C L O S E R

Individualisme & Hoop

Posted on November 18th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

In Volkskrant kunnen we lezen dat Hirsi Ali Soumaya S. als de hoop voor Nederland ziet.

AMSTERDAM – Ayaan Hirsi Ali noemt Piranhaverdachte Soumaya S., tegen wie tien jaar gevangenisstraf is geëist, ‘de hoop voor de toekomst’ in de strijd tegen radicalisering. Door het ‘verraad van haar leermeester’, de Haagse imam Fawaz, zijn haar de ogen geopend.
* Boodschap Hirsi Ali

Dit stelde Hirsi Ali vrijdagavond in een audioboodschap bij de presentatie van het boek Strijdsters van Allah. Hirsi Ali herkent veel van zichzelf in Soumaya. Ook zij is in de ban geweest van een radicale prediker als Fawaz. Ze zegt dat zelfstandig nadenkende Hofstadjongeren, niet bereid predikers als Fawaz zonder meer te volgen, naar de bron zelf gaan, naar de Koran.Die jongeren ‘zien dat het er echt staat; dat gebruik van geweld is toegestaan om beledigers van de islam de mond te snoeren. Dat het bij jihad niet alleen gaat om innerlijke strijd om jezelf te verbeteren, maar ook om gewelddadige strijd’. Volgens Hirsi Ali brengen moslims die beweren dat islam slechts vrede betekent, dergelijke gewetensvolle jongeren alleen maar in verwarring.

Het geweten van zelfstandig nadenkende jongeren zal eerder dan dat van ‘geïndoctrineerde meelopers’ gaan botsen met ‘de bevelen uit de Koran’, zegt ze. Daarom wil ze de strijd tegen radicalisering vooral uitvechten in de ‘ideologische arena’. Ze pleit voor een open debat. ‘Zonder taboes of kunstmatige scheiding tussen vreedzame en gewelddadige islam.’

Volgens mij staan hier twee belangrijke denkfouten in. Allereerst dat het geweten van zelfstandig denkende jongeren zou botsen met ‘de bevelen uit de Koran’. Een dergelijke houding ten opzichte van jongeren die op een individualistische wijze de islam beleven zien we vaker. Het zou best kunnen dat dit klopt, maar mijn punt is vooral dat dit geen automatisme is. Autonomie en individualisme zijn geen garantie voor een tolerante en vredelievende interpretatie van de Islam. Autonomie en individualisme betekent dat jongeren de teksten gaan interpreteren op eigen houtje en die koppelen aan hun andere opvattingen, bijvoorbeeld politieke opvattingen. Dit kan leiden tot een vorm van liberalisering, maar net zo goed tot radicalisering.

Het tweede punt is de wijze waarop men omgaat met de Koran. Hoewel je in radicale teksten zeker verwijzingen kunt terugvinden naar de Koran, wordt veel meer gebruik gemaakt van teksten van religieuze geleerden en lekenpredikers. De Koran neemt daarin niet de centrale plek in. Wel politieke ‘analyses’ en interpretaties van die andere geleerden.  Voor de interpretatie van Bin Laden met betrekking tot Jihad, neemt men niet de toevlucht tot de Koran of de traditionele conservatieve geleerden. Bin Laden’s Jihad doctrine is niet meer en niet minder dan een volledige nieuwe interpretatie (Bernard Lewis ziet het zelfs als travestie) van de traditie van de gewelddadige jihad. De reden dat er jongeren zijn die dat volgen, lijkt meer te maken te hebben met hun interpretatie van de lokale en mondiale politieke en sociaal-economische omgeving, dan met de Koran op zich.

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Leaving the beaten track: Hirsi Ali and Karacaer

Posted on November 18th, 2006 by .
Categories: Multiculti Issues, Some personal considerations.

