Events in Holland have served as a wake-up call for other European nations where multiculturalism appears to be failing. It’s one thing if the right explains the problems of today in terms of mistakes of the past, it’s quite another if the left acknowledges past mistakes. Former German Social Democrat chancellor Helmut Schmidt is an example of the latter when he made the following comment last week:

"Multicultural societies have only ... functioned peacefully in authoritarian states. To that extent it was a mistake for us to bring guest workers from foreign cultures into the country at the beginning of the 1960s," Schmidt said.

This is both refreshing and hopeful. The debate over Muslim immigration and the resulting seeds of radicalism on the European street can be conducted in a productive manner only if both sides of the political equation are able to use the same language, the same terms of reference. If one side remains stuck using outdated political constructs then the chances of finding common terms, effect change and move forward are remote. It may well be that the Van Gogh killing and the divided Dutch nation will cause other nations to rethink their options and in doing so may create a framework that to this day has eluded the Dutch.