Anti-Muslim Dutch politicians in hiding after death threats

Radio Netherlands Press Review Service
Press Review - Friday 29 July 2005

JUST IN TIME

The Volkskrant reports on its front-page that the Dutch immigration authorities will no longer force asylum-seeking Iranian homosexuals to return to their country. "The decision follows reports of the execution of two young Iranians in Mashhad last week."

The Volkskrant says the decision has come just in time for 24-year-old Koroush Pashiae, a gay Iranian asylum-seeker who was scheduled to be deported back to his country from the Netherlands next week. After his partner was executed, three of his gay friends were arrested, and Pashiae himself served a six-month jail sentence before he fled from Iran.

The Dutch immigration authorities rejected his request for asylum, because "he could not incontrovertibly prove that he was in danger of legal prosecution in Iran because of his homosexuality." According to the Volkskrant, Pashiae's family in Iran has warned him that the police have come looking for him and they have begged him to stay in Holland.

Radio Netherlands Press Review Service
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* Press Review - Monday 22 August 2005 - by Marijke van der Meer

Yesterday's false bomb alert is, not surprisingly, today's top story. As the Telegraaf explains - under an opening headline that reads, "Bag causes railway havoc" - hundreds of thousands of train passengers were stranded for hours on Sunday night, after a mysterious bag was found in a train in Utrecht, a major passenger railway junction.

The papers report that train traffic was disrupted in large parts of the Netherlands, and Utrecht's main rail station was evacuated along with a nearby theatre and a large shopping centre. Train traffic did not return to normal until well after midnight, once the experts were sure the mysterious, unaccompanied bag was harmless.

The General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) of the
Netherlands has just released an English translation of its 2004
annual report, providing a Dutch perspective on national and
international security matters.

"In 2004 the Netherlands was hit by a terrorist attack: the murder of
film-director Theo van Gogh," the report begins. "The possibility
of an attack had been anticipated for some time, in view of the
threat emanating from radical Islamist terrorism. The fact that an
attack indeed took place has underlined the vulnerability of our
society."

The report provides a parallax view on issues of international
concern and presents an interesting complement to the assessments of
U.S. intelligence agencies.

The AIVD, which appears relatively free of the indiscriminate secrecy
that has tended to erode the performance of U.S. intelligence,
reports matter-of-factly on its annual budget expenditures (p. 69).

The vestigial Central Intelligence Agency, by contrast, still argues
that even 50 year old budget figures are too sensitive to be
disclosed.

A copy of the 2004 annual report of the AIVD, published in English
translation on August 21, may be found here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/netherlands/aivd2004-eng.pdf

de Volkskrant [my translation]
8 September 2005

Court: state subsidy to discriminating SGP unlawful

THE HAGUE - The state has to suspend its subsidy to the State Reformed Party (SGP). This was determined by the court in The Hague on Wednesday, because the SGP discriminates women. Minister Remkes (Interior Affairs) is considering to appeal.

Women in the SGP can only become 'extraordinary member'. That means that they can not take on any administrative function, and are not allowed to interfere in party affairs. The SGP bases its point of view on phrases from the bible.

According to the Hague court subsidying the SGP is therefore a breach of the Womens Treaty [or Convention] of the United Nations. In that treaty it says that the state 'should take appropriate measures to banish the discrimination of women in political and public spheres'. The state neglects to do so with the SGP, according to the judge. In fact, womens discrimination is subsidised. [..]

The SGP receives 800 thousand Euro in state subsidies on an annual basis, plus another 300 thousand for the wages of the two members of parliament and their administrative support. The SGP's annual budget is 1,4million Euro.

Radio Netherlands Press Review Service
Press Review - Friday 16 September 2005

[..]

SEX, LIES & VIDEOTAPE

Also in De Volkskrant, there's the chilling testimony of a Dutch Muslim woman who was prepared to die for exactly the kind of strict Islam that Afghanistan has just managed to shake off.

The girl, whose name the paper doesn't give, is being heard as a witness in the case of the alleged Dutch terrorist cell known as the Hofstad Group. She was being trained by them for a "martyr's death": with the intention being that she would drive a car packed with explosives into a shopping mall, and she says she really believed that it would have been "a noble act."

The girl got involved through her boyfriend, and she also talks about how she was "wedded" to him in an Islamic ceremony performed by Mohammed Bouyeri, the man who later killed filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

After the ceremony the couple had sex and watched videotapes of beheadings and suicide bombings. The girl was 16 at the time: "I guess I was impressed by all that jihad stuff," she says, "and even now I still believe women should really wear a burqa... "

.. on your side of the pond is that minorities such as Arab and Asian Muslims (I think Muslims are more Asian than Arabic over there, right?) ...

Dutch police seal off prime minister's office

Reuters, Friday October 14, 12:03 PM

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch police have sealed off a government building on Friday where many top officials including Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende have their offices.

Dutch news agency ANP quoted a police spokesman as saying the nature of the threat at the Binnenhof -- a centuries old castle that is the seat of the Dutch government -- was not clear.

Police Seal Off Dutch Parliament Building

AP, 14 October

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Police in riot gear sealed off the Dutch parliament building Friday amid reports of gunfire in an immigrant neighborhood of The Hague.

Authorities refused to comment on the operations under way but the weekly Cabinet meeting went ahead as scheduled.

The heightened security came a day after media reports of renewed threats against lawmakers Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders, both outspoken critics of radical Islam.