The Dutch NRC had two interesting articles last week. One about Hirsi Ali‘s autobiography My Freedom (that will appear in English as ‘The Infidel. The Story of my Enlightenment‘). The other one was Haci  Karacaer‘s speech, former chairman of the Milli Gorus, Northern Netherlands, movement), that also had a clear biographical focus.
What is clear from both accounts is how, as migrants, they both tried to leave (or maybe transcend?) the path of life that was laid out for them. (more…)

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Who's cup of tea?

Posted on November 17th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Youth culture (as a practice).

Ali Nawaz, FunDaMental‘s frontman, is angry and not holding back in All is War: The Benefits of G-Had. The album can be seen as a means of providing a critical alternative about life and politics in the UK, the war in Iraq and, what Nawaz sees as, moderate Muslims. Nawaz compares Osama bin Laden to Che Guevara and raps very explicitly about suicide bombings. It looks to me like an album that is carefully composed and at least meant as a provocation to stir up debates. People who don’t like these kind of politics of confrontation might better listen to Yusuf Islam‘s new album ‘Another Cup‘ whith songs like Heaven True Love and Peace Train.

1 comment.

Who’s cup of tea?

Posted on November 17th, 2006 by .
Categories: Youth culture (as a practice).

Ali Nawaz, FunDaMental‘s frontman, is angry and not holding back in All is War: The Benefits of G-Had. The album can be seen as a means of providing a critical alternative about life and politics in the UK, the war in Iraq and, what Nawaz sees as, moderate Muslims. Nawaz compares Osama bin Laden to Che Guevara and raps very explicitly about suicide bombings. It looks to me like an album that is carefully composed and at least meant as a provocation to stir up debates. People who don’t like these kind of politics of confrontation might better listen to Yusuf Islam‘s new album ‘Another Cup‘ whith songs like Heaven True Love and Peace Train.

1 comment.

Brabants Dagblad – ’Jongens ook onder dwang in prostitutie’

Posted on November 17th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Brabants Dagblad
’Jongens ook onder dwang in prostitutie’
door Jessica Maas

Vrijdag 17 november 2006 – Goirle – Terwijl de aandacht uitgaat naar meisjes die worden uitgebuit door ’loverboys’, is een even grote groep jongens actief in de prostitutie. Lou Repetur, kwartiermaker Informatiepunt Jeugdprostitutie, pleitte gisteren in Goirle voor aandacht voor deze groep.
Loverboys krijgen op het moment enorm veel aandacht, maar over jongens die onder dwang zich prostitueren is nog maar weinig bekend. (more…)

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Protected: Eindhovens Dagblad – Publiek TU/e gescheiden voor moslimlezing

Posted on November 17th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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Protected: Het Parool – Huis voor de Dialoog

Posted on November 17th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

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Combating Terrorism Center: The Militant Ideology Atlas

Posted on November 17th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Combating Terrorism Center
The Militant Ideology Atlas

Editor & Project Director, Dr. William McCants
Project Coordinator, Dr. Jarret Brachman

The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has announced the release of The Militant Ideology Atlas, an in-depth study of the Jihadi Movement’s top thinkers and their most popular writings. This is the first systematic mapping of the ideology inspiring al-Qaeda.The CTC’s researchers spent one year mining the most popular books and articles in al-Qaeda’s online library, profiling hundreds of figures in the Jihadi Movement, and cataloging over 11,000 citations. The empirically supported findings of the project are surprising:

* The most influential Jihadi intellectuals are clerics from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, two of the US’s closest allies in the Middle East.
* Among them, the Jordanian cleric Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi has had the most impact on other Jihadi thinkers and has been the most consequential in shaping the worldview of the Jihadi Movement.
* In contrast, the study finds that Usama Bin Ladin and Ayman al-Zawahiri have had little influence on other Jihadi theorists and strategists.

The Executive Report summarizes the main conclusions of this comprehensive effort and provides policy-relevant recommendations informed by these findings. The Research Compendium contains summaries of all the texts used in the study as well as biographies of the texts’ authors and the figures they cite most.

