Allah hu aqbar! Gr€at n€ws!!

Last week, the Dutch army lost two soldiers in Uruzgan, Afghanistan. In the heat of battle against the Taliban, soldier first class Wesley Schol (born 1988) and colonel Aldert Poortema (born 1986) were lethally wounded by friendly fire.

The reactions on marokko.nl, a Dutch-Moroccan news blog, were cheerful as always. 'Thanks to this news I will be able to sleep better. Allah hu aqbar! Great news!!'. 'Allah hu aqbar! Goodbye to two big criminals, responsible for raping and killing many civilians,' says a certain Barzan. 'Serves them!' someone else adds, 'Those pink pigs shouldn't have gone there in the first place. May there be many more.'

The thread was quickly shut down by the moderator, though not before an observant visitor was able to make a screen shot.

But the good news is that in 2006 marokko.nl was granted a 135,000 euro subsidy by the tax-based Press Encouraging Fund (Dutch: Stimuleringsfonds voor de Pers). Why? Because this governmental fund's goal is to boost ethnic diversity in the Dutch media, 'which minorities are unable to satisfactorily identify with'. And because the 'radicalist tendencies' on marokko.nl - the Islamist murderer of Theo van Gogh was a frequent poster - 'had been tackled', the fund subtly argues on its website.