Theo van Gogh (film director)
Encyclopedia
Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh (ˈteːjoː vɑnˈɣɔx, 23 July 1957 2 November 2004) was a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 film director, film producer, columnist, author and actor.

Van Gogh worked with the Somali
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...

 to produce the film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women in Islam
Women in Islam
The study of women in Islam investigates the role of women within the religion of Islam. The complex relationship between women and Islam is defined by Islamic texts, the history and culture of the Muslim world...

 and aroused controversy among Muslims. On 2 November 2004 he was assassinated by Mohammed Bouyeri
Mohammed Bouyeri
Mohammed Bouyeri is an Islamist Dutch–Moroccan and convicted murderer. He is currently serving a life sentence without parole for the assassination of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh. He holds both Dutch and Moroccan citizenship...

, a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim
Islam in the Netherlands
The history of Islam in the Netherlands started in the 19th century when the Netherlands experienced sporadic Muslim migration from the Dutch East Indies when it was a colony from the Netherlands...

.

The last film he completed before his death, 06/05
06/05
06/05, called May 6th in English-speaking countries, is a Dutch 2004 film directed by Theo van Gogh, based on the novel De Zesde Mei by Tomas Ross. The film is a fictional version of the events that led to the assassination of the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn on 6 May 2002. The lines between...

, is a fictional version of the assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 of the politician Pim Fortuyn
Pim Fortuyn
Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn was a Dutch politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List ....

.

Life

Theo van Gogh was born in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. His father, Johan van Gogh, was a member of the Dutch secret service ('AIVD', then called 'BVD'). Theo's uncle, also named Theo, was executed by the Germans as a resistance
Resistance during World War II
Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns...

 fighter during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Theo's great-grandfather was the art dealer
Art dealer
An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art. Art dealers' professional associations serve to set high standards for accreditation or membership and to support art exhibitions and shows.-Role:...

 Theo van Gogh
Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
Theodorus "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theo's unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting...

, brother of the artist Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...

.

After dropping out of law school at the University of Amsterdam, van Gogh became a stage manager
Stage management
Stage management is the practice of organizing and coordinating a theatrical production. It encompasses a variety of activities, including organizing the production and coordinating communications between various personnel...

. His self-proclaimed passion was filmmaking, and he debuted as a director with the movie Luger (1981). He received a Gouden Kalf ("Golden Calf", the Dutch equivalent of the Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

) for Blind Date (1996) and In het belang van de staat ("In the Interest of the State") (1997). For the latter, he also received a "Certificate of Merit" from the San Francisco International Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival is the oldest continuously running film festival in the Americas. Organized by the San Francisco Film Society, the International is held each spring for two weeks, presenting an average of 150 films from over 50 countries...

. As an actor he appeared in the production De noorderlingen ("The Northerners", 1992).

After that, he worked for television. Van Gogh also wrote provocative columns for Metro
Metro International
Metro International is a Swedish media company based in Luxembourg that publishes the Metro newspapers. Metro International's advertising sales have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 41% since launch of the first newspaper edition in 1995. It is a freesheet, meaning that distribution is...

 and other newspapers. He wrote polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...

 prose. His website was called De Gezonde Roker ("The Healthy Smoker"). The site's name, which is also the title of one of his books, was an allusion both to his notorious chain smoking and to the "politically correct
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...

" negative stance towards smoking in society.

His last book (2003) was Allah weet het beter (Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...

 Knows Better) in which he strongly condemned Islam. He was a well-known critic of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, particularly after the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

. He supported the nomination of the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 (former PvdA Labour Party
Labour Party (Netherlands)
The Labour Party , is a social-democratic political party in the Netherlands. Since the 2003 Dutch General Election, the PvdA has been the second largest political party in the Netherlands. The PvdA was a coalition member in the fourth Balkenende cabinet following 22 February 2007...

), Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

n-born female politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...

 for Dutch parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

.

