Free Republic

The Netherlands' justice minister says he would welcome Islamic law, or Sharia, to his European nation if the majority of his people vote for it. Piet Hein Donner wants the Netherlands to give Muslims more freedoms to behave according to their traditions, reported the NIS News Bulletin, a Dutch online publication. "For me it is clear: If two-thirds of the Dutch population should want to introduce the Sharia tomorrow, then the possibility should exist," Donner said. "It would be a disgrace to say: 'That is not allowed!'" Donner was reacting to a plea by a parliamentary leader, Maxime Verhagen, who...

AMSTERDAM — A court in Rotterdam imposed a three-year sentence on Tuesday on a Moroccan-Dutch man for trying to recruit fellow prisoners for a Muslim holy war. Bilal L., 21, was serving a 10-month jail sentence for threatening MP Geert Wilders when he asked fellow prisoners to supply weapons and explosives. The panel of three judges also accepted L. tried to recruit inmates to carry out attacks on the "enemies of Islam". L. is a friend of Mohammed Bouyeri who was jailed for life last year for killing film director Theo van Gogh on 2 November 2004. Earlier this year...

AMSTERDAM - For centuries the Netherlands has been considered the world's most tolerant and liberal nation. This attitude is a byproduct of a disciplined civic society, confident enough to provide space for those with different ideas. It produced the country in which Descartes found refuge, a center of freedom of thought and of a free press in Europe. That Netherlands no longer exists. The murder of Theo van Gogh last year and the assassination of Pim Fortuyn in 2002 marked the end of the Holland of Erasmus and Spinoza. Their killings showed the cumulative effect of two forces that have...

The man accused of killing Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh confessed to a Dutch court that he acted out of his religious beliefs, saying he would do "exactly the same" if he were ever set free. "I take complete responsibility for my actions. I acted purely in the name of my religion," 27-year-old Dutch-Moroccan national Mohammed Bouyeri told the court in Amsterdam on the final day of his trial. Prosecutor Frits van Straelen demanded a life sentence for Bouyeri for killing Van Gogh on an Amsterdam street on November 2, 2004. He recalled the particular brutality of the murder in...

Dutch mosque razed:- BRUSSELS | June 15, 2005 6:13:54 PM IST A mosque was gutted by an arson attack in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The cause of the fire has yet to be established, but slogans painted on the wall of the mosque point to the probable involvement of extreme right-wing groups opposed to Muslim immigration. No mosque in south read one slogan, while another said Theo R.I.P -- a reference to the controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh who was slain by a Muslim fanatic in November. After the killing, several...

Open letter warns of blood and revenge 3 May 2005 AMSTERDAM — Mohammed B., the man arrested for the murder of Theo Van Gogh, wrote an "open letter to the Dutch people" before the attack warning they will pay in blood for the slaughter of millions of Muslims. Public prosecutor Koos Plooy stressed in Rotterdam Court on Tuesday that the letter was no joke or an idle boast. B. starts his letter full of praise for Allah and writes that God has instructed Muslims to "kill them", referring to "the non-believing people of the Netherlands". He praised the 11 September...

Increasingly, the Netherlands wonders whether diversity is always desirable. For people who see themselves as the front line in an uncertain struggle to defend western civilisation—a struggle, moreover, which has already cost some lives—the cultural warriors of the Netherlands have a surprising spring in their step. “I see developments in the Arab world as very promising,” says Paul Scheffer, a journalist who is one of the leaders of an ideological movement that wants to counter Islamist extremism by putting more emphasis on the rule of law and less on accommodating differences. Taking his cue from America's political right, he hails...

Increasingly, the Netherlands wonders whether diversity is always desirable Amsterdam and The Hague – For people who see themselves as the front line in an uncertain struggle to defend western civilisation — a struggle, moreover, which has already cost some lives — the cultural warriors of the Netherlands have a surprising spring in their step. “I see developments in the Arab world as very promising,” says Paul Scheffer, a journalist who is one of the leaders of an ideological movement that wants to counter Islamist extremism by putting more emphasis on the rule of law and less on accommodating differences....

AMSTERDAM - Paul Hiltemann had already noticed a darkening mood in the Netherlands. He runs an agency for people wanting to emigrate and his client list had surged. But he was still taken aback in November when a Dutch filmmaker was shot and his throat was slit, execution style, on an Amsterdam street. In the weeks that followed, Mr. Hiltemann was inundated by e-mail messages and telephone calls. "There was a big panic," he said, "a flood of people saying they wanted to leave the country." Leave this stable and prosperous corner of Europe? Leave this land with its generous...

