I picked up this book after having read Hirsi Ali's memoir "Infidel" - I find Hirsi Ali particularly fascinating and thought it would be very politically correct of me to get an opinion of Theo Van Gogh's brutal murder from someone else besides her.

Overall, I'm glad I read the book. Buruma has an easy way of telling his story - his remarks are quick and to the point and still manage to hold a lot of intellect. He talked with many people, of varying opinions, and I felt gave them equal time. I don't think he wrote this without a bias, and I also don't think he claims to have done so.

If you are familiar with the story behind Theo Van Gogh's murder and/or are interested with the relgious and immigrant struggle that is going on in the Netherlands, then I definitely recommend you pick up the book. If the topic is new to you, however, I suggest starting elsewhere.

This extended essay about Islam's encounter with Europe's open societies is more timely than ever.

This is a good book for those who believe in the idea of tolerance. This is a look at how another city and ultimately country's tolerance. It was difficult at times to follow because I am not familiar with Dutch celebs and politicians. The root themes though are very clear. It is a important book if only because it gives perspective to wider issues

This book is an engaging, but ultimately frustrating read. Buruma's subject is compelling: on the surface, it's about the murder of provocative Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was senselessly gunned down and slashed by a young Muslim extremist in 2004. On a deeper level, Buruma writes about the plight of the Netherlands, which has a rapidly growing ethnic population that tends to take refuge in Islamic customs and beliefs. Buruma seems to be asking whether this ethnic population will ultimately succeed in adapting to Dutch culture. I think that his answer is, in part, that the Dutch need to accept moderate Islam as a new "pillar" of their own culture.

Buruma shows how, instead, some very prominent members of Dutch society, including Van Gogh and foreign-born Hirsi Ali, have spoken out with uncompromising intolerance toward Islam. Both Van Gogh and Ali claimed that Islam and Holland's democratic institutions were fundamentally incompatible. Van Gogh was murdered. Ali, a Dutch MP at the time of the murder, thereafter traveled only in the company of security guards.

Buruma claims that Amsterdam's population was 45% foreign origin in 1999; and also claims that statisticians expect this number to rise to 52% by 2015. Apparently, a majority of this projected majority population will be Muslim in 2015 (Buruma is unclear about the size of the Muslim component).

Buruma convincingly shows how this rapidly growing "foreign" population, through exposure to one of the most permissive cultures in the world, finds itself in a state of culture shock. That shock leads the "foreign" population to retreat into an Islamic "shell" of familiar customs and restrictions. Buruma cites some statistics which show that male immigrants from Islamic cultures have a high rate of schizophrenia. He suggests that this illness is brought on by the daily necessity of navigating between the cultural antipodes of Islamic repressiveness at home and Dutch permissiveness on the street. (Muslim women, who lead a more sheltered existence, don't get exposed quite so readily to the cross-cultural conflict.)

Simultaneously, the traditional population finds itself also in a state of culture shock. It's understandable: when whole neighborhoods transform themselves into ghettos; when Muslim teenagers dance for joy in a park to celebrate the World Trade Center tragedy of 9/11/2001; or when Theo Van Gogh gets gunned down for dissing Islam in his films and television shows. After all, this is the Netherlands. We can say whatever offensive thing we want, right?

This book contains fascinating portraits of Van Gogh, Hirsi Ali, Pim Fortuyn, murderer Mohammed Bouyeri, city councilor Ahmed Aboutaleb and many others. Buruma originally wrote parts of this book as New Yorker essays. If you are familiar with that style, you'll know what to expect.

It's a fascinating book, but (whether for good or ill I'm not sure) it leaves the reader with more questions than answers.