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Dear friends,<br>
<br>
Please find attached a review by Theo van Leeuwen of a book you
otherwise might not (or ever) know about:<br>
<br>
In 1993 I wrote a book in Dutch entitled <i>De Rasoel-Komrij Affaire</i>,
critically analyzing a cover-up by the cultural elites following the
publication of a racist pamphlet in which I saw the hand of famous poet
and feared columnist Gerrit Komrij, writing under the pseudonym Mohamed
Rasoel. This racist pamphlet ("The downfall of the Netherlands")
appeared a year after the Rushdie affair (1989) and features a more or
less literary fantasy of what would happen if the Muslims would take
over the Netherlands -- and some more general racist passages against
immigrants.<br>
<br>
By a detailed comparison of the contents and style of the pamphlet with
earlier racist columns of Gerrit Komrij, as well as a study of various
other forms of evidence, I concluded that this pamphlet - and the whole
mystification around its autorship - was probably intended as a
practical joke and a provocation. Actually the mystification officially
ended with the conviction of a Pakistani circus artist impersonating
the "author" Mohamed Rasoel, who however because of his limited
knowledge of Dutch and of Dutch affairs could not possibly have written
this pamphlet, written in unique and sophistiscated Dutch style and
with detailed knowledge of the Netherlands. <br>
<br>
The real author(s) of the pamphlet were never convicted. <br>
<br>
My claim that Komrij -- and maybe some of his friends -- were part of
this mystification was universally ridiculed and attacked by my
colleagues, writers and columnists in the mass media: a </font><font
face="Palatino Linotype">famous Dutch poet, one of their own, could
simply not be a racist -- </font><font face="Palatino Linotype">despite
the racist columns published under his own name about the same affair
and about the same time. <br>
<br>
Recent reactions of some Dutch people go so far as to insert lies about
the affair into the Wikipedia entry about me: claiming that a court had
found that I was wrong -- when actually a court found that I was not
guilty of slandering Komrij also because nobody believed me anyway --
and because Komrij could very well take care of my accusations himself.
Which he did: He </font><font face="Palatino Linotype">viciously
attacked me in
column after column in the most prominent elite newspaper of the
Netherlands (<i>NRC-Handelsblad</i>), in which the whole affair started
with a prepublication from the racist pamphlet right after the Rushdie
affair. Komrij even called on the authorities of the University of
Amsterdam to fire this anti-racist "text professor". <br>
</font><font face="Palatino Linotype"><br>
My book ends with an analysis of elite racism in general and in the
Netherlands in particular -- and concludes that the later success of
anti-Muslim leader Fortuyn and the strong right-wing turn in the
Netherlands were no surprise to me at all, also after my earlier
scholarly studies of elite racism in the Neterlands. <br>
<br>
This essay was my last book in Dutch and a critical farewell to the
Netherlands -- which I left in 1999 to live and work in Barcelona,
Spain. No publisher wanted to publish my book, and when I finally
published it myself, under the CRITICS imprint, no newspaper in the
Netherlands published a review of the book - so that very few people
were informed about its publication, and the book was barely sold.<br>
<br>
Those of you who can read Dutch, or know people who can, may find a
copy of the book on my website:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.discourses.org/De">http://www.discourses.org/De</a> Rasoel-Komrij Affaire.pdf.<br>
<br>
I am very much indebted to Theo van Leeuwen for his review -- which
tells the story, in English, to a broader audience. <br>
<br>
Best wishes<br>
<br>
Teun<br>
<br>
________________________________________<br>
<br>
Teun A. van Dijk<br>
Universitat Pompeu Fabra<br>
Dept. de Traducció i Filologia<br>
Rambla 30<br>
08002 Barcelona<br>
<br>
E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:teun@discourses.org">teun@discourses.org</a><br>
Internet: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.discourses.org">www.discourses.org</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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