A newspaper columnist and longtime advocate for freedom of speech, Theo van Gogh made many enemies on all sides of the political spectrum. On the morning of November 2, 2004, he was shot and stabbed to death on an Amsterdam street by a Muslim extremist. His assassination sparked a national controversy of Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands. Van Gogh's assassin was arrested by police, after a short manhunt and two shoot-outs in the city, in which a police-officer was also wounded.