I wish I had said “Muslims Who Don’t Like Free Speech Can ‘Fuck Off,'” but Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said it first. The NL Times reports,
Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb appeared on television programme Nieuwsuur Wednesday night, and lashed out at Muslims living in this society despite their hatred of it. “It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom,” he said. “But if you do not like freedom, in Heaven’s name pack your bag and leave.”
“There may be a place in the world where you can be yourself,” he continued. “Be honest with yourself and do not go and kill innocent journalists,” Aboutaleb, a Muslim himself, said.
“And if you do not like it here because humorists you do not like make a newspaper, may I then say you can fuck off.”
“This is stupid, this so incomprehensible,” he also said. “Vanish from the Netherlands if you cannot find your place here.”
Mayor Aboutaleb also expressed remorse at how Muslims will now be looked at in the Netherlands. “All those well-meaning Muslims here will now be stared at.”
Bravo Mayor Aboutaleb! Let me add to your statement: “All those, religious or not, who don’t like free speech can fuck off!”
H/T Richard Thain
Well said. It’s just such a shame that some people can’t take a hint.
Thanks for all the posts. Very disappointed in a number of Canadian news outlets, especially The Star and the CBC who defended not posting the Charlie Hebdo cartoons in support of the cause of free speech, insisting that they had no desire to offend Muslims. As this mayor clearly shows, Muslims are not monolithic and homogeneous in their views about these depictions. Some (many?) Western Muslims are mature enough to recognize satire for what it is or to at least grasp the secular concept of freedom of expression without being “offended”. The condescension of the The Star and CBC to choose to protray Muslims as universally incapable of handling “offense” in the form of satire is the height of Western arrogance.
Great post and he sounds like a great bloke. I’ve tweeted this.
Thanks for this!
““It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom,” he said. “But if you do not like freedom, in Heaven’s name pack your bag and leave.””
That should be the simple answer to all the west’s (and anyplace else’s) problems with Islamists. Obviously they’re beyond diplomacy.
So nice to hear this from a Muslim. Bravely done!
Yes take your quebec charter oppression and fuck off.