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Allochtonen Weblog – LMJO: Op naar een democratische Tsunami

Posted on November 16th, 2006 by .
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

Allochtonen Weblog
LMJO: op naar een democratische Tsunami

Net als eerder de sueculiere organisaties HTIB, DIDF en Emcemo deden, heeft nu ook de Landelijke Moslim Jongeren Organisatie (LMJO) een oproep gedaan om deel te nemen aan de verkiezingen. De LMJO roept alle stemgerechtigde moslimjongeren op te gaan stemmen, omdat de organisatie deelname aan de verkiezingen als een belangrijk middel ziet om politieke besluitvorming voor de komende vier jaar te beïnvloeden.

In haar oproep, getiteld ‘op naar een democratische Tsunami’, schrijft de LMJO:

Stemmen is een instrument om aan te tonen met welke problemen moslimjongeren te maken hebben en om ze op de politieke agenda te zetten, denk daarbij aan de achterstandspositie in het onderwijs en op de arbeidsmarkt. Voor de verdere acceptatie en participatie van moslims in de Nederlandse samenleving als volwaardige Nederlandse burgers, is het van belang dat moslimjongeren hun verantwoordelijkheden als burgers op zich nemen. Stemmen hoort bij deze verantwoordelijkheid. Want door te stemmen kun je duidelijk maken welke veranderingen er moeten komen. Daarnaast tonen we als moslims aan dat ook wij moslims te maken hebben met problemen waarmee iedere Nederlander te maken heeft, zoals woningnood, stijging van vaste lasten, veiligheid en leefbaarheid in wijken. Met stemmen kun je ook invloed uitoefenen op zaken als het buitenlandbeleid en het milieu. Hiernaast reken je af met de boodschappers van angst, die schermen met de komstvan een islamitische Tsunami. En belangrijker nog hiermee geef je een signaal af aan de politiek dat de politiek zich niet alleen moet bezig houden met de islam als integratieproblematiek.

De Landelijke Moslim Jongeren Organisatie is een nieuwe organisatie die streeft naar een betere participatie en actieve houding van moslimjongeren in de samenleving. LMJO is het zat dat er over moslimjongeren wordt gepraat in plaats van met moslimjongeren. Meer informatie op de website van de organisatie: www.lmjo.com

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Qantara.de – Portrait Emel Abidin-Algan:Faith without the Headscarf

Posted on November 16th, 2006 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

Qantara.de – Portrait Emel Abidin-Algan – Faith without the Headscarf
Portrait Emel Abidin-Algan
Faith without the Headscarf

Her decision caused quite a stir – in Germany as well as in Turkey. Emel Abidin-Algan, daughter of the founder of the Islamic association Milli Görüs, has put aside her headscarf after wearing it for over thirty years. The 45-year-old mother of six children spoke with Ariana Mirza about her motives

“We need fewer religious people and many more believers”, says Emel Abidin-Algan

“It is absurd to infer about someone’s beliefs on the basis of outward appearances!” said Emel Abidin-Algan, expressing her views in a ready to print form. She has experience in articulating her positions. A few years ago, the former chairwoman of an Islamic women’s association took part in Germany’s headscarf debate – and offered some rather unconventional suggestions.

First, Emel Abidin-Algan and a group of Berlin women designers created fashionable hats as an alternative to the controversial headscarf. Then, in early 2005, she took off her own headscarf for good.

Since then, there have been many changes in the life of the mother of six. She dances with an Irish folklore group, practices martial arts in a mixed Aikido team, and goes to night school. Emel Abidin-Algan continues to take care of her three youngest children, who still live at home, together with her husband, although they have decided to separate. Her conservative husband refuses to accept his wife’s new attitudes.

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Alliance of Civilizations: Politics not religion

Posted on November 16th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Alliance of Civilizations :: The Alliance of Civilizations
The Secretary-General of the United Nations has launched an initiative, co-sponsored by the Prime Ministers of Spain and Turkey, for an Alliance of Civilizations.

