Dutch vow to get tough on terrorists

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The government vowed tough measures Friday against what a leading politician called “the arrival of jihad in the Netherlands” after a death threat to a Dutch lawmaker was found pinned with a knife to the body of a slain filmmaker by his radical Islamic attacker.

A five-page letter released Thursday night by the justice minister forced political leaders – including Amsterdam’s Jewish mayor and members of parliament – to take on bodyguards.

The document, stuck to the body of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, was titled “An open Letter to (Aayan) Hirsi Ali,” referring to a Somali-born member of parliament. She had scripted Van Gogh’s latest film, “Submission,” which criticized the treatment of women under Islam.

“Since your arrival in the political arena in the Netherlands you have been constantly busy terrorizing Muslims with your statements,” the letter read. “You are not the first and not the last who has joined the crusade against Islam.”

Hirsi Ali, who calls herself an ex-Muslim, has gone into hiding.

The letter also asserted: “It is a fact that Dutch politics is dominated by many Jews.”

“What do you think of the fact that there is a Jew in power in Amsterdam?” it said, referring to Amsterdam’s Mayor Job Cohen.

Deputy Prime Minister Gerrit Zalm agreed with comments by other politicians who called Van Gogh’s murder a declaration of Islamic holy war.

“We are not going to tolerate this. We are going to ratchet up the fight against this sort of terrorism,” he said. “The increase in radicalization is worse than we had thought.”

Among measures under consideration is an emergency law to enable authorities to revoke the Dutch nationality of dual citizens suspected of terrorist activity so that they can be deported.

The suspected killer in the Van Gogh case, a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan national, was arraigned on six terrorism-related charges.

Van Gogh, a distant relative of the famous 19th-century Dutch painter, was shot and stabbed to death Tuesday while cycling down an Amsterdam street. The provocative social commentator and author, whose throat was slashed in the attack, will be cremated Tuesday in a public service.