Political views

Van Gogh was a member of the Dutch republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...

 society Republikeins Genootschap, which advocates the abolition of the Dutch monarchy. He was a friend and supporter of the controversial Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn
Pim Fortuyn
Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn was a Dutch politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List ....

, who was assassinated in 2002.

Controversial statements

In the 1980s, Van Gogh became a newspaper columnist, and through the years he used his columns to vent his anger at politicians, actors, film directors, writers and other people he considered to be part of "the establishment". He was a controversial figure who delighted in provocation. He filled his website, "De Gezonde Roker" ("The Healthy Smoker"), with harsh criticism of multicultural society
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...

. He said the Netherlands had such social turmoil that it threatened to turn it into a "type of Belfast" in a few years.

Submission

Working from a script written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, van Gogh created the 10-minute movie Submission. The movie deals with violence against women in some Islamic societies; it tells the stories, using visual shock tactics, of four abused Muslim women. The title, Submission, is a translation of the word "Islam" into English; it refers to Muslims' submission before God. In the film, women's naked bodies are veiled with semi-transparent shrouds as they kneel in prayer, telling their stories as if they are speaking to Allah.

In August 2004, after the movie's broadcast on Dutch public TV, the newspaper De Volkskrant reported that the journalist Francisco van Jole accused Hirsi Ali and Van Gogh of plagiarism. He said they had appropriated the ideas of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian-American video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...

 artist Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat شیرین نشاط is an Iranian visual artist who lives in New York. She is known primarily for her work in film, video and photography.-Background:Neshat's parents were upper middle-class...

, whose work used Arabic text projected onto bodies. After Submission was broadcast, Van Gogh and Hirsi Ali received death threat
Death threat
A death threat is a threat of death, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or groups of people. These threats are usually designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behavior, thus a death threat is a form of coercion...

s. Van Gogh did not take these seriously and refused any protection. According to Ali, he said, "Nobody kills the village idiot", a term he frequently used in self reference.

Assassination

Mohammed Bouyeri
Mohammed Bouyeri
Mohammed Bouyeri is an Islamist Dutch–Moroccan and convicted murderer. He is currently serving a life sentence without parole for the assassination of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh. He holds both Dutch and Moroccan citizenship...

 murdered Van Gogh as he was cycling to work in the early morning of 2 November 2004, in front of the Amsterdam East borough office (stadsdeelkantoor), on the corner of the Linnaeusstraat and Tweede Oosterparkstraat (52°21′32.22"N 4°55′34.74"E). The killer shot van Gogh eight times with an HS 2000 handgun
Handgun
A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....

, and Van Gogh died on the spot. The killer also tried to decapitate van Gogh with one knife, and stabbed him in the chest with another. The two knives were left implanted; one attached a five-page note to his body. The note (Text) threatened Western countries, Jews and Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...

 (who went into hiding). The note also referred to the ideologies of the Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian organization Takfir wal-Hijra
Takfir wal-Hijra
Jama'at al-Muslimin , popularly known as Takfir wal-Hijra , was a radical Islamist group led by Shukri Mustafa, which emerged in Egypt in the 1960s as an offshoot of Muslim Brotherhood, inspired by Sayyid Qutb.The group was...

.

The suspect, Mohammed Bouyeri, a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan citizen, was apprehended by the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 after a chase and being shot in the leg. Bouyeri has alleged terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

 ties with the Dutch Hofstad Network
Hofstad Network
The Hofstad Network is an Islamist group of mostly young Dutch Muslims of mainly Moroccan ancestry.The name "Hofstad" was originally the codename the Dutch secret service AIVD used for a set of individuals and leaked to the media...

. He was charged with the attempted murder
Attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.-Today:In English criminal law, attempted murder is the crime of more than merely preparing to commit unlawful killing and at the same time having a specific intention to cause the death of human being under the Queen's Peace...

 of several police officers and bystanders, illegal possession of a firearm, and conspiring to murder others, including Hirsi Ali. He was convicted on 26 July 2005 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...