The key reasons for the growing divide between Muslim and Western societies are not religious, but political, concludes a report presented to Secretary-General Kofi Annan today in Istanbul. On receiving the report, the Secretary-General said: “We need to get away from stereotypes, generalizations and preconceptions, and take care not to let crimes committed by individuals or small groups dictate our image of an entire people, an entire region, or an entire religion. “We should start by reaffirming – and demonstrating – that the problem is not the Koran, nor the Torah or the Bible. Indeed, I have often said the problem is never the faith – it is the faithful, and how they behave towards each other.”
In its report, the High-level Group of the Alliance of Civilizations maintains that although
religion is often cynically exploited to stir passions, fuel suspicions and support alarmist
claims that the world is facing a new “war of religion”, the root of the matter is political.
Furthermore, the Arab-Israeli conflict has become a critical symbol of the deepening rift.
Along with Western military interventions in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan the Group
argues, this conflict contributes significantly to the growing sense of resentment and mistrust that mars relations among communities. The report also suggests that the repression of nonviolent political opposition and the slow pace of reforms in some Muslim countries is a key factor in the rise of extremism.

(more…)

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Qantara.de – Debates on Religion and Democracy in Iran: Abdolkarim Soroush vs. Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Posted on November 16th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

Qantara.de – Debates on Religion and Democracy in Iran – Islamic Reformers Are Meeting Opposition
Islamic Reformers Are Meeting Opposition

A controversy in religious theory between two Muslim scholars, Abdolkarim Sorush and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, throws an interesting light on the divisions between conservative and reformist forces in Islam. Faraj Sarkohi says the two sides are taking increasingly irreconcilable positions

Abdolkarim Soroush has been supporting the idea of Islamic democracy. Nasr, his intellectual opponent, compared him to second-rate Western intellectuals who know neither Islam or the West.
It wasn’t a new topic. The debate has been going on for about a hundred years. The guests were well-known only in intellectual and academic circles, and it was assumed that the seminar would take place without much interest being shown by the public and with little media coverage.

But a fierce dispute between two scholars over a purely theoretical issue on the fringes of the seminar was quickly taken up by the parliament, the mosques, the religious colleges, the media, the universities and those in power in the country.

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The Revealer: There's Something About Muslims

Posted on November 14th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

The Revealer: There’s Something About Muslims
There’s Something About Muslims
09 November 2006

Can multiculturalism prevail as long as women wear the veil? Is the assimilation travail to no avail? Did I mention the veil?

By Bridget Purcell

“There must be something about the Jews; they upset me physically.”

(more…)

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The Revealer: There’s Something About Muslims

Posted on November 14th, 2006 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

The Revealer: There’s Something About Muslims
There’s Something About Muslims
09 November 2006

Can multiculturalism prevail as long as women wear the veil? Is the assimilation travail to no avail? Did I mention the veil?

By Bridget Purcell

“There must be something about the Jews; they upset me physically.”

(more…)

0 comments.

Studium Generale Groningen: Does the Qur'an support gender-equality? by dr. Asma Barlas

Posted on November 12th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Studium Generale Groningen
Does the Qur’an support gender-equality?
Asma Barlas

DATE, TIME, LOCATION

Thursday 23 November 2006
8.00 – 9.30 p.m.
Academiegebouw
Broerstraat 5, Groningen
ADMISSION

€ 2,-
For students, SG-members and -ambassadeurs admission is free, but a ticket is required.

Does Islam call for the oppression of women? Non-Muslims point to the subjugation of women that occurs in many Muslim countries, especially those that claim to be ‘Islamic’, while many Muslims read the Qur’an in ways that seem to justify sexual oppression, inequality, and patriarchy. Taking a wholly different view, Asma Barlas develops a believer’s reading of the Qur’an that demonstrates the radically egalitarian and antipatriarchal nature of its teachings.

