Expatica – No trace of Samir A. terror suspects on seized guns

Posted on October 16th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Expatica -  No trace of Samir A. terror suspects on seized guns

13 October 2006

AMSTERDAM — In a last-minute blow to the prosecution’s case, forensics tests have failed to find any incriminating evidence on the weapons that allegedly belonged to the suspected terror network of Samir A.

One of A.’s lawyers made the claim and a spokesman for the public prosecution office (OM) confirmed the statement on Friday.

Police found the guns last month in a communal cellar of several apartment homes in The Hague.

Soumaya S. — the 23-year-old wife of one of the convicted members of the Hofstadgroep, Nouriddin el F. — was living in the apartment building.

The public prosecution suspects the guns belonged to the alleged terror network of Samir A.

A. — who has twice been acquitted on terrorism charges — will appear in court again on Monday on charges relating to the Piranha investigation. (more…)

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Expatica – Turkish youths turning to radical Islam: terror report

Posted on October 16th, 2006 by .
Categories: Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Expatica -  Turkish youths turning to radical Islam: terror report

16 October 2006

AMSTERDAM — The continued radicalisation of especially young Muslims remains concerning, the national anti-terrorism co-ordination office NCTb said on Monday.

The NCTb also said it was “remarkable” that a rising number of Turkish youths were finding their way into networks of radical Muslims prepared to use violence against western society. (more…)

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Nederlandse Islamitische Omroep – ‘Salafist’ helpt NIO-reporters

Posted on September 22nd, 2006 by .
Categories: Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Nederlandse Islamitische Omroep – ‘Salafist’ helpt NIO-reporters
‘Salafist’ helpt NIO-reporters

Dinsdag 19 september, direct na het interview met Marcouch, gingen de twee NIO-verslaggevers de wijk in om de sfeer te proeven en om enkele van de jongeren te spreken te krijgen. In de Mondriaanstraat kwam het tot een dreigende situatie. Een jongen van een jaar of achttien dacht dat hij stiekem gefilmd werd door de cameraman van de NIO. Alle ontkenningen ten spijt bleef hij daarvan overtuigd en eiste de beelden te zien waar hij op stond. Net toen hij, inmiddels in gezelschap van wat vrienden, besloten had dat de enige oplossing het vernielen van de NIO-camera was, kwam daar een jongeman op de fiets aangereden. Ali, eind twintig of begin dertig, ringbaardje, wijde kleren, opgerolde broekspijpen.

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Nederlandse Islamitische Omroep – 'Salafist' helpt NIO-reporters

Posted on September 22nd, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Nederlandse Islamitische Omroep – ‘Salafist’ helpt NIO-reporters
‘Salafist’ helpt NIO-reporters

Dinsdag 19 september, direct na het interview met Marcouch, gingen de twee NIO-verslaggevers de wijk in om de sfeer te proeven en om enkele van de jongeren te spreken te krijgen. In de Mondriaanstraat kwam het tot een dreigende situatie. Een jongen van een jaar of achttien dacht dat hij stiekem gefilmd werd door de cameraman van de NIO. Alle ontkenningen ten spijt bleef hij daarvan overtuigd en eiste de beelden te zien waar hij op stond. Net toen hij, inmiddels in gezelschap van wat vrienden, besloten had dat de enige oplossing het vernielen van de NIO-camera was, kwam daar een jongeman op de fiets aangereden. Ali, eind twintig of begin dertig, ringbaardje, wijde kleren, opgerolde broekspijpen.

0 comments.

De boodschap van Samir A.

Posted on September 15th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, My Research, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Nova had gisteren dus fragmenten van de video van Samir. Ik ben op het moment aan het werken aan een publicatie over de spirituele en politieke boodschap van de Nederlanse jihadi’s (en voormalige jihadi’s). Het duurt nog wel even voordat deze gepubliceerd wordt (pas na mijn proefschrift en dat duurt ook nog wel enkele maanden). Het gaat er daarbij om om uit te gaan van wat zij zelf zeggen. Niet om alles maar klakkeloos over te nemen, maar wel om recht te doen aan het uitgangspunt dat het hier om zelfstandige individuen gaat die zelf beslissingen nemen, doelen in het leven hebben, hun eigen wensen en verlangens, politieke en spirituele behoeften. Op basis daarvan binnen de gegeven economische, juridische, sociale en politieke omstandigheden maken zij hun keuzes met betrekking tot datgene wat zij zien als de zuivere islam. (more…)

0 comments.

Have a closer look…

Posted on September 14th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Een kijktip voor vanavond: NOVA met fragment(en) van Samir A. videoboodschap.

0 comments.

