain, last week, for holding hands with his boyfriend on the street:

I would encourage all responsible-minded people, to get up to speed on what's going on in the Netherlands, and in Western Europe generally. The country I cherished a few years ago as the most liberal in the world has an increasingly large – and increasingly alienated – population of extreme reactionaries who despise, and seek to destroy, its liberalism. It is frankly stunning that Crain, in his posting, doesn't even mention Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, who were murdered for daring to take on this intolerance, or Dutch Parliament members Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders, who have also spoken out and as a result are forced to live (respectively) on a Marine base and in a prison in order to avoid being murdered.

One night in December 1998, T. and I were walking along the Singel canal in central Amsterdam when a Moroccan teenager pulled a knife and demanded money. (T. saw the knife, but the kid held it so low and so close to me that I didn't see it.) A half dozen of his friends hovered nearby, at the edge of the canal, looking threatening. I told him angrily to hit the road. He hesitated, looked back at his friends, and then they all ran off. We were lucky. Year by year, it's only got worse. The assaults are more frequent now, and more likely to be violent. They're less about money now and more about contempt – not just toward gays but toward all infidels.

We still visit Amsterdam, but we keep our eyes open. It's a great city – you just can’t be naïve about what’s going on. We spent a weekend there in March. We checked into our hotel, went to our room, and I turned on the TV. The news had just come on (AT5 news, March 24, 8:30 PM). The lead story was about how Muslim intolerance of homosexuality was making life much worse for gays in Amsterdam.

But what are the authorities doing about it? What can they do? Half of Amsterdam's population is of non-Dutch origin. It was recently reported that 40% of Moroccan youths in Amersfoort between ages 15 and 17 were suspected by the police of criminal activity. The Amersfoort police have files on 21% of Moroccan youths and 27% of Somali youths. A criminologist said this was probably representative of the situation nationwide.

As for the cops finding the guys who beat up Chris Crain: I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they haven’t lifted a finger. They probably thought he was nuts for confronting the guys. The authorities’ traditional policy is: keep your head down and don’t provoke anybody. In January, two schoolboys in IJsselstein were ordered to remove Dutch flag patches from their backpacks because Moroccan students might consider them provocative. It turned out this flag ban is officially in force at many schools.

Meanwhile Muslim kids have pictures of van Gogh's murderer on their lunchboxes because they consider him a hero, and nobody dares tell them to remove those pictures. In a recent article, a teacher at a school in Amsterdam said that a decade ago, ten-year-old Muslim kids were saying, 'We Moroccans are going to take over the Netherlands'; now five-year-olds who can hardly write are scrawling '[bugger] you Netherlands' on scraps of paper.

Crain quotes Queen Beatrix on intolerance. I'm sure she meant that ethnic Dutch people are growing more intolerant of Muslims. Some are. My fear has long been that the Dutch liberal establishment’s unwillingness to confront Muslim bigotry would feed the rise of anti-Muslim neo-fascism, resulting in a society split between two extreme rights – one Muslim and one non-Muslim. In any case Beatrix’s handling of these matters has been (shall we say) dismaying. After van Gogh’s murder she refused to attend his funeral or meet with Hirsi Ali; instead, she went to a Moroccan youth center and made friendly chitchat. Compare this to Queen Margrethe of Denmark, who in a new authorized biography addresses these issues head-on, saying 'there are certain things of which one should not be too tolerant.' Precisely. Tolerating gays: good. Tolerating intolerance of gays: not good. It ain't brain surgery.

This is how the new brownshirts are making progress. First they take over the streets with thuggery. Then they kill politicians. And Europe is - surprise! - appeasing them. And then I see the president of the United States holding hands with the Arab dictator whose oil money is financing the propagation of this fascism. We have been here before. What part of "Never Again" does Europe not understand?

Comments

[BARRASSO]

Netherlands already has more stringent laws than anything being considered here in the US. He neglects to point out that in his provocative example, they did absolutely no good.

You're right those murder laws in the U.S. didn't prevent every murder either they must be a waste of time.

[templar knight]

Barrasso, you totally missed the point of Dan's post. I wonder why.

[BARRASSO]

Just thought I'd point out a flaw I saw, I don't neccissarily disagree with the rest of the piece. Europe should probably do some massive immigration reforms, they don't have to allow as much immigration as they do. And they damn well should not allow Turkey to join the EU.

