Ambivalent in Amsterdam.

• Author: Hollander, Paul
• Position: Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance - Book review

Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (New York: Penguin Press, 2006), 288 pp., $24.95.

THERE HAVE been three major ideological-political movements in the 20th and early 21st centuries which most explicitly and purposefully exploited and harnessed the capacity for hatred to the pursuit of political objectives: Nazism, Communism and now radical Islam.

Supporters and leaders of all three movements believed that they could create blissful social systems if only they could eradicate the groups and individuals malevolently obstructing the accomplishment of the great goals. The thirst for destroying these enemies was dependably fueled by a consuming hatred. All three currents were arrayed against the West, that is to say, secular, liberal, democratic and pluralistic societies.

But Nazism and Communism were largely secular, or secular-religious--their adherents did not seek fulfillment and glory in the combination of self-destruction with the destruction of their enemies in the expectation of otherworldly rewards. These three belief systems also differed in the degree of irrationality their leaders and supporters displayed, reflecting the varying degrees of religious, or quasi-religious fervor motivating them. "Irrationality" here (as in general) refers to implausible, empirically unfounded beliefs and expectations--for example, those of the suicide bombers who are convinced that their murderous deeds will secure them admission to paradise.

Islamic radicals are also distinguished from Nazis and Communists by the prominence and intensity of their hatred, freely and joyously expressed, and the ready embrace of self-destruction rooted in the beliefs in otherworldly rewards. A major question of the present-day political agenda of the whole world, and especially Western nations, is how serious of a threat such fanaticism represents and how to cope with it.

In light of these questions and concerns, Ian Buruma's new book is of great interest. Buruma had earlier addressed (with Avishai Margalit) in Occidentalism the more elusive connections between the present-day Islamic hatred of the West and the rejections of Western values and institutions. In this volume the point of departure is the 2004 murder of Theo van Gogh, an outspoken Dutch critic of Islamic beliefs and attitudes. Why did a young man, who was neither poor nor oppressed, who had received a decent education, who had never had trouble making friends, who enjoyed smoking dope and...