Asma Barlas will show how reading inequality into the Qur’an serves a function for those who choose or were taught to read that way. Contrary to what both conservative and many non-Muslims believe, Muslim women do not have to abandon islam to liberate themselves, but can struggle for equality within the framework of Qur’an’s teachings.

Asma Barlas is professor of Politics and Director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity at Ithaca College, New York. Her research focuses on how Muslims interpret and live islam. In “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an (University of Texas Press, 2002) she proposed a liberatory Qur’anic hermeneutics that allows Muslims to argue on behalf of sexual equality and against patriarchy from within an Islamic framework. In her current and on-going research, she studies Christian-Muslim encounters from both a theological and a historical perspective with a view to analyzing their views on Otherness (i.e., the idea of difference).
Other publications: Islam, Muslims, and the US: Essays on Religion and Politics (India: Global Media, 2004) and Democracy, Nationalism, and Communalism: The Colonial Legacy in South Asia (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995).

Ulises A. Mejias is married to dr. Asma Barlas and has his own weblog: i d e a n t

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Studium Generale Groningen: Does the Qur’an support gender-equality? by dr. Asma Barlas

Posted on November 12th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Studium Generale Groningen
Does the Qur’an support gender-equality?
Asma Barlas

DATE, TIME, LOCATION

Thursday 23 November 2006
8.00 – 9.30 p.m.
Academiegebouw
Broerstraat 5, Groningen
ADMISSION

€ 2,-
For students, SG-members and -ambassadeurs admission is free, but a ticket is required.

Does Islam call for the oppression of women? Non-Muslims point to the subjugation of women that occurs in many Muslim countries, especially those that claim to be ‘Islamic’, while many Muslims read the Qur’an in ways that seem to justify sexual oppression, inequality, and patriarchy. Taking a wholly different view, Asma Barlas develops a believer’s reading of the Qur’an that demonstrates the radically egalitarian and antipatriarchal nature of its teachings.

Asma Barlas will show how reading inequality into the Qur’an serves a function for those who choose or were taught to read that way. Contrary to what both conservative and many non-Muslims believe, Muslim women do not have to abandon islam to liberate themselves, but can struggle for equality within the framework of Qur’an’s teachings.

Asma Barlas is professor of Politics and Director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity at Ithaca College, New York. Her research focuses on how Muslims interpret and live islam. In “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an (University of Texas Press, 2002) she proposed a liberatory Qur’anic hermeneutics that allows Muslims to argue on behalf of sexual equality and against patriarchy from within an Islamic framework. In her current and on-going research, she studies Christian-Muslim encounters from both a theological and a historical perspective with a view to analyzing their views on Otherness (i.e., the idea of difference).
Other publications: Islam, Muslims, and the US: Essays on Religion and Politics (India: Global Media, 2004) and Democracy, Nationalism, and Communalism: The Colonial Legacy in South Asia (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995).

Ulises A. Mejias is married to dr. Asma Barlas and has his own weblog: i d e a n t

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Protected: AT5 Nieuws Amsterdam – "Beter homo daar dan een Turk hier"

Posted on November 12th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

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Protected: AT5 Nieuws Amsterdam – “Beter homo daar dan een Turk hier”

Posted on November 12th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

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NRC – Housen in de woestijn maakt Amman swingend

Posted on November 12th, 2006 by .
Categories: Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

NRC Handelsblad:  Housen in de woestijn maakt Amman swingend

In Amman drinken jonge moslims wodka in club Myth. En ze bewonderen de Nederlandse dj’s, hoort Ludette el Barkany „Prana is niet meer wat het is geweest.” Wajih Halawa probeert boven het knallende technogedreun uit te komen. „Vr o e g e r stond hier elke week een andere dj te draaien, nieuwe geluiden, nieuwe stijlen, het was altijd weer een verrassing. Met vroeger bedoelt de 28-jarige dj overigens een jaar geleden. (more…)

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In het jaar 2525: 475,29% van de Amsterdammers Marokkaan

Posted on November 11th, 2006 by .
Categories: Joy Category.

