ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the political and moral aspects of such ritual responses in the context of the general Dutch concern over senseless violence. In the disagreements surrounding the ritual practices in commemoration of El Bejjati's death, the deeper issue of the Van Gogh narrative the position of immigrant groups within Dutch society was again brought to the fore. Among many non-Moroccan Dutch, El Bejjati known popularly as the bag snatcher evoked sentiments related to increasing street violence, Moroccan criminality, and the advancing danger of Islam and terrorism: perceived social wrongs all related to the general failure of Dutch immigration politics. Opinions on the position of the Moroccan population in Dutch society polarised further, with a tendency to a shift, also in the light of international Muslim terrorism, towards being a religious rather than an ethnic issue. The death of Meindert Tjoelker sent an unprecedented wave of indignation through Dutch society.