[Dan Riehl]

Because he likely equates radical Islam with Christianity, as does Sullivan and ... that fat gal on The View. Sullivan isn't for hate crime law, according to him - just against anything Christian or from Bush.

[BARRASSO]

I think alot of these euro countries need to see the diffence between tolerance, allowing something you dislike to exist, and unquetioning acceptance which it appears they have to much of.

[bloodrage bob]

care to comment on the skyrocketing-yet-curiously-not-reported-very-much rape stats in scandanavia, barry? you know: the ones where the muslim assholes are raping the purty white gals?

the one they dare not use the word "epidemic" to describe?

just come right out and admit it, son: as a liberal, that's *exactly* the kind of "tolerance" you secretly yearn for.

[templar knight]

BARRASSO, I have no idea who you are, what country you are from, etc. but at least you realize part of the problem, which is allowing people who have no concept, nor want no concept, of Western Ideals or Thought, to immigrate unhindered into your country. That is a recipe for disaster.

And regardless of how you view Christians, you do realize that the Rennaissance and Reformation changed Christianity, and allowed for the existence of the modern World. Islam has not had a Reformation, but sadly needs one, and very, very soon, or I fear they will take us back into the Dark Ages.

[BARRASSO]

I'm from the US and I think some of these problems in europe stem from the first generation emigrating and wanting a better life and then their children turning into radicals for who knows what reason, so you have rational first immigrants birthing irrational second immigrants. I remember reading about british immigrant parents who had assimilated into brit society, had jobs and businesses and then realized all their kids were converting to radical islam. I don't know what the hell to do about it, aside from vigourous enforcement of the laws they do break. Bloodrage I think you may be mistaking me for all those pro rape liberals you know. I don't think I secretly yearn for muslims raping white women, but maybe its so secret even I don't know about it.

[Phoenix]

That might have been the most 'intolerant' essay ever on tolerance. What a trashy piece of trickery. Lure the reader in with a mug shot of some guy who's been beaten up, ramble on about hate crimes and intolerance and 'identity' parsing and give a pitiful narrative of some confusing reaction to radical Muslims in Holland who beat up gay people and talk about how the Queen let the gays down by going to make nice at a Muslim school..........and then..... IT'S BUSH'S FAULT.

Christianists vs. Islamists. clap clap..... And we thank you for another wonderful, well though out generalization, Mr. Sullivan.

[Hard Right]

All Sullivan does is show why liberals are so mentally ill.
So in spite of strict punishment in another country-and possibly special legal treatment-his friend was still savaged. Yet he still demands the same here-even though we have laws that allready deal with such incidents.
Then he deliberately ignores how it was done by islamofascists and strongly infers the average American is guilty of such behavior which justifies and even requires those laws being enacted here.
In short he wants special treatment for a class of people, and refuses to blame those who are truly responsible and their motivations, because they are memebers of the liberal "victim class".

[Dan Riehl]

he still demands the same here

In fairness to AS - he didnt' do that. He doesnt support HC legislation. But he didn't even need to post - just another opportunity to Bash Bush and Christians. And the whole rationale of homosexuality being the Bush rationale is lefty prop from the gay rights crowd. That is not what the WH said.

[Fred Beloit]

Hate crimes legislation is a very, very stupid concept developed by emotional people whose interests are their group rather than the good of the country and is supported by cynical and self-serving politicians. If the Dems insist on pandering to groups, it is only fair to pass these laws for every group. Let's go: investors, the police, animal sex enthusiasts, child molesters, petty thieves, poly-marriage folks, the Poles, Baptists, etc, etc. There are plenty of laws already against assault, murder, and all other violent crimes at the state and local level. No additional ones are needed. And most especially the Federal Government's resources and wasteful ways don't belong in local crime matters. Finally, such laws are a barely disguised way of attempting to influence how people think and what they say. I hope the President has the courage to veto this bill.

[SDN]

Anyone else want to donate Sully the price of a one way ticket to Tehran or Riyadh and see how long it takes before they crush him under a stone wall?

[Phoenix]

Did I miss something? There is no legislation up for hate crimes.

Let's just make a law saying we are going to give a tax deduction for being good.