Volgens de gemeente Amsterdam:

Marokkanen binnenkort grootste allochtone herkomstgroep

Surinamers (9,4% van de Amsterdammers) vormen al decennia lang de grootste allochtone herkomstgroep in de stad. Door verhuizingen naar Almere en het buitenland neemt hun aantal echter langzaam af. Verwacht wordt dat in 2008 de Marokkanen, nu 8,8% van alle Amsterdammers, de grootste herkomstgroep zullen vormen.

Dat dus in 2008. In 2525 dus 475,29% van de Amsterdammers Marokkaan heb ik berekend volgens het Sokal-raamwerk dat rekening houdt met de voorkeuren van linkse statistici. Dat is natuurlijk een probleem. (more…)

1 comment.

De burqa en de strijd om het lichaam van de vrouw

Posted on November 10th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

(Collectie IISG, Amsterdam): ‘Dolle Mina. Onthullend’. De poster is afkomstig van het IISG (www.iisg.nl)

(Tekst: “Nou, het is zo ver…. de minderheden zijn in de meerderheid”.Peter van Straaten, Peters Zeurkalender, 2 november 2006)

Het lijkt erop dat in extremis moslims en islam toch weer aanwezig zijn de verkiezingscampagne. (more…)

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Protected: nrc.nl – Economie – Toch discriminatie van allochtonen bij sollicitatie

Posted on November 8th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

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Khaleej Times Online – Six terrorism suspects arrested in the Netherlands

Posted on November 7th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Khaleej Times Online – Six terrorism suspects arrested in the Netherlands
Six terrorism suspects arrested in the Netherlands
(AFP)

7 November 2006

THE HAGUE – Six people have been arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of recruiting volunteers for jihad, or Islamic holy war, prosecutors said on Tuesday after a year-long investigation.

The suspects, five men and a woman, were arrested in The Hague and Amsterdam late Monday and early Tuesday as part of a probe into an international Islamic terror network launched in November 2005, the prosecutor’s office said.

Among the suspects, who were not identified by name, are two Dutch nationals of Moroccan origin, a Turkish man, a Tunisian national, a Moroccan and a sixth with dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality, prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin said.

The six were suspected of ‘recruiting radical Muslims for the international jihad’, a crime under recently amended Dutch laws.

Police were still investigating whether the suspects could also be charged with forming a terrorist organisation, the prosecutor’s office said.

De Bruin added that the Turkish suspect in this case had been acquitted in 2003 after going on trial on suspicion of recruiting for jihad.

At the time, recruiting for jihad was not a crime and the 12 suspects in the 2003 case were charged with the rarely used ‘aiding of the enemy’.

That charge was thrown out by the judges who said the Netherlands were not at war with Afghanistan’s Taleban regime as prosecutors argued.

In 2004 the laws changed in the Netherlands making recruitment for jihad a crime in itself, punishable by a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

The office of the national prosecutor said the current investigation began in November 2005 after police received information about three men from The Hague who had travelled to Azerbaijan to take part in jihad. They were arrested by Azerbaijani authorities in Baku and sent back to the Netherlands.

‘The three youths were suspected of being in contact with a network of extremist Muslims that was recruiting young men for the jihad,’ prosecutors said.

Investigators discovered that potential jihadists were being recruited with inflammatory speeches, pamphlets and videos focusing on the supposed duty of all Muslims to take part in holy war.

Several suspects have also tried to get fake travel documents to travel to Iraq.

The suspects were expected to appear before a judge later this week, who will then rule if they can be remanded in custody.

