At 8:45 a.m. on November 2, 2004, a stranger dressed in a traditional Moroccan “jeleba” attacks a cyclist in the center of Amsterdam.
The attacker shoots the cyclist and stabs him repeatedly in the chest with a knife, remaining indifferent to his victim's pleas for mercy. Despite his mortal wounds, the victim somehow manages to cross the street, but the killer catches up with him and shoots and stabs him again. He then slits his throat with a butcher knife while passersby watch.
Finally, the killer plunges his knife, which is threaded with a letter, into Theo van Gogh's chest. The attacker fled towards Oosterpark, where he was involved in a shootout with the police, in which a police officer and a bystander were seriously injured.
Theo van Gogh, great-grandson of the famous Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, like his ancestor, led a rather unusual life. Theo was a prominent, free-thinking Dutch director, writer, journalist, actor, producer and defender of free speech, who used the media as an open platform from which to acquaint the world with his scandalous views on matters of religion, politics and the moral values of society. The direct and often provocative way in which he expressed his ideologies quickly made him a popular figure in the Netherlands.
However, his critical views and unceremonious approach made him unpopular in the eyes of many people. Theo expressed his opinions without caring whether they would offend anyone. And many were offended. He sharply criticized Christianity and Judaism. The Muslim community, however, was most affected when he once called Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands "goat-suckers."
The anger against Van Gogh reached its peak when his infamous film "Obedience" was broadcast on television on August 29, 2004. The script for the film was written by Dutch feminist and political activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The film depicts four half-naked women dressed in long transparent veils, on whose skin are written texts from the Koran, describing the physical punishments meted out to disobedient women. Red whip marks are visible on the backs and legs of some of them. It is no surprise that the ten-minute film has sparked a wave of outrage among the Muslim community.
The director's killer has been identified as 26-year-old Mohamed Bouyeri - an Islamic extremist with Dutch and Moroccan citizenship. He was motivated by the film "Obedience" and his hatred of the Western world and those who refuse to accept the values of Islam.