A Dutch Week in 10 Bullets: 7

A Dutch week in 10 bullets:

  • The local political party in Rotterdam is presenting itself as ‘an ordinary Rotterdam political party, inspired by Islam‘.
  • M+ is presenting itself as a local Amsterdam party and a reflection of the diverse and cosmopolitan population. Front man of the party is the Dutch-Turkish political studies researcher Ayberk Köprülü.
  • Last week the Freedom Party of Almere announced a plan to get rid of un-Dutch appearances on the local market; meaning banning women with headscarves. The women of the GreenLeft in Almere showed their solidarity with Muslim women by appearing on the market dressed with headscarves.
  • Moroccan-Dutch women are also involved in mainstream political parties such as Yassmine Elksaihi and Ilham Saadi.
  • The front man of the Party of Unity in the Hague, Arnoud van Doorn, was convicted for leaking secret documents, selling drugs to minors and possesion of an illegal alarm pistol. He was sentenced to 40 hours of community work and a penalty of 1000 euro.
  • A debate between Nourdin el Ouali (NIDA) and Hamit Karakus (social democrats PvdA Rotterdam) about the added value of Muslim political party NIDA:
  • The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science held an expertmeeting on ‘(the right to) self-determination in all phases of life’.
  • Last week De Balie featured a debate with Deeyah Khan and her film ‘Banaz: A Love Story‘. The film and the debate centered on the issue of arranged marriages and (mostly) on honour killing. Machteld Zee, researcher from Leiden University and present at the debate, wrote a piece to plea for more serious attention to honour killings and to not let particular feminist and multicultural sensitivities hinder any counter-measures.
  • Ten Dutch Muslims have been refused a new passport. They are on a list of suspects who according to intelligence services or the public prosecutor want to join the rebel forces in Syrië.
  • A debate on wether female circumcision is (also) ‘an Islamic issue’ or not. Among others at The Post Online, Joop, Trouw, Nieuwwij and the Leiden LUCIS Islam blog.

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