.

The murder sparked a storm of outrage throughout the Netherlands. Flowers, notes, drawings, and other expressions of mourning were left at the scene of the murder.

Aftermath

The day after the murder, Dutch police arrested eight Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 radicals belonging to a group later referred to as the Hofstad Network
Hofstad Network
The Hofstad Network is an Islamist group of mostly young Dutch Muslims of mainly Moroccan ancestry.The name "Hofstad" was originally the codename the Dutch secret service AIVD used for a set of individuals and leaked to the media...

. Six detainees were Dutch-Moroccans
Moroccan people
The Moroccan people are a people that share a common Moroccan culture, ancestry and speak the Moroccan variant of the Arabic language or a Berber language as a mother tongue....

, one was Dutch-Algerian, and one had dual Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....

-Moroccan nationality. The Dutch Complaints Bureau for Discrimination on the Internet (MDI) received many complaints about websites' praising the murder and making death threats against other people.

At the same time, starting with four attempted arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...

 attacks on mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

s in the weekend of 5–7 November, numerous apparently retaliatory violent incidents and arson attacks took place against Muslim targets. The Dutch Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia recorded a total of 106 violent incidents in November against Muslim targets. The National Dutch Police Services Agency (KLPD) recorded 31 occasions of violence against mosques and Islamic schools between 23 November and 13 March 2005. An arson attack destroyed a Muslim primary school in Uden
Uden
Uden is a municipality and a town in the province of Noord-Brabant, Netherlands.- History :Uden was first recorded around 1190 as “Uthen”. However, earlier settlements have been found in the areas of the modern day Moleneind, Vorstenburg and Bitswijk and evidence of ice-age settlements has been...

 in December 2004. By 8 November, Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 churches became targets of vandalism and arson attacks. A report for the Anne Frank Foundation
Anne Frank Foundation
The Anne Frank Foundation or Anne Frank Stichting is a foundation in The Netherlands originally established to maintain the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam...

 and the University of Leiden, which counted a total of 174 violent incidents between 2–30 November, notes that mosques were the target of violence 47 times, and churches 13 times.

The murder widened and polarized the debate in the Netherlands about the position of its more than one million Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 residents and how they would be affected. In an apparent reaction against controversial statements about the Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic, Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

, and Jewish religions—such as those van Gogh was renowned for, the Dutch Minister of Justice, Christian Democrat Piet Hein Donner
Piet Hein Donner
Jan Pieter Hendrik "Piet Hein" Donner is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal . He is the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in the Cabinet Rutte since October 14, 2010....

, suggested Dutch blasphemy
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...

 laws should either be applied more stringently or made more strict. The liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 D66
Democrats 66
Democrats 66 is a progressive and social-liberal political party in the Netherlands. D66 was formed in 1966 by a group of politically unaligned, young intellectuals, led by journalist Hans van Mierlo. The party's main objective was to democratise the political system; it proposed to create an...

 party suggested scrapping the blasphemy laws altogether.

The Independent Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 member of parliament Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders is a Dutch right-wing politician and leader of the Party for Freedom , the third-largest political party in the Netherlands. He is the Parliamentary group leader of his party in the Dutch House of Representatives...

 advocated a five-year halt to non-Western immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

, saying: "The Netherlands has been too tolerant to intolerant people for too long. We should not import a retarded political Islamic society to our country". In opposition to such sentiments, campaigns for a kleurrijk Nederland ("colorful Netherlands"), such as Stop de Hetze (Stop the Witch Hunt), were started.

Geert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...

 went into hiding for several weeks. Wilders has been under the protection of bodyguards ever since and Hirsi Ali eventually relocated to the United States.
Theo van Gogh's son claims he has been attacked on several occasions by young people of Moroccan
Moroccan people
The Moroccan people are a people that share a common Moroccan culture, ancestry and speak the Moroccan variant of the Arabic language or a Berber language as a mother tongue....

 and Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 descent, and that the police did not provide him with help or protection. The police deny receiving any report of attacks.