Een religieuze wind blaast door het huis

Posted on September 13th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues, My Research, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Ik denk niet dat er iemand is die serieus denkt dat Donner de Shari’a wil invoeren. Hij spreekt over een puur hypothetische zaak, maar stipt wel een belangrijk principe aan. Als je moslims als volwaardig accepteert, accepteer je dus ook dat er moslims zijn die op basis van hun geloofsovertuiging zich in het publieke en politieke debat mengen net zo goed als er christenen zijn of hindoes of atheisten die dat doen. Mensen die het daar niet mee eens zijn, melden zich maar in datzelfde debat. De opvatting dat religie niet in het publieke debat hoort is een seculiere norm die wordt opgelegd aan mensen, maar wel één die net zoveel rechtsgeldigheid heeft als de opvatting dat er religie er wel in thuis hoort. (more…)

0 comments.

The '9-11' hijack

Posted on September 11th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Uncategorized.

Well what to say about ‘9-11’? ‘9-11’ has changed the world in a tremendous way, although some of the changes might have started earlier already. Without ‘9-11’ in the Netherlands Pim Fortuyn’s message wouldn’t have been so powerful. In 1996 Pim Fortuyn released his book ‘Against the islamization of our culture’ in which he elaborated on the issues Bolkestein had addressed earlier. Bolkestein, political leader of the Dutch liberal party (VVD) stated in a lecture and an interview that Islam was incompatible with Western liberal values. He was the first politician to use the minority issue as a political strategy. The only party to have claimed that before him was the Centrumpartij, but they were a marginalized group. Bolkestein called for migrants to adjust to Dutch law and that the multicultural society had its limits because not all cultures were equal. His lecture, held in Luzern, provided an extensive analysis of NATO’s new strategy, where former NATO secretary-general Claes had stated earlier that according to him Islam was as dangerous as communism. Bolkestein was severely criticized for his statements, however this criticism related more to the way he said things than to the content of his message.
According to Muslims, including liberal Muslims, were against the separation of church and state, against equality of men and women, and the main threat for world peace from which he concluded that Islam was a backward culture. Two weeks before ‘9-11’ and the day after ‘9-11’ he pleaded for a ‘Cold War’ against Islam. Although Fortuyn’s discourse was not exclusively ‘Islam-topic’ – he had strong anti-establishment rhetoric as well – his message concerning Islam became the most visible. His popularity caused other politicians to firm up their language on and towards migrants. When he was killed on 6 May 2002 the whole country fell into shock and many people (Muslim and non-Muslim) openly expressed the hope that the perpetrator would not be a Muslim.

In May 2001 an imam from Rotterdam, Khalil El Moumni, spoke out on a Dutch TV-programme against homosexuality (in the context of acts of violence against homosexuals by young Moroccan boys) calling it a contagious disease. The debate that ensued concentrated on whether Dutch tolerance had gone too far in allowing such kinds of intolerant opinions to be publicly expressed. Opinions like El Moumni were considered to be the ultimate proof that the multicultural society was a “drama” and that the main culprit was Islam. That was the first time a traditional Moroccan imam spoke on TV and the question for many people was ‘how many Muslims share the same (clashing) values?’ and ‘what messages were these imams spreading in the mosques?’ Even though El Moumni’s views on homosexuality coincided with those of the Catholic Church nevertheless this nuance was lost in the ensuing debate. This was partly caused by the fact that the same TV programme did not air his full opinion against violence towards homosexuals. His selectively aired words added fuel to the fire of anger surrounding the relation between three fundamental rights: freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and the non-discrimination principle. He also became an example of the problematic relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims. Moreover, the fact that he had made these remarks only a few weeks after the passing of new legislation allowing homosexual marriages made it probably more painful. El Moumni had pointed at an issue that had involved a bitter struggle for several years and that seemed to have been finally resolved.
The attacks on 11 September 2001 were very rapidly considered as attacks on the West, on ‘us’, and on our Western values of democracy and freedom. The Dutch government first asked for thoughtfulness but then also stated that 9-11 was tantamount to a declaration of war. Sylvain Ephimenco (a Dutch writer) pointed to Islam as the fertile ground which produces terrorists; Leon de Winter (a Dutch writer) claimed that the West was in a state of war with Islam; and Frentrop (a Dutch journalist) pleaded for a ban on Islam. The Dutch filmmaker and columnist Van Gogh would declare later that 9-11 was an eye opener for him. One of the main questions raised in many of these reactions was how ‘ordinary’ Muslims related to these extremist Muslims. Several reactions (some intended, some unintended, some distorted) added fuel to the fire: Is Islam compatible with a democracy based on the separation of church and state as well as equal rights for men and women? Though several Muslim opinion leaders tried to contribute to the debate but the scope of their contributions remained limited because they were much divided and none could be considered as truly representative of the Muslim community. Moreover, their hesitation to combine a condemnation of the attacks in support of democracy, together with solidarity with the US, worsened the situation according to many people.