Prosecution spokesman De Bruin said that the six suspects were not linked to the Hofstad group, a terrorist network led by Mohammed Bouyeri who was convicted for the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, or the six other terrorism suspects on trial in Amsterdam who also have links to Bouyeri.

In recent years there have been several high profile acquittals in Dutch terrorism trials because judges are reluctant to convict suspects for plotting attacks without evidence that they were making clear steps towards carrying them out.

A round up of Dutch and English sources I have (in particular about the Turkish suspect Murat Ö aka Abu Jarrah aka Abu Zer aka Ibrahim the Turk and the so called Eik (Oak) case of 2002/2003):
(more…)

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The Piranha Trial: Friend or Foe?

Posted on November 6th, 2006 by .
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Six alleged Muslim radicals with links to the murderer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh stood on trial  (the so called Piranha trial) the last weeks accused of plotting terrorist attacks on Dutch politicians and government buildings. The main suspect is 20-year-old Samir Azzouz. He was acquitted in 2005 on terrorism charges but re-arrested in October 2005 on suspicion of planning attacks against politicians and the Dutch intelligence service headquarters. Azzouz has been linked to the so-called Hofstad Islamic extremist group led by Mohammed Bouyeri, who was sentenced in 2005 to life imprisonment for the November 2004 murder of van Gogh – an outspoken critic of (radical) Islam. Nine members of the group were convicted in the Hofstad-trial for up to 15 years for membership of a criminal and terrorist organisation. Azzouz was not been formally charged with belonging to that group, however.

Samir A. has been under surveillance of Dutch authorities since 2003 when he made a futile attempt to travel to Chechnya to join the separatist war there. He was arrested in October 2003 on suspicion of planning to manufacture a bomb but was released for lack of evidence. (He lacked the necessary ingredients for making a bomb). In June 2004 he was re-arrested after police said they found chemicals, plans of government buildings and maps which was the cause for a major terror alarm in the Netherlands. He was again acquitted after an appeals court found that his “clumsy” plans did not represent a solid threat. Prosecutors now claim they have stronger evidence that Azzouz and the other five suspects were planning an attack, including a video testament. In that testament he appears in Bin-Laden-like attire with a machine gun leaning against the wall behind him. On the video he says among other things: “We must prepare to die today. […] I say to you that between us and you there will only be the language of the sword until you leave Muslims alone.

Prosecutors today asked to sentence six youngsters to prison terms of up to 15 years for allegedly conspiring to commit a terrorist attack on Dutch politicians, possibly including Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the creative partner of slain filmmaker Theo van Gogh. The heaviest sentence was demanded for Samir Azzouz, the group’s alleged ringleader: 15 years. They also urged to sentence 15 years of prison for Mohammed Chentouf who was considered to be a key person in the group. Lesser sentences were demanded for four other suspects (ranging from 12 years to one year) who were seen as taking a less active role as the other two. The verdict is expected Nov. 23.

Evidence against the suspects includes weapons, an alleged videotaped suicide testament, bomb-making manuals and radical Islamist propaganda. With regard to the latter, also other material (not radical) was found but that was not included in the trial. The evidence also includes a tapped telephone call between Azzouz and a convicted terrorist implying that an attack was imminent. In addition, two alleged members of the group testified against Azzouz and the others. For the prosecution this amounts to a very clear cut conclusion: this group was planning the terrorist murder of one or more politicians by means of a weapon or by detonating an explosive.

The defense lawyers (of course) think otherwise. They will give closing statements Wednesday and claim that the suspects are innocent and victims of police harassment. They claim that the two witnesses, Lahbib and Hanan Bachar, are unreliable and were themselves suspects in the case. All the suspects they claim were friends but not an organization and the prosecutors could not link much of the evidence (including the weapons) to the subjects. Azzouz stated during the trial that the video testament was just a joke, and that he would never kill somebody in the Netherlands, because in his view that is forbidden in Islam.

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Protected: nrc.nl – Binnenland – Linker dan Mohammed B.

Posted on November 6th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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