RIGHT SPEAK: A Small European Nation Has a Big Explosions Problem; Muslims Set Off 700 Explosions in the Netherlands This Year: And No, the Media Won't Tell You About It

A small European nation has a big explosions problem:

About three times a night, on quiet and orderly streets across the Netherlands, residents are startled awake by loud blasts.

Small explosions have become disturbingly familiar in a country better known for tulips and bicycles than violence. For Dutch people who pride themselves on levelheadedness, the blasts, usually caused by illegal fireworks with the strength of a grenade, have created a sense of unease.

“All the windows were rattling,” said Arend Zwarthof, who lives across the street from a building where an explosive went off one early morning last month in Duivendrecht, a suburb of Amsterdam. In the 55 years he lived there, he said, he had never heard anything like that explosion. The blast damaged 12 apartments and blew out windows, although no one was injured.

The explosions have shaken communities across the Netherlands: In the first half of this year, authorities recorded nearly 700 such bombings. The explosions cause fear, damage homes and livelihoods, and have occasionally led to deaths or injuries.

For years, the blasts had been linked to organized crime and drug traffickers using hand grenades to settle scores. Law enforcement officials say that others have recently mimicked the tactic, using black-market fireworks to target people in family disputes, relationship quarrels and business rivalries.

“It’s been normalized, but it is not normal,” said Jonathan Lindenkamp, who was hired as a temporary security guard at the building in Duivendrecht after the July 12 blast, in which authorities have yet to make an arrest or ascribe a motive.

Although illegal, the high-strength fireworks are relatively easy to procure. Rules around the use and possession of fireworks generally are also laxer in the Netherlands — where people spend tens of millions of euros for private displays on New Year’s Eve — than in some other countries in Europe, according to Marieke Liem, a professor at Leiden University who has studied the issue.

In December, six people died after a large blast caused a fire and the partial collapse of a three-story block of apartments in The Hague, a city perhaps best known as the seat of the International Criminal Court. Four people have been arrested and are facing charges, including one who authorities believe ordered the bombing to target a bridal shop belonging to his ex-girlfriend. (She was out of town at the time.) --->READ MORE HERE

Muslims Set Off 700 Explosions in the Netherlands This Year:

And no, the media won't tell you about it.

Explosions keep going off in the Netherlands. Why? Who knows? Who’s behind it? Let’s not talk about that!

The New York Times devotes an entire article to the subject of bombs going off in the Netherlands while bringing slightly less clarity to the matter than trying to read a Chinese crossword puzzle through a microscope after soaking it in vinegar.

A Small European Nation Has a Big Explosions Problem – New York Times

Much like ‘gun violence’, the focus here is on the means rather than the perpetrators. Guns shoot themselves in Detroit and Chicago. Explosions go off in the Netherlands. What’s behind this phenomenon? Please don’t ask the Times.

About three times a night, in quiet and orderly streets across the Netherlands, residents are startled awake by a loud blast. Small explosions have become disturbingly familiar in a country better known for tulips and bicycles than violence. For Dutch people who pride themselves on levelheadedness, the blasts, usually caused by illegal fireworks with the strength of a grenade, have created a sense of unease.

Why do the usually levelheaded Dutch have to cope with explosions three times a night? What changes might have happened to cause this?

The explosions have shaken communities across the Netherlands: In the first half of this year, the authorities recorded nearly 700 such bombings. The explosions cause fear, damage homes and livelihoods, and have occasionally led to deaths or injuries.