NY Times: 'Enlightenment Absolutists' Fail to Appease Muslim Extremists

September 14th, 2006 4:40 PM

NY Times critic William Grimes reviews Dutch journalist Ian Buruma's "Murder in Amsterdam -- The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance." It's a favorable review of Buruma's warnings of Muslim extremism in The Netherlands that culminated in the murder of documentary filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, but includes this bizarre sentence:

"Enlightenment absolutists like Ms. Hirsi Ali and Mr. van Gogh turned apoplectic at any efforts to appease or accommodate Muslims on, say, gay rights or women’s rights, and they were not alone in their fears."

Two questions:

1)      Is the politically correct New York Times actually criticizing the Dutch, including murdered filmmaker van Gogh, for pushing too hard for gay and women's rights in the face of Muslim extremism?

2)      Would the Times ever run this sentence: "Activist groups like the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Organization for Women turned apoplectic at any efforts to appease or accommodate Christians on, say, gay rights or women's rights, and they were not alone in their fears."

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