A week ago I wrote that Amsterdam Aelderman Achmed Aboutaleb accused Minister of Immigration and Intergration Rita Verdonk of "capitalizing on the murder of Theo van Gogh". The filmmaker was assassinated by a Jihadist in November 2004.
"Iron" Liberal-Conservative (VVD) Rita Verdonk, demanded an apology. She would not meet him until he would "go through dust". Mayor Job Cohen (Labour) tried to save the face of the big Muslim hope of the Labour Party, by insisting that Aboutaleb had apologized.
Monday, after heavy critizism from all sides the Muslim Aelderman (Dutch) apologized fully to Verdonk.
The episode is important. Aboutaleb is supposed to draw the votes for Labour from the moderate Muslims in Amsterdam, especially the Moroccans. For a Muslim man to apologize to a woman is a big thing and it will have damaged Aboutaleb's voter appeal considerably.
The votes will go to other leftist parties or more Muslim voters, who have a below 50 percent voting participation rate will stay home when the elections are held.
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