“This is not just a day out, this is about re-education. It will allow the youths to see for themselves how much suffering the Second World War caused.” Very well. I hope it works. But I wonder if these “youths” will simply snicker behind their hands and praise the Nazi genocide among themselves — certainly other Muslims in Europe have done so openly. It is not enough to show that Jew-hatred leads to human suffering; youths indoctrinated with Qur’anic Jew-hatred may well be impervious to signs of human suffering. That Qur’anic Jew-hatred in itself must be confronted if there is really going to be any effective “re-education.” But no one dares do that.
“‘A good way to show they have regrets,'” from Flanders News, with thanks to Panos:
Fri 05/01/07 – Ten youths from Beringen (Limburg province) who had thrown stones at Jewish youths visited the Anne Frank Museum in the Dutch city of Amsterdam today. The youths were accompanied by Federal Minister Peter Vanvelthoven. The trip is part of a re-education scheme after an incident which caused widespread upset in December.
The facts go back to the end of November last year. A group of young Turkish immigrants in the Limburg municipality of Beringen attacked a group of Jewish school children by throwing stones at them, shouting anti-Semitic slogans.
The Antwerp school children were visiting former mining buildings in the area. The incident led to the children returning immediately, as the windows of the youth hostel where they would be staying overnight had also been smashed.
The incident was made public a week later and shocked the local community in Beringen.
It was agreed that the youths should apologise to the Jewish school children, that they would visit the Anne Frank House and do 30 hours of community work as a punishment.
“Not just a day out”
Federal Employment Minister Peter Vanvelthoven and Ahmed Koç, an alderman on the Beringen town council, accompanied the youths to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam to confront them with the horror the Jewish community was faced with during the Second World War.
“The Anne Frank Museum is quite impressive,” Mr Koç told VRT radio.
“This is not just a day out, this is about re-education. It will allow the youths to see for themselves how much suffering the Second World War caused. I think that seeing it with your own eyes has more impact than seeing it on TV.”
Federal Employment Minister Peter Vanvelthoven (Flemish socialist) accompanied Mr Koç.
“The visit to the museum is not a holiday trip. You should see as an extra day for the youths to show society they regret what they have done.”