Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma

Buruma’s Murder in Amsterdam provides clarification and a unique perspective of Dutch politics and the limits of tolerance. Cultural conflicts have always, and continue to, hinder our abilities to globalize peacefully and to accept new policies and perceptions. Though many Americans—both left-winged and right-winged—rally for world peace, multiculturalism, and complete acceptance, Buruma emphasizes that the importance of the suppression of violence cannot be overlooked. The influx of immigrants in the Netherlands and the consequent violence that Buruma highlights, serves as a prime example of the many conflicts between tolerance, tradition, and democracy. Democracy, though many Americans disagree, is not universal, nor does it need to be for the progression of other nations.

To emphasize this idea, Buruma uses Ayan Hirsi Ali as a source. Ali, a radical feminist, an adversary of Islam, an advocator of freedom of speech, and an overall controversial character, creates a movie entitled Submission, which highlights the oppression of Muslim men towards women. Though the movie was obviously an expression of free speech and was clearly within the realm of “legal,” it provoked anger among many Muslims, especially Mohammed Bouyeri. Ultimately, Ali’s controversial decision led to the death of Theo van Gogh, the director of Submission, as Mohammed Bouyeri believed it was his religious duty to do so. This example of unregulated freedom of speech and misunderstandings between different groups, poses a problem in the Netherlands, and introduces an interesting question to the remainder of the world: In our modern society, when do we draw the line? When does “controversial and thought-provoking” become “unnecessarily offensive and misleading?”

Protection of our traditions, of our reputations, and of our origins is, clearly, of great importance to Americans, and to other nations’ citizens. In our growing multi-cultural world, freedom of speech, among other traditions, has proven to become a conflict. Though religion, technology, culture, and politics tie us together, they seem to be pushing us farther apart than recent decades. One of the many problems that I believe are connected to Buruma’s opinions is the education in the United States. Though of course children get a far better education than most nations offer, the American youth is often confined to a small scope of the globe. We learn about the French and Indian War every year, starting in fourth grade, but I had never heard of Ayan Hirsi Ali and Submission until twelfth grade; global politics are not introduced until a student opts to take a class about the subject, and that is a problem; our education system should be altered to meet the requirements of an advancing cultural and political world.

            Buruma’s book takes a current issue, and explains its historical sources and its connections with Dutch history and religious conflict. At first, I hated the book, because I thought that Buruma provided little context for those who were, essentially uninterested in Dutch history, like me. However, as the plot of the book accelerated, I found Murder in Amsterdam to be semi-interesting, and at least thought-provoking. However, Buruma phrases his sentences in a pretty biased tone, and I often found myself questioning the validity of the book’s sources in general. Overall, however, the book succeeded in emphasizing the cultural problems and political issues in a single country, and implying their importance to the rest of the multicultural world.