On 18 March 2007, a sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 in memory of Theo van Gogh was unveiled in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, entitled De Schreeuw
De Schreeuw
De Schreeuw is an memorial that remembers the assassinated Dutch filmmaker/regisseur Theo van Gogh.Theo van Gogh was assassinated on 2 November 2004 in the Linnaeusstraat in Amsterdam, just a few steps away from the Oosterpark...

 ("The Scream"). It is located in the Oosterpark
Oosterpark (Amsterdam)
The Oosterpark in Amsterdam is the first large park laid out by the municipality of Amsterdam. The park is located in the Oost/Watergraafsmeer borough and forms a component of the Oosterpark area...

, just a short distance from where van Gogh was murdered.

A private trust, the Foundation for Freedom of Expression
Foundation for Freedom of Expression
The Foundation for Freedom of Expression is a private trust to help protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali as well as other dissidents in the Muslim world by way of international charitable donations....

, was established to help fund protection for critics of Islam and Muslims.

Murder and Index on Censorship

In the English-speaking world, controversy arose after publication of Rohan Jayasekera
Rohan Jayasekera (writer)
Rohan Asoka Jayasekera is a British journalist, editor, web designer and occasionally controversial activist for free expression and media rights...

's article in the magazine Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship is a campaigning publishing organisation for freedom of expression, which produces an award-winning quarterly magazine of the same name from London. The present chief executive of Index on Censorship, since 2008, is the author, broadcaster and commentator John Kampfner, former...

. The Associate Editor said that Van Gogh was a "free-speech fundamentalist" who had been on a "martyrdom operation[,] roar[ing] his Muslim critics into silence with obscenities" in an "abuse of his right to free speech". Describing van Gogh's film Submission as "furiously provocative", Jayasekera said his death was:
Both left- and right-wing commentators criticized the article. In December 2004, Nick Cohen
Nick Cohen
Nick Cohen is a British journalist, author and political commentator. He is currently a columnist for The Observer, a blogger for The Spectator and TV critic for Standpoint magazine. He formerly wrote for the London Evening Standard and the New Statesman...

 of London's Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

 wrote:
Cohen's account of the conversation was repudiated by the editor of Index on Censorship in a letter to The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

.

Publications

Van Gogh contributed to various newspapers and magazines.

He published the following books:
  • Engel ("Angel", 1990)
  • Er gebeurt nooit iets ("Nothing Ever Happens", 1993)
  • Sla ik mijn vrouw wel hard genoeg? ("Do I Beat My Wife Hard Enough?", 1996)
  • De gezonde roker ("The healthy smoker", 2000)
  • Allah weet het beter ("Allah Knows Better", 2003)
  • De tranen van Mabel ("Mabel's tears", with Tomas Ross
    Tomas Ross
    Tomas Ross is a Dutch writer who is famous for his historical criminal thrillers.He was born as Willem Pieter Hogendoorn in Den Bommel . He has used the pseudonym Tomas Ross since 1980. His father P.G...

    , 2004)

Filmography

  • Luger (1982)
  • Een dagje naar het strand ("A Day at the Beach", 1984)
  • Charley (1986)
  • Terug naar Oegstgeest ("Back to Oegstgeest
    Oegstgeest
    Oegstgeest is a town and municipality in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. Its population was 22,576 in 2008.-Location :...

    ", 1987)
  • Loos ("Wild", 1989)
  • Vals licht ("False Light", 1993)
  • Ilse verandert de geschiedenis ("Ilse Changes History", 1993)
  • 06 (1994)
  • Reunie ("Reunion", 1994)
  • Eva (1994)
  • Een galerij: De wanhoop van de sirene ("A Gallery: The Despair of the Siren", 1994)
  • De Eenzame Oorlog Van Koos Tak ("Koos Tak's Lonely War", 1995)
  • Blind Date
    Blind Date (1996 film)
    Blind Date is a 1996 Dutch film by director Theo van Gogh.In 1996, the film was nominated for four Golden Calves at the Netherlands Film Festival and won three.In 2008, Stanley Tucci released a remake of the film....