Minister Verdonk Deports Three Radical Imams THE HAGUE, 23/2/05 - Integration Minister Rita Verdonk is to deport three radical imams. All preach for the Al Fourqaan mosque in Eindhoven, the Justice Ministry reported yesterday. In consultation with Home Affairs Minister Johan Remkes, Verdonk has decided to withdraw the residence permits of two radical imams because "they posed a threat to public order and/or national security". This has never before happened in the Netherlands. She is also rejecting the third imam's application to have his residence permit prolonged. The three imams are from Kenya, Bosnia and another country that Verdonk did...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A large majority of Dutch people are afraid of Muslims, according to a poll taken after the murder of a Dutch filmmaker critical of Islam. The poll, conducted by TNS NIPO in The Netherlands, as well as in Spain and Italy, since the November murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a suspected radical Islamist, showed only 19 percent of Dutch people do not see the presence of Muslims in the country as a threat. Home to almost 1 million Muslims or 6 percent of the population, The Netherlands' reputation for tolerance and social harmony has...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The death of a man with Moroccan roots who was run over by a woman after he stole her bag has inflamed Dutch racial tensions that have smouldered since the murder of a filmmaker critical of Islam. Several hundred people, including many Moroccans, marched on Friday from the site in an immigrant neighbourhood in Amsterdam where the 19-year-old died on Monday. The woman whose bag he stole drove her car into his moped, crushing him against a tree. The friends and family of the youth, named by the media as Ali El Bejjati, say his death was...

Members of the suspected terror network Main City Group were planning to murder MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali at midnight on New Year's Eve, it was reported on Wednesday. A spokesman for the public prosecutor said police seized a document at the work premises of terrorist suspect, Jermaine W., 17, indicating that the murder was planned for midnight when a large amount of fireworks would be set off and muffle the sounds of shooting. The document gave a precise description of the whereabouts of Hirsi Ali, who went into hiding following the 2 November murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Justice...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- A Moroccan-Dutch man changed his decision to name his new daughter "Jihad" after officials at the Moroccan consulate objected, a spokeswoman for the city of Amsterdam said Thursday. The name means "struggle" or "holy war" in Arabic and is not uncommon for either boys or girls in Muslim countries. Amsterdam bureaucrats didn't object to the name when the baby girl was born on Nov. 27, city spokeswoman Johanna Padmos said, noting that more than 100 people are registered in Amsterdam with the first name "Jihad." But when the city sent the girl's name to the Moroccan...

Violence flares as Dutch extreme right strengthens 15 December 2004 AMSTERDAM — Muslims have borne the brunt of politically-inspired violence as the extreme right in the Netherlands flexed its muscles in retaliation at the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in November. The sixth Racism and Extreme Right Monitor, which was published on Wednesday said the extreme right in the Netherlands has strengthened in the past two years. Problems with right-wing youth culture worsened and new political parties have been established, the report said. Leiden University and Anne Frank Foundation researchers found the number of extreme right-wing activists has increased,...

I just had a conversation with a Ham Radio operator in the Netherlands. At his request, I will not identify him here. He states that the situation there is very tense, with anti-muslim sentiment and violence rising daily. According to this gentleman, very little of what is actually hapening is making it out into the International News Media. He reports that Dutch Lawmakers are being heavily pressured by the citizenry to halt further Muslim immigration entirely, to deport non-citizen Muslims, and the jailing of anyone encouraging Islamic radicalism. Mass demonstrations are being formed, and he is personally concerned that rioting...

AMSTERDAM — A Muslim preacher has provoked a storm of protest by admitting on Dutch television he wants parliamentarian Geert Wilders to die. Wilders, an independent Conservative MP, plans to set up a party "to tackle Islamic extremism" in the Netherlands. Abdul-Jabbar van de Ven, 25, was asked on programme Het Elfde Uur on the evangelical broadcaster EO if he wanted Wilders, who faces death threats for criticising Islam, to die within the next two years. Van de Ven told presenter Andries Kneuvel that he wished Wilders would die, preferrably due to illness. But he said he hoped Wilders was...

It was such Dutch tolerance, pragmatism and guilt about the country's colonial past that allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Muslim Indonesia (a Dutch colony from the 17th century until World War II) to flood into tiny Holland. Today, Muslims are a majority among children under 14 in the Netherlands' four largest cities. There are 1 million Muslims (6 percent of the population) now living in Europe's most crowded small country. Some 30,000 new Muslims arrive every year. They tend to live among themselves, with their own schools, mosques and restaurants. Most are horrified by what they view as...

AP Interview: Popular Dutch lawmaker urges halt to non-Western immigrants, shutting down radical mosques (11-19) 11:36 PST THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- One of the most popular politicians in the Netherlands said Friday the country's democracy is under threat and called for a five-year halt to non-Western immigration in the wake of the killing of a Dutch filmmaker by a suspected Muslim radical.

 Prominent Muslim lauds van Gogh slaying, blesses murderer     Imminent attacks on Hirsi Ali and Wilders prevented [captured TROP terrorists targeted 2 Dutch MPs]    Dutch Muslims dismayed by anti-Islamic backlash    Netherlands Confirms Iraq Pull-out    Motive sought in New York subway bomb plot (1997)    Anti-Muslim backlash grows in Netherlands     Dutch mosque hit by suspected arson attack (Another Mosque)     Mosque set on fire in Netherlands  Yes I am Dutch. People here have been terrorized by muslims for the past decade: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/573603/postshttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/582864/postshttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/687216/posts (more links in the 3rd one). In their schools they tell their children to...