Purchase
The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance
Penguin
September 2006
On Sale: September 7, 2006
Featuring: Theo van Gogh
288 pages ISBN: 1594201080 EAN: 9781594201080 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Fiction | Mystery | Suspense True Crime
Ian Buruma returns to his native land to explore the great
dilemma of our time through the story of the brutal murder
of controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh at the hands
of an Islamic extremist. It was the emblematic crime of our moment: On a cold
November day in Amsterdam, an angry young Muslim man,
Mohammed Bouyeri, the son of Moroccan immigrants, shot and
killed the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo
van Gogh, great-grandnephew of Vincent and iconic European
provocateur, for making a movie with the vocally anti-Islam
Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali that
"blasphemed" Islam. After Bouyeri shot van Gogh, he calmly
stood over the body and cut his throat with a curved
machete, as if performing a ritual sacrifice, which in a
very real sense he was. The murder horrified quiet, complacent, prosperous Holland,
a country that prides itself on being a bastion of
tolerance, and sent shock waves across Europe and around the
world. Shortly thereafter, Ian Buruma returned to his native
country to try to make sense of it all and to see what
larger meaning should and shouldn't be drawn from this
story. The result is Buruma's masterpiece: a book with the
intimacy and narrative control of a true-crime page-turner
and the intellectual resonance we've come to expect from one
of the most well-regarded journalists and thinkers of our
time. Ian Buruma's entire life has led him to this
narrative: In his hands, it is the exemplary tale of our
age, the story of what happens when political Islam collides
with the secular West and tolerance finds its limits.
No awards found for this book.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|