Category Archives: Netherlands

India protests Dutch handling of flight

Posted on by Bob Pitt

India has lodged a strong protest with the Netherlands at the way it handled Indian passengers from a Bombay-bound flight that returned to Amsterdam shortly after takeoff, a foreign ministry spokesman said. Dutch authorities detained 12 Indian passengers for more than a day and later released them after finding no evidence of a terrorist threat aboard the Northwest Airlines flight on Wednesday.

Relatives and friends of the men were angered by their treatment despite the release. In a housing block in Jogeshwari, a northern Bombay suburb where at least six of the passengers live, unhappy residents clustered in a parking lot to discuss the arrest. Special prayers for the men were held in a mosque in the housing complex.

“My brother is a businessmen traveling with colleagues and friends,” said Sanober Chotani, whose brother, Shaqeel, was among those held. “Indians talk more loudly than Westerners. So if you are happy, excited and Muslim, and don’t converse in English, you are a terrorist?”

Lubna Kulsawala said her brother-in-law, Ayub Kulsawala, 32, often flew abroad to sell garments. “He flies frequently for trade fairs and business. But he is Muslim, so he was arrested. Why should he be detained with no calls allowed to family?” she said. “My son is not a terrorist,” said Kulsawala’s 65-year-old father, Abdul. “I’m very upset and cannot eat properly after hearing of his arrest. We spend all the time before the television and phone waiting for more news.”

Flight NW0042 returned to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport escorted by two Dutch fighter jets after the crew reported passengers were behaving suspiciously. The 12 men were arrested after the emergency landing.

Forbes.com, 25 August 2006

Most Dutch say Islam incompatible with Western society

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islam is incompatible with modern Western society, according to a majority of those responding to a recent Dutch survey. Most of the people polled expressed a negative view of Islam and Muslims. The survey was released the same week that a Dutch Justice Ministry report said radical Islam had made significant inroads among the country’s immigrants, posing a threat to the nation’s security.

“Known for its laissez-faire social attitudes, the sharp turn in public opinion against Islam in the Netherlands has sparked a debate that has prompted criticism of Queen Beatrix and the government for allegedly abandoning Western values in the face of Muslim pressure.

“The poll conducted by Dutch research firm Motivaction for the GPD newspaper chain on June 2 found that 63 percent of those surveyed believed Islam was incompatible with modern European life. More than a quarter of respondents said Muslim immigrants were rude, lazy, intolerant and prone to criminal behavior. They said the increase in Muslim immigration has had a negative effect on civic and social life….”

Jerusalem Post, 21 June 2006

Pass this test, Dutch government tells Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A draconian new law is expected to force immigrants to the Netherlands to sit a tough exam on Dutch history, geography and culture or face heavy fines. The rules, drafted by the country’s hardline immigration minister, “Iron Rita” Verdonk, and likely to be approved this autumn, will set a challenge for up to half a million mainly Muslim immigrants, including some who have lived in Holland for 30 years. The legislation, which is due to come into force on January 1 next year, requires immigrants to attend 600 hours of coursework before being tested. Failure to attend the course or pass the exam within five years will trigger an annual fine of almost £700, cuts in benefits or the termination of a residence permit.

Sunday Times, 18 June 2006

Geert Wilders blasts Queen Beatrix over mosque visit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

geert_wildersRacist Dutch MP Geert Wilders has attacked Queen Beatrix and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende following the monarch’s visit to a mosque.

Queen Beatrix removed her shoes on entering the Mobarak Mosque in The Hague on 3 June and refrained from shaking hands with Muslim men in accordance with their strict religious beliefs. The visit was to mark the 50th anniversary of the building of the mosque. Wilders said on Wednesday he was angry with the Queen and Balkenende. In an extraordinary outburst, he accused them of “dhimmi behaviour”.

Balkenende got involved when he made a call for tolerance for all religions during a speech on Tuesday evening. Stating that Muslims also have a right to freedom of religion, he said being allowed this freedom helped people feel more welcome in society. He held up the Queen’s visit to the mosque as an example of tolerance in action.

Wilders said he was “irritated purple” at the Queen’s decision not to shake hands with men at the mosque. “The Queen and Prime Minister Balkenende are putting Dutch norms and values in a bargain sale. Particularly now that the behaviour of the Queen is being presented by the Prime Minister as an example of tolerance,” Wilders said.

