NOTES TO PAGES 69–73- David Scott, ‘‘The Power of Thinking: An Interview with Talal Asad,’’ inPowers of the
Secular Modern: Talal Asad and His Interlocutors, ed. David Scott and Charles Hirschkind (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 2006), 271. - Ibid., 272.
- Ibid., 285.
- Ibid.
- Ibid., 298.
- Asad,Formations of the Secular, 23.
- Scott, ‘‘The Power of Thinking,’’ 284.
- That not all explosive issues revolve around the veil is illustrated by the recent interna-
tional scandal triggered by the publication in Denmark of cartoons depicting the prophet Moham-
med. Similar incidents have been reported with respect to Hinduism. See Salil Tripathi’s article
‘‘The Right to be Offended,’’ on the Indian painter Maqbool Fida Husain, inThe International
Herald Tribune, May 30, 2006. Husain repeatedly faced the risk of being prosecuted for painting
Bharat Mata, Mother India, and several other Hindu female deities in the nude. As the writer of
the article explains: ‘‘Because of the amount of attention Muslims have commanded when they
have been offended by images they consider blasphemous—a concept alien to Hinduism—Hindus
want equal treatment. They want the right to be offended.’’ - Van Gogh’s death was linked to his direction of the short filmSubmission I, in 2004,
authored by Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a defender of the ‘‘right to offend.’’ A former member
of parliament and an outspoken critic of Islam, Hirsi Ali nearly lost her Dutch passport over irregu-
larities in her initial application. The ensuing uproar led to the fall of the Dutch government. A
second film, entitledSubmission II, whose script Hirsi Ali co-authored with van Gogh shortly before
his murder, has been announced for the fall of 2006. Informed sources report that the Dutch
government in The Hague has put a crisis team in place well in advance, anticipating new outrage
and reprisals. Hirsi Ali has even announced aSubmission III, which would feature God—Allah
himself. No preparation for that release has been announced, however... See also Ian Buruma,
Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance(New York: Penguin,
2006). - Like Hirsi Ali, Job Cohen was singled out for a death threat in the letter stabbed onto
van Gogh chest.
166.Time Europe166, no. 15 (October 10, 2005). - On the issue of ‘‘Vreemden [Strangers],’’ Cohen pronounced the Cleveringa lecture at the
University of Leiden, in November 2002. For the full text in Dutch, see http://www.amsterdam.nl/
gemeente/documenten/toespraken/cohen/inhoud/cleveringa-lezing. - A recent government-commissioned report, published in June 2006 by the National
Council Against Racial Discrimination, in collaboration with the Anne Frank Foundation and the
University of Leiden, found that some 475,000 people (which is almost half of the Netherlands
residents of non-Western origin, especially Moroccans, Turks, and descendents from families in
the former colonies of the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam) indicated that they suffered from
discrimination during job applications, at school, and in verbal and psychic abuse in public trans-
portation, bars, etc. (The International Herald Tribune, June 15, 2006). - In the meantime, a host of publications and initiatives indicate a growing awareness of
the urgency of these questions in relation to religion. See the special issue ofChristendemocratische
Verkenningen, the quarterly journal of the scientific bureau of the Christian Democratic Party,
Christendemocratisch Appel (CDA), edited by Erik Borgman, Gabrie ̈l van den Brink, and Thijs
Jansen,Zonder geloof geen democratie(Amsterdam: Boom, 2006), and Marcel ten Hooven and Theo
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