killed Tuesday, November 2, by a suspected militant for criticizing the abuse of Muslim women, Dutch media said.
The Dutch NOS network quoted police as saying that [/limit] the 47-year old Theo van Gogh, who was related to the famous Dutch painter, was assassinated after he left the municipal office of Amsterdam’s District East.
Van Gogh was first attacked with a knife and initially managed to run away, but soon after the same suspect shot him several times across the street where he died of his injuries, NOS reported.
TRADITIONAL DRESS
The suspect, identified by eyewitnesses as a man dressed in a traditional Moroccan jallaba, reportedly also shot at least one policeman who arrived later on the scene.
Both the suspect and the policeman suffered bullet wounds in the ensuing fire fight and are now in hospital, Dutch media reports said.
NOS said police apparently discovered Van Gogh’s body with knives in his chest holding a letter "containing Islamic texts."
DEATH THREATS
The film maker had received death threats after the broadcast of his film, "Submission," which was made with the liberal Member of Parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali, NOS and other news reports said.
He also had just completed a movie about the May 2002 assassination of Pim Fortuyn, a Dutch politician whose popularity rested partly on his opposition to illegal immigrants.
ARRANGED MARRIAGE
The film Submission told the story of a Muslim woman forced into an arranged marriage who is abused by her husband and raped by her uncle. It triggered an outcry from Dutch Muslims.
In one scene the film showed an actress in see-through garments with Koranic script written on her body, which also bore whip marks. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been under police protection since the film was aired on Dutch
television, after she also received death threats for renouncing the Islamic faith.
FREE SPEECH
However Van Gogh had refused to accept body guards as "a believer in free speech", his production company said. NOS quoted an official of the Dutch VVD Liberal Party as saying that the secret services knew the suspect and there is concern that the murder was "related to terrorism."
Dutch Christian Democratic Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende condemned the killing saying it was "unacceptable if expressing your opinion would be the cause of this brutal murder". Queen Beatrix said she was shocked and appalled at the killing, AFP news agency reported.
The Netherlands, which was based on Reformist principles but increasingly became a secularized country, is now home to nearly one million Muslims or 5.5% of the population.