Dutch police arrest seven suspected terrorists

Radio Netherlands, 14 October

Dutch police have arrested seven suspected terrorists in a series of raids in The Hague, Amsterdam and Almere. One of those arrested is Samir Azzouz, who was acquitted of making preparations for terrorist attacks earlier this year. Police had found maps of potential targets in his home which included parliament and the Borselle nuclear power plant.

Police have sealed off the Dutch parliament as a precautionary measure. Elsewhere in The Hague police have closed off a street and a school. Eyewitnesses reported hearing a number of shots.

The Justice and Interior Ministries and the building which houses the Dutch intelligence agency in Leidschendam are receiving extra protection. The measures were ordered by the co-ordinator of the Dutch anti-terrorism team Tjibbe Joustra.

Dutch Detain 7 in Anti-Terror Sweep

AP, 14 October

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Authorities detained seven suspects in an anti-terrorism operation Friday in three Dutch cities, officials said.

The chief suspect in the raids was Samir Azzouz, a 19-year-old Dutch national of Moroccan descent who was acquitted of terrorism charges earlier this year.

Azzouz was in the process of purchasing automatic weapons and explosives "probably to carry out an attack with others on several politicians and a government building," a prosecution statement said.

Dutch immigration minister wants to deport criminal foreigners

2005/09/30 · Radio Netherlands (From summary on eumap.org)

Minister Rita Verdonk wants to be able to deport all foreigners who commit a crime. Foreigners with a legal residence permit who commit a serious crime can already be deported. The minister wants deportation to be applied in cases of petty crime as well. Her proposal will be discussed in cabinet on Friday.

Dutch parliament supports eviction of 'criminal' foreigners

2005/10/12 · Radio Netherlands

The Dutch parliament has voted to support a proposal by Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk to expel foreigners who break the law. The minister wants to deport foreigners with residence permits who are sentenced to a jail term during their first three years in the Netherlands.

Current legislation only allows the authorities to deport foreigners who have committed serious offences. Ms Verdonk wants to be able to take away the residence permit of anyone who commits a crime.

The Christian Democrats, conservative VVD and the Pim Fortuyn List support the proposal. The left-wing opposition, which thinks the measure is excessive, accused the minister of political expediency.

DANGEROUS AND STUPID

Radio Netherlands Press Review Service
14 October 2005

In recent days, the Dutch parliament has approved the cabinet's proposal to expel foreigners not only for major crimes but also for lesser criminal offences. As a columnist in the Algemeen Dagblad reminds us today, "A fine for shoplifting a piece of bread will suffice."

The AD columnist, who is a prominent Dutch lawyer, argues that almost every Dutch adult commits a criminal offence at some point, for example, by driving under the influence of alcohol or evading taxes."

"We are simply a criminal people. Against this background, the accelerated deportation of foreigners is disproportionate. It is also very dangerous and stupid... this will only encourage hate-ridden terrorism."

On Friday, the Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism issued a letter concerning meaures in response to the arrests. The letter began as follows:

"Please be informed of the following.

On the morning of Friday 14 October 2005, a number of arrests were made in connection with a criminal investigation into terrorist activity in the Netherlands. In response to the threat revealed by the investigation and the arrests, I, the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism, have recommended security measure relating to a number of persons and objects [...] These measures went into effect as the arrests were being made."

[...]
All the people arrested on Friday are thought to be connected with the group which the authorities have given the codename 'Hofstad' - a loose network of radical Muslims. Mohammed Bouyeri, the convicted murderer of Theo van Gogh, was also part of this group.

Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and his colleague at the Minister of Home Affairs, Johan Remkes, later said that the arrests had removed an 'acute threat'. The seven people detained are said to have been trying to amass weapons and explosives in order to carry out attacks on unspecified politicians and the headquarters of the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) in Leidschendam, close to The Hague.

The arrests took place in Almere, Amsterdam and The Hague. A special intervention unit used explosives to blow open the reinforced door to a house in The Hague, causing some people in the vicinity to believe they had heard shooting. The authorities later denied reports that shots had been fired in any of the raids.

Meanwhile, additional measures have been taken in various parts of the country to protect government buildings and politicians. However, the authorities have not raised the general terror threat from its current level of 'substantial' to the highest level: 'critical'. The justice and home affairs ministers both stressed during a press conference given on Friday afternoon that the seven arrests had not removed the general threat of terrorist attacks.

The raids were organised by the National Criminal Investigation Service on the basis of information provided by the AIVD. Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner told the media that although the arrested suspects are motivated by extremist religious ideology, this should not be used against or blamed on the Netherlands' Muslim community.

All the papers open with the news of a massive crackdown on members of the Hells Angels gang here in the Netherlands. As De Volkskrant reports, for example, 45 of Holland's roughly 200 Hells Angels have been arrested at numerous locations, where police found bazookas, hand grenades, machine guns and a flamethrower.

As all the papers point out, the Hells Angels chapter of Amsterdam is the European headquarters of the motorcycle gang. "For years the motorcycle club has been seen as a criminal organisation, but the Angels always remained untouchable," says Trouw.

Indeed, as De Telegraaf comments in an editorial today, "One of the reasons for finally taking action was the widespread popular image that the Angels can do whatever they want. The police will never touch them. Thank heavens that image has been erased".

In England most Muslims are of Pakistani origins. They were encouraged to come to Britain (Pakistan is a member of the Commonwealth) in 1950's and 60s as cheap labour to work in the textile industries of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

We made virtually no effort to welcome them. So naturally they kept to themselves, and sent money home to Pakistan.