They were showing solidarity and support for their team — in a manner that reflects the typical style humor us Amsterdammers have.

As this Wikipedia section shows, the situation eventually got out of hand. For a while games were actually stopped — and at times the stadium cleared — if certain chants were heard. The New York Times article linked to in that section also is informative.

@John M: Yes, many folks here have a similar response. Mind you, Cohen’s approach — put in the spotlight when he had to respond to the murder of Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist — did earn him some kudos.

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The world should not try appeasement and procrastination as a response, like it did with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Godwin’s Law in 3…2…1…

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Today, Muslims use and abuse the freedom European Christians enjoy (but NEVER Muslims, in their own countries) to try and destroy Western civilization from within.

When Europeans and Americans will finally wake up to the danger that Islam, an ideology that has nothing to do with religion (and therefore cannot be equally protected under the law), it might be too late. The election of Barak Hussein Obama is just one example, and a shameful one too.

The world should not try appeasement and procrastination as a response, like it did with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. It is much too expensive in terms of lives and resources.

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In closing: for years soccer matches between Amsterdam football team Ajax and arch-rival Feyenoord (Roterdam) saw Feyenoord fans use anti-Semitic insults – to which Ajax fans responded by making ‘Super Jews’ a term of honor.

I first learned of this recently and have been wondering: Are Ajax fans using Jews as a caricatured mascot, the way various U.S. sports teams do with Native Americans? Or are they actually showing solidarity and support for their local Jewish population? Or does it depend upon whom you ask?

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Thank you very much for your insights. Seems that the matter is tad bit more complicated than outsiders would think, no?

But I must confess that this:

Our previous mayor, Job Cohen, was known for his suggestion to ‘drink tea’ with parents of hooligans, or to ‘take away the expensive sneakers’ from street robbers.

…well, I think this video clip summarized my response.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFN_xuwiDW0

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While countless Moroccans are productive members of Dutch society many second or third generation Moroccan youths are, for whatever reason, involved in crime. Most of them are not religiously observant Muslims, but rather Muslims by culture.

Recent media reports in the Netherlands stated that more than half of Moroccan youth age 22 and under have been in touch with the police – versus 23% of Dutch boys and 5% of Dutch girls).

I do not know whether any such numbers are available for Turkish youth. Moroccans and Turks represents two of Holland’s largest Muslim immigrant groups. The two generally don’t see eye-to-eye. I see very few media reports about discrimination, robberies, hooliganism or other crimes in which the perpetrators are identified as Turks.

Media reports indicate the problem is widespread – with Moroccan youths over-represented in the crime figures of nearly every city with a large Moroccan presence.

I have seen various explanations. One that makes sense to me is that Moroccan youths feel a disconnect between their cultural roots and upbringing versus the Netherlands’ secular, nearly-anything-goes society.

For a while the Moroccan community used an interesting approach – officially condoned and promoted by Dutch authorities: appointing so-called ’street fathers’ to try and prevent hooliganism and other crimes. The thinking was that while Moroccan youths do not respect Dutch authority, they do respect the authority from within the Moroccan community.

Incidentally, what does not help either is that Morocco insists that Moroccans - including those born in the Netherlands – have a dual nationality. The Moroccan government even dictates which names Moroccan parents in the Netherlands can give their children.

This worked for a while, but increasingly fails largely because in essence it teaches Moroccan youths to ignore Dutch authority.

Moroccans ’street fathers’ have even been invited by cinemas to try and calm down obnoxious crowds of Moroccan hooligans that drive away customers.

As for ‘Decoy Jews’: this is not a new idea, since we already have seen Decoy Grannies and Decoy Gays. The first group are seen as easy prey by street robbers. The second group is increasingly harassed – usually, if one can believe the press reports, by Moroccan youths.

Some Dutch folks are already talking about a vigilante approach. Many older Moroccans have told authorities that they have no grip on their kids because they are not allowed by Dutch law to punish them the way they would punish them in Morocco. But no civilized society can afford to permit those kind of punishments, just as no civilized society can be expected to accept Sharia law.

On the other hand, the Dutch approach is often seen as too soft. Our previous mayor, Job Cohen, was known for his suggestion to ‘drink tea’ with parents of hooligans, or to ‘take away the expensive sneakers’ from street robbers.

In the end I believe the attacks on gays, primarily in Amsterdam, will actually hasten a tougher approach against criminal Moroccans. After all, the City of Amsterdam has committed itself to regain and defend the title of Gay Capital of the World – a distinction that brings in oodles of tourist dollars…

In closing: for years soccer matches between Amsterdam football team Ajax and arch-rival Feyenoord (Roterdam) saw Feyenoord fans use anti-Semitic insults – to which Ajax fans responded by making ‘Super Jews’ a term of honor.

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This might be an interesting idea after all.

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