Warning for Dutch and Danish travellers but probably for all "white" travellers in Muslim countries. The Dutch politician Geert Wilders has finished his anti Islam movie "Fitna". It will be released on the Internet one of these days and some Islamic areas are already on fire. On top of that, the Danish news paper who published the Mohamed Cartoons in 2005 is going to republish them!

THIS IS NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY, AS I CAN REPORT FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE!!!!!

I, myself have been under serious attack by a demonstrating mob crowd in N'Djamena, Chad, in February 2006. The demonstration was against the "West" in general and Denmark in particular. It was unannounced and we were caught by surprise. We barely managed to escape a few hundred raving mad demonstrators throwing bricks, stones and steel bars at our car. I could only escape by giving full throttle into the crowd and turn into an alley making speed while bricks were flying all over the place. Since that day my car is full of dents and other scars. That however is nothing compared to what might have happened if they had managed to stop us! We got a police escort to the airport where we stayed in a protected area until the turmoil calmed down, which was not for several hours. When we drove through the city centre the next day, it was full with burned out westerners cars (mostly NGO) !!

For all travellers; keep yourself well informed about local situations and possible demonstration but try to avoid cities all together if the reactions in the Muslim world are as bad as everybody fears!

In hind sight I think this was a case of extreme bad luck and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Otherwise we did not meet any hositlity whatsoever in any Muslim country and as a matter of fact we felt most secure and welcome in the Islamic regions of North and West Africa!

But we learned the hard way that things can change very rapidly.


Good luck
Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

Hi Noel.

The cartoons was reprinted a couple of weeks ago...

BBC NEWS | Europe | Danish Muhammad cartoon reprinted

Regards,
Spakur

If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny.
Geert Wilders made a movie about the dangers of muslim fundamentalist and as a response, the muslim fundamentalist want to attack westeners who have nothing to do with Mr. Wilders at all.
Mr. Wilders can thank them because they prove his point.

Right now I think I won't ride my GoldWing, with a Dutch flag on the back, in a muslim country.......

__________________
Jan Krijtenburg

My travelbike is a yellow BMW R1100GS
My wifes bike, that I use a lot, is a 1978 Honda CB400T
http://jkrijt.home.xs4all.nl/ (my personal homepage with trip reports)
http://www.krijtenburg.nl/HU_BoZ/ (The HU Motorcycle Travellers Community in my area)

Hmmm.

Can't help feeling this is a bit of an over reaction. As a Brit (and therefore responsible by proxy for a hell of a lot worse than documentaries and cartoons) I've rarely felt anything other than welcome in Muslim countries, even while my countrymen are shelling the crap out of some Muslim country in another location.

I definately AGREE that you should always keep an eye on local conditions in endemicly unstable areas, but all 'muslim countries' do not fall into this bracket. In 2006 I saw a stars and stripes sticker on a local's bike in Iran, and curiously enough it wasn't being burned in a pyre of bibles surrounded by screaming extremists...

Matt

__________________
http://adventure-writing.blogspot.com

http://scotlandnepal.blogspot.com/

*Disclaimer* - I am not saying my bike is better than your bike. I am not saying my way is better than your way. I am not mocking your religion/politics/other belief system. When reading my post imagine me sitting behind a frothing pint of ale, smiling and offering you a bag of peanuts. This is the sentiment in which my post is made. Please accept it as such!

Matt,

I can assure you that it's not an over reaction. Come and have a look at our car when you are around! But you are right with respect to general hospitality in Islamic countries. I added an additional remark in the same thread in the Sahara forum. I have added it here now too.

Bottom line remains however; crowds demonstrating against the satans from the west are not selective in who they attack. When you see a crowd, get the hell out of there!

I got jelly in my legs for the rest of our trip everytime we bumped into a marching crowds which happenend a couple of more times (without problems!)

cheers,
Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

Noel,

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that your experience wasn't relevant (or dangerous, it sounds bloomin' scary!).

I was just trying to pre-empt any generalist statements about not travelling to Muslim states, which is thankfully probably a bit unecessary on this site.

Safe travels!

Matt

__________________
http://adventure-writing.blogspot.com

http://scotlandnepal.blogspot.com/

*Disclaimer* - I am not saying my bike is better than your bike. I am not saying my way is better than your way. I am not mocking your religion/politics/other belief system. When reading my post imagine me sitting behind a frothing pint of ale, smiling and offering you a bag of peanuts. This is the sentiment in which my post is made. Please accept it as such!

I think all this religion based war is insane. Both state their religions are peaceful, yet demonstrat it by war.
Seriously, I thought the Crusades ended long ago with Salahdin and all. I just want to be a person, and travel the world, not labelled and categorized by color, religion, language or location of birth.
Sad!

__________________
Gary
CANADA
www.myspace.com/intrepid_cdn

It is wise to be sensible when travelling to middle-east countries under your flag at the moment Noel. Govts everywhere are preparing for a violent backlash when the "offensive" issues are revisited as you describe. I also saw some of the results of the last region-wide demonstrations. Very ugly and best avoided.

Fitna the Movie is out now on the Internet. If your travelling in a Muslims country stay alert and watch out for demonstrations

Noel

you can watch the movie here: LiveLeak.com - Fitna the Movie: Geert Wilders' film about the Quran (English)
Well done in my opinion...

The film has been removed from liveleak because of serious threats to people working for liveleak.
This is showing how serious the problem is that mr WIlders is trying to get attention for.

__________________
Jan Krijtenburg

My travelbike is a yellow BMW R1100GS
My wifes bike, that I use a lot, is a 1978 Honda CB400T
http://jkrijt.home.xs4all.nl/ (my personal homepage with trip reports)
http://www.krijtenburg.nl/HU_BoZ/ (The HU Motorcycle Travellers Community in my area)

hi, me and my dutch mate are planning to syria this year and I read the post with interest, I endorse what matt carney said about the statements. I went to Morocco and had people inbinting us into there house for food, Welcome to my country shouted one chap. other and many reactions were the same. three odd incidents occurred, a bloke feined a 'karate' kick as I passed him, on the bike. A bunch of lads chanted 'western dogs tra la la' (which I thought was highly amusing) and some wild dogs chased us too ????!!!.(possibly not relevant but that made me laugh too) in all circumstances I smiled at them and that was that. I understand that the point is more specific than that (in relation to these two events) though this point does require a need for a balanced opinion. All anecdotal reports need to be used within the context of subjectivity your one experience was bad, many of my experiences were good, and so were yours - thats all. I think that there is so much hype regarding these incidents, you'll get pratts all over the world my brothers bike got stolen in ...Cardiff, though we did not put it down to the english war against them, the thief was just that - a thief. the vandal could be just a vandal. In addition, all good travel books advise against attending demonstrations its clearly a place where feelings run high. I'm really just saying lets take a chill on it all. sad as the situations are lets say peace

p.s. don't mean to be naive or rude Jan, but would you really think that the goldwing could actually get to an islamic country from holland (Grupje).

If I look in the streets here in Holland, my GoldWing does not have to bring me to Islamic countries. They are already comming to us......... (grapje too).
Don't worry. My GoldWing has already done more then a 100000 km and I'm sure it will do at least another 100000 more and that all in great comfort....... ;-)

__________________
Jan Krijtenburg

My travelbike is a yellow BMW R1100GS
My wifes bike, that I use a lot, is a 1978 Honda CB400T
http://jkrijt.home.xs4all.nl/ (my personal homepage with trip reports)
http://www.krijtenburg.nl/HU_BoZ/ (The HU Motorcycle Travellers Community in my area)