     (1996)
  • Hoe ik mijn moeder vermoordde ("How I Killed My Mother", 1996)
  • In het belang van de staat ("In the Interest of the State", 1997)
  • Au ("Ouch", 1997)
  • De Pijnbank ("The Rack", 1998)
  • Baby Blue (2001)
  • De nacht van Aalbers ("Aalbers's Night", 2001)
  • Najib en Julia (2002) television play based on William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

    's Romeo and Juliet
    Romeo and Juliet
    Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

     about the love between a white upper-class girl and a pizza delivery man of Moroccan descent.
  • Interview
    Interview (2003 film)
    Interview is a 2003 Dutch drama film, directed by Theo van Gogh, starring Katja Schuurman and Pierre Bokma. The film is about a war correspondent having an interview with a soap opera actress....

     (2003), cynical journalist interviews society actress.
  • Zien ("Seeing", 2004)
  • Submission (2004)
  • Cool (2004) a film about young offenders, some of them of Moroccan descent. In the movie the offenders play themselves.
  • 06/05
    06/05
    06/05, called May 6th in English-speaking countries, is a Dutch 2004 film directed by Theo van Gogh, based on the novel De Zesde Mei by Tomas Ross. The film is a fictional version of the events that led to the assassination of the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn on 6 May 2002. The lines between...

     (2004), a film mixing fact and fiction around the assassination of Pim Fortuyn
    Pim Fortuyn
    Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn was a Dutch politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List ....

    .
  • Medea (2005), a modern day adaptation of Medea
    Medea (play)
    Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed...

    .

Unfinished projects

  • Bad (A "lesbian road movie") Production was planned for 2005
  • Duizend en één Dag ("Thousand and One Days"). A drama series about young Muslims struggling with their faith. Although this project had not even reached preproduction, Van Gogh had already found a broadcaster for the series: Dutch Muslim Broadcasting Organisation NMO.

See also

  • Lars Vilks
    Lars Vilks
    Lars Endel Roger Vilks is a Swedish artist. He is best known for his drawings of Muhammed, prophet of Islam.- Personal background :...

  • Kurt Westergaard
    Kurt Westergaard
    Kurt Westergaard is a Danish cartoonist who created the controversial cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb in his turban. This cartoon was the most contentious of the 12 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, which met with strong and sometimes violent reactions from Muslims worldwide...

  • Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
    Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
    The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...

  • Multiculturalism in the Netherlands
    Multiculturalism in the Netherlands
    Multiculturalism in the Netherlands began with a major increases in immigration during the 1950s and 60s. As a consequence, an official national policy of multiculturalism was adopted in the early 1980s. This policy subsequently gave way to more assimilationist policies in the 1990s...

  • Criticism of multiculturalism
    Criticism of multiculturalism
    Criticism of multiculturalism questions the multicultural ideal of the co-existence of distinct ethnic cultures within one nation-state. Multiculturalism is a particular subject of debate in certain European nations that were once associated with a single, homogeneous, national cultural identity...

  • Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
    Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
    Everybody Draw Mohammed Day was an event held on 20 May 2010 in support of free speech and freedom of artistic expression of those threatened by violence for drawing representations of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad...


Further reading

  • Buruma, Ian
    Ian Buruma
    Buruma is a nephew of the English film director John Schlesinger, a series of interviews with whom he published in book form.-Works:*The Japanese Tattoo with Donald Richie ISBN 978-0-8348-0228-5...

    , Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance, London, The Penguin Press, 2006. ISBN 1-59420-108-0

External links

De Gezonde Roker (The healthy smoker) – website of Theo van Gogh (website under revision)

About the movies "Submission" and "06/05"


Articles about the murder

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK