Demagogue

In my earlier post, I said that Marco Pastors had lost his cabinet position in the Rotterdam government after he "said in a publication of the Rijnmond Diocese that many Muslims use their religion as a reason for their behavior and as a way of turning their backs on society."

That's a virtually verbatim paraphrase of the entire quote from the newspaper I was reading. Given some of the vitriol that flies around these days, I was a bit puzzled as to why this particular remark was causing such a storm.

Then a colleague showed me the quote from another newspaper:

I know I'm generalizing, but an Antillean or a Cape Verdean knows that stealing is wrong. Muslims excuse a lot on the basis of their religion. They put forward their faith as a reason. Antilleans or Cape Verdeans don't use their religion as an excuse for their (mis-) behavior. Muslims do often use their religion as a reason for their behavior, and to turn their backs on society.

I'm not so puzzled any more.