Burmas Murder in Amsterdam and Dubious Soccer Empire - Essay Example

Analysis of Buruma’s “Murder in Amsterdam” and “Dubois’s Soccer Empire” Murder in Amsterdam is a literature piece of workwritten by Buruma. The book uses the horrifying killing of Van Gogh. In the book, the author gives a persuasive analysis of the ascending o radical Islam in Netherlands. There being many types of races living in Netherlands, there has been multiculturalism, which leads to assimilation of integration of people from different races. However, after the killing of Van Gogh, the Dutch society is living in a funk. For example, Ms Hirsi Ali is a vicious opponent of multiculturalism. She has a belief that it is wrong and dangerous for the tolerant people and the liberal to accept the illiberal and intolerant. She feels that the West should not be cowards in proclaiming their system’s superiority. However, she compels the Muslims to adopt the Western values risk as a counterattack. The author shows that the most radical Muslims are not those who immigrate to Europe but those in the second generation and born in Europe. The most radical Muslims grow up rootless, disaffected and most of them are jobless. In the Book “Soccer Empire” by Dubois, the author explores the history of French football and illuminates the tangled and great history of the relationship between France and its colonies in Africa such as Algeria, Caribbean, and West Africa. Dubois illustrates the role of sport in the evolution of anti-racism and anti-colonial movements. Dubois explores the relationship between sports clubs and political parties and the manner in which they influence racial equality and act as a channel for collective desires and emotions. The author uses two heroes in the modern French games namely Zidane and Lilian Thuram. Thuram is a hero: a diplomat and a football intellectual. He was born in Guadeloupe and committed to both his birthplace and the values of the French Republic. Thuram campaigns against racism because for him dignity is paramount despite all the provocation. According to Thuram, he does not sing the La Marseilaise when presenting France because he feels that it is more significant to feel loyalty instead of showing it. Zidane is Dubois’ antihero character in his book. The players from different origins together with Zidane form a great team and win the World Cup in the year. Dubois illustrates that, the football team has come against racism and overcome it fully because the team is a multicultural composition of people from different origins. The team members forget their differences, work hard together to achieve one common goal. The French society in the book is a composition of people having different cultures and lifestyles but they live together accepting each other as people from France. Dubois shows that France is one country that has many different cultures but all the people are united by the sports as one community. In the Soccer Empire, France is a highly fragmented territorial sovereignty, which scatters from the Caribbean to the pacific. It is a product of multiple cultures and races, where some are free and others are slaves. Dubois uses the team as a diversity assimilation tool indicating that there is power and strength in diversity. Both Zisane and Thuram portrayed the manner in which racism should be confronted. Despite the fact that their origin was not France, they responded by being the France itself. They had the right to be treated equally because they worked very hard to increase reputation of the France team and not for their home country teams. They felt that they deserved respect as French people. Both Zidane and Thuram victoriously and undeniably branded the consciousness of the nation worth their presence and in a profound and irrefutable way. They proved indispensable to those people who may have discriminated them when they were growing up in the banlieue or when their families were seeking permit to enter France as immigrants. They showed their patriotism on the largest stage available to them in the year 1998 during the World Cup. Dubois states that Thuram is a spokesperson the racial discriminated people meaning that racism is significant in France. During the 1998 world cup, Zidane proved that he had a right to play freely like any other person without being insulted. By attacking Materazzi, Zidane proved that he was not ready to be insulted because he belonged to a different race. In the year 2003, during the game between Juventus and Olympiakos, the Greek fans chucked racial insults towards Thuram. However, it was funny that the Greek fans cheered their star player Christian Karemebeu. Fans tend to show racism towards the opponent team players. The author notes that the fans discriminate those players who belong to the opponent team and use all the insults to weaken them. In fact, the Greek fans used insults relating to racism by take advantage of the game. The French national football team was described to have black people. However, that did not change the national identity of the team. The players do not work as different people but they work as French team towards achieving for the France. Race does not define the national identity of an individual. In fact, Dubois shows that some of the immigrants do their very best to win for their host countries. For example, Thuram and Zidane played for the French teams and worked hard for their host country. When playing, the French people cheered them as their own. At no time did the fans ever object their players because of the race. A national identity is not proven by the outer appearance of the people presenting a particular country. It is not necessary that a country belonging to whites must use white people to prove their national identity. For a long time the French soccer, team has had blacks as the players who are immigrants to the country. What matters is the nationality of an individual whether a citizen by birth or residence, all the people in a particular country belong to that country. Currently the citizenship of individuals is what determines their nationality. Multiculturalism is one of the reasons causing problems in assimilation and racism in a particular country. Different people have different cultures, diverse beliefs, and lifestyles. Like in the case of the Murder in Amsterdam, it is believed that the Muslims residing in the Netherlands conducted the murder of the people. Van Gogh insulted people who engaged in recreational activities and considered them as contemptible. He was an abusive, politically incorrect buffoon and a witty public figure. The different religions in Netherlands caused a clash between the values of the European Enlightenment and the Muslim fundamentalism causing a conflict and falling apart of the Dutch society. Bouyeri killed Van Gogh in a politically influenced approach. Multiculturalism in the country caused disturbance in the country. The disturbance resulted from the relationship between the whites and the immigrants. According to Buruma, Bouyeri was a son of the immigrants who came to Netherlands to undertake unskilled jobs in the 1960s and 1970s. The multiculturalists’ consensus in the politics of the country tried as much as possible to deal with racism. However, in the 1990s, the harmony that existed before the arrival of the immigrants fell apart. The European Enlightenment was against the Muslim fundamentalism. The enlightenment of the Europeans is a new conservative order where the aliens or immigrants are the enemies and cannot share same values as the whites. Forturyn rebelled against the gray uniformity of the famously dull politics that were long dominated by the pillar model and the countries diverse religious communities caused a split in the national pie in negotiations considered reasonable. The two books “Murder in Amsterdam” and “Soccer Empire” use narration of real stories that took place in the countries. The two pieces of literature narrate incidents in a real manner but in a convincing way to bring the subject home. The two authors present the characters in their stories as icons. Buruma uses his characters as symbols of a complicated and deeper affliction. In either way, the characters used show affliction that can either be castigated or squarely edified. Bouyeri, Ayan and Gogh are presented as complex characters whose intentions are hard to distil solely to their ideological commitments of any kind. On the other hand, Dubois presents his characters as heroes who managed to survive racism and proved to people that the race cannot define the nationality of an individual. The two main characters proved that racism is not strength by being the heroes of a major sport in their host country. They fought against racism by using their own actions in front of big numbers of people. In conclusion, the two books show how multiculturalism can either separate people living in one country or unite them as one country. In Dubois, multiculturalism in the national soccer team is a good example of how multiculturalism is a source of strength if appreciated positively. However, Buruma’s book is an illustration of how multiculturalism in a country can split the cohesiveness of the country because of different cultures, religions, and beliefs. The two books narrate real events that occurred in the respective countries to prove the impact of diversity in the two countries. Works Cited Buruma, I. Murder in Amsterdam Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerence. New York: Penguin Books, 2014. http://rbdigital.oneclickdigital.com Dubois, Laurent. Soccer Empire the World Cup and the Future of France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. Read More