The MP said the Queen and Balkenende are far too tolerant while the number of mosques in the Netherlands is fast increasing and more imams are coming here. “We must instead make the case for Dutch norms and values”, Wilders said.

Expatica, 7 June 2006

Half of Dutch people ‘have an aversion to Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ten percent of Dutch people admit to having racist opinions – that is, they consider themselves to be more intelligent than foreigners – according to a poll published on Saturday.

The survey by the Motivaction polling agency was published in the protestant daily Nederlands Dagblad.

The poll found that half of the people in Holland have an aversion to Muslims, 43% think Islam is a threat to peace and two-thirds feel the faith is at odds with modern life in Europe.

However, 73% denied being racist and said they favoured a multicultural society.

News24.com, 3 June 2006

More on Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Posted on by Bob Pitt

There’s a pretty dreadful article on Ayaan Hirsi Ali in today’sObserver by Jason Burke, who you’d have thought would know better, and a no less one-sided comment piece by Isabella Thompson. Hirsi Ali is described as a “radical liberal” (!) in the headline to Burke’s article and neither he nor Thompson bothers to address the appalling role she has played in stoking up anti-Muslim hysteria in the Netherlands.

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Why the jig is up for Hirsi Ali in Holland

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Why the jig is up for Hirsi Ali in Holland

She catered to the worst prejudices about Muslims, Islam says Haroon Siddiqui

Toronto Star, 21 May 2006

The sudden fall from grace of Dutch Muslim MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali offers a cautionary tale about Western gullibility in these Islamophobic times.

She has been exposed as the equivalent of such Iraqi exiles as Ahmad Chalabi and Iyad Allawi. They told the tall tales the Bush administration wanted to hear to wage war. She told the stories the Dutch, and many Europeans, craved, to confirm their anti-Muslim prejudices.

Like the Iraqi exiles, she knew exactly which buttons to push.

She was an abused wife who had fled a forced marriage and also her vengeful family and clan. An “ex-Muslim,” she was out to liberate Muslim women and tame Islam to her liking and those of her benefactors.

She wrote and narrated the Theo Van Gogh documentary Submission about the subjugation of Muslim women that led to his murder and to death threats against her, placing her under 24-hour guard.

Along the way she let it be known she had lied about her name, age and how she had entered Holland in 1992, not directly from her homeland of Somalia but via Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Germany, a fact that would have undermined her claim, rather than expedited it.

The Dutch didn’t mind. Many refugee claimants embellish their stories. Besides, she was a heroine they had embraced, a “moderate” Muslim waging war against “fanatical” believers.

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s lies

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robert Spencer and Hirsi AliRather untypically, Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch has rallied to the defence of an illegal Muslim migrant: “Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has spoken up repeatedly and heroically, at immense personal risk and loss, against the Islamic jihad ideology – and particularly its inhumanity to women – is being hounded by dhimmis in the Netherlands.”

It turns out that Hirsi Ali (or Hirsi Magan to give her right name), the one-time collaborator of Theo Van Gogh and MP for the right-wing anti-migrant party the VVD, told a lot of porkies to claim asylum back in 1992.

As one critic put it: “To secure for herself a promising career she besmirched her family and the Islamic background that gave her a good education. She deliberately painted a black picture of Islam that she never experienced as such, only to profit from it. The Dutch party she is an MP for, the VVD, knew she had lied. They used her in their anti-Islamist and anti-left campaign. And Ayaan Hirsi ‘Ali’ presented the world with a fancy story it very much liked to hear.”

Hirsi Ali has now been offered a job in the US with the neocon American Enterprise Institute, starting in September. Muslims in the Netherlands will be glad to see the back of her. Nasr Joemman, secretary of the Contact Organisation for Muslims and Government, said that Hirsi Ali’s attacks on Islam had caused “a lot of damage”. He added: “I celebrate that she is leaving the Netherlands. I hope that by her departure we can move forward with building a harmonious society.”

Christian Democrat leader, Wilders reject charge of ‘Islam bashing’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

geert wilders (1)AMSTERDAM — Maxime Verhagen, the parliamentary party leader of the Christian Democrat Party (CDA), and MP Geert Wilders have angrily rejected a claim they are guilty of rabble-rousing in the debate over Islam and Sharia Law.

The accusation has been levelled against them by researcher Jan Schoonenboom of the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR). Schoonenboom has spoken out against Verhagen’s call to ban any political parties that advocate Sharia in the Netherlands.

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