Den hollandske fremtidsforsker Adjiedj Bakas om arrestationen af tegneren Nekshot.
Leading European Futurologist Adjiedj Bakas is not surprised at the action of the OM (Public Prosecutor’s Office) last week. An arrest team of nine men pulled in cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot and saw to it that 8 cartoons that were considered offensive to black people and Muslims disappeared from his website without the intervention of the court.
Two years ago Bakas published his book on trends in humour “Megatrends from Smile to Irony”. In this book Bakas predicted that so-called political correctness would muzzle humour in Europe. A survey among professional European humorists, such as cabaret artists and cartoonists, proved that the overwhelming majority (more than 90%) practise self-censorship since the commotion over the Danish cartoons – on grounds of safety, but also because of the self-Islamicisation of European governments. Bakas explains self-Islamicisation as: “a form of appeasement directed at Muslim
fundamentalists, whereby allowances are made in advance for offence supposedly caused to them, while their sowing of hatred is tolerated.” This self-Islamicisation is apparent all over western Europe, apart from the odd exception, such as here and there in France or Denmark. The return of religion to the public domain is also partly to blame for this. Christian authorities abuse the supposed offending of Muslims to tackle the offending of Christians. This again conforms to the trend of a return to the Middle Ages, which Bakas has described before. In the Middle Ages there were also attempts to tackle satirists like the author of “Van den Vos Reynaerde” (Reynard the Fox). Actions of this kind decreased during the Enlightenment.
Bakas, who will shortly give a talk to the OM, comments that it did not take nine men to lift well known Dutch author Gerard Reve from his bed for his famous ‘donkey’ case. “A letter asking him to call in or an appointment via Nekschot’s publisher would have been more than enough.” The argument that the identity of the cartoonist must have been discovered between 2005 and now is therefore ridiculous.” The supposedly offensive character of the cartoons has in Bakas’ opinion never been demonstrated. “Has an opinion poll on these cartoons ever been held among black people and Muslims? I know for certain it has not. And so what if one population group is quicker to take offence than another? I have also used Nekschot’s cartoons in my books, as illustrations. So, will the OM remove my books from the bookshops? I am black and the son of an Islamic father and a Hindu mother. In my family we very much enjoy Nekschot’s cartoons.
