When I first reported that “WASHINGTON BLADE” Executive Editor Chris Crain was bashed in Amsterdam, a number of readers commented that I had failed to indicate that the assailants were “Morroccan-looking.” One reader noted that the “Dutch problem with tolerance is not a Dutch problem…it is a Muslim problem.” It looks like he may be right.
Another reader just e-mailed me this article from the London Times which reports “a disturbing rise of gay-bashing, as conservative Islamic culture clashes with Dutch liberalism.” “[I]ncreasingly fearful of holding hands in public,” many gays are “moving to rural areas for safety.”
Even as such harassment increases, some, including a number of gay activists, dismiss the problem. The “TIMES” reports:
Gay campaigners are outraged that sensitivity about intolerance towards Muslims is blinding people to intolerance from Muslims. Scott Long, the director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender programme at Human Rights Watch, the human rights group, caused outrage when he declared: “Gays often become the victims of this when immigrants retaliate for the inequalities they have to suffer.”
Mr Crain, who has been deluged with e-mails of support from Dutch citizens, thundered back: “Long’s ‘blame the society’ political correctness is a distraction from the very real cultural clashes happening in Holland and elsewhere.”
He’s right. We can’t excuse violent acts merely because they were perpetrated by minorities.