Murder In Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance
Murder in Amsterdam is author Ian Buruma's exploration of the tension between the Dutch natives and the Muslim immigrants living in Holland during the 2004 murder of media personality Theo van Gogh. Mr. Van Gogh's murderer, a Muslim, targeted the outspoken Dutchmen because he created a documentary criticizing Islam's treatment of women. The author uses this case to argue against the commonly-held idea that Holland is a supremely tolerant nation. Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC hosted the event.
Dutch-born Ian Buruma is a professor of democracy, human rights and journalism at Bard College in New York. His other books include Conversations with John Schlesinger and Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Their Enemies.
Bio
Ian Buruma
Ian Buruma is an Anglo-Dutch writer and academic. Much of his work focuses on Asian culture, particularly that of 20th-century Japan.
He was born in the Netherlands, to a Dutch father and English Jewish mother. He studied Chinese literature and then Japanese film at Nihon University in Tokyo. He has held a number of editorial and academic positions and has contributed numerous articles to the New York Review of Books.
He has held fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C and St. Antony's College, Oxford. In 2003, he became Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights & Journalism at Bard College, New York.