Dutch politician and Van Gogh's co-filmmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali reacts to yesterday's killing:

The politician who together with Van Gogh adressed the abuse of women in Islam in the movie 'Submission' feels guilty that she had approached Van Gogh with the script. "I feel guilty that I have used his lack of fear"

But Van Gogh told Hirsi Ali: " I am the village idiot, they won't do anything to me. You have to be careful, you are the apostate woman"

Hirsi Ali goes on to argue that not enough was done to protect Van Gogh despite several clear warning signs. That same debate took place shortly after the Fortuyn assassination and from that perspective not much has changed, the Dutch remain clueless about how to deal with their own homegrown insurgency. And no, it's not a time bomb ticking, the analogy that some media recycle endlessly. It's a gradual, step by step process in which a disgruntled fanatic minority on the fringe is able to derail and impair liberties and freedoms, and thus gradually society itself. Sure, if demographic trends persist that process will accelerate and not only the Dutch, but Europeans at large will have to accept that their world has materially changed. At the same time they will have to take decisive action to avoid the permanent rot that is now so evident.

UPDATE: Apparently, Van Gogh was divorced and so devoted to his young son that he never really was in a position to leave Holland, which is something he really preferred to do. Yet, if he had the chance, he said, he would have gone to America. That says it all, doesn't it?