After Fortuyn’s death, Hirsi Ali together with several others became the leading Islam-critic voicing the concern that Islam, as a system, was incompatible with liberal Western culture. The criticism was partly caused by the fear that religion would become a leading factor in the public domain. She stated in the daily Trouw that prophet Mohammed would be considered a perverse man, a tyrant, according to our western standards of these days (she made that in reference to his (alleged) sexual intercourse with Aisha when she was nine). She also stressed her personal belief that Islam can be ‘ill’ used against women and she harshly criticized Islam. Sometimes she qualified her condemnation but the subtleties were lost or seen as irrelevant. Upon declaring her apostasy she started to receive death threats. The same was the case for Theo van Gogh.

Columnist and filmmaker Van Gogh called (radical) Muslims ‘goatfuckers’ and ‘fifth column’ and regularly insulted other groups as well in his daily column in the free daily Metro.  Together with Hirsi Ali he made the film Submission I in which they addressed the issue of abuse of women in the name of Islam. He was killed on 2 November 2004 by a Moroccan Dutch young man. This was, according to many people, the definite proof of the intolerance of Islam. The polarization between Muslims (as Muslims) and non-Muslims (as Dutch) increased in the aftermath of his murder, and which resulted, among other things, in the arson of a mosque, an Islamic school, churches and many similar attempts. In the public debate that followed two questions emerged: First, how large was this group of radical Muslims and how could it be controlled? Second, was there a limit to freedom of speech? Muslim organizations were called upon to speak out against this murder and to condemn violence. The fact that many young people on the Internet were more unambiguous in their condemnation became a cause for concern and a sign for many observers that Muslims should increase their capacity to endure criticism. For some politicians the time for dialogue with Muslims was over. The tension rose even more when the so-called Hofstadgroup was apprehended after a siege in The Hague. They were arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder several Dutch politicians such as Hirsi Ali, Cohen, and Aboutaleb, the mayor and an alderman from Amsterdam. Several other incidents such as the one with ‘youth-imam’ Abdul Jabber van de Ven (who publicly acknowledged that he would not mind that Wilders – a radical right wing politician – would die of cancer), the Tilburg imam Salam (who refused to shake hands with minister Verdonk), and the fact that two politicians (Hirsi Ali and Wilders) had to go into hiding, made the situation worse and strengthened the idea that Muslims were the fifth column.

Although the assassination of Van Gogh seems to have taken over the position as the most important landmark of relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims, ‘9-11’ remains important.

(more…)

0 comments.

The ‘9-11’ hijack

Posted on September 11th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Uncategorized.

Well what to say about ‘9-11’? ‘9-11’ has changed the world in a tremendous way, although some of the changes might have started earlier already. Without ‘9-11’ in the Netherlands Pim Fortuyn’s message wouldn’t have been so powerful. In 1996 Pim Fortuyn released his book ‘Against the islamization of our culture’ in which he elaborated on the issues Bolkestein had addressed earlier. Bolkestein, political leader of the Dutch liberal party (VVD) stated in a lecture and an interview that Islam was incompatible with Western liberal values. He was the first politician to use the minority issue as a political strategy. The only party to have claimed that before him was the Centrumpartij, but they were a marginalized group. Bolkestein called for migrants to adjust to Dutch law and that the multicultural society had its limits because not all cultures were equal. His lecture, held in Luzern, provided an extensive analysis of NATO’s new strategy, where former NATO secretary-general Claes had stated earlier that according to him Islam was as dangerous as communism. Bolkestein was severely criticized for his statements, however this criticism related more to the way he said things than to the content of his message.
According to Muslims, including liberal Muslims, were against the separation of church and state, against equality of men and women, and the main threat for world peace from which he concluded that Islam was a backward culture. Two weeks before ‘9-11’ and the day after ‘9-11’ he pleaded for a ‘Cold War’ against Islam. Although Fortuyn’s discourse was not exclusively ‘Islam-topic’ – he had strong anti-establishment rhetoric as well – his message concerning Islam became the most visible. His popularity caused other politicians to firm up their language on and towards migrants. When he was killed on 6 May 2002 the whole country fell into shock and many people (Muslim and non-Muslim) openly expressed the hope that the perpetrator would not be a Muslim.

In May 2001 an imam from Rotterdam, Khalil El Moumni, spoke out on a Dutch TV-programme against homosexuality (in the context of acts of violence against homosexuals by young Moroccan boys) calling it a contagious disease. The debate that ensued concentrated on whether Dutch tolerance had gone too far in allowing such kinds of intolerant opinions to be publicly expressed. Opinions like El Moumni were considered to be the ultimate proof that the multicultural society was a “drama” and that the main culprit was Islam. That was the first time a traditional Moroccan imam spoke on TV and the question for many people was ‘how many Muslims share the same (clashing) values?’ and ‘what messages were these imams spreading in the mosques?’ Even though El Moumni’s views on homosexuality coincided with those of the Catholic Church nevertheless this nuance was lost in the ensuing debate. This was partly caused by the fact that the same TV programme did not air his full opinion against violence towards homosexuals. His selectively aired words added fuel to the fire of anger surrounding the relation between three fundamental rights: freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and the non-discrimination principle. He also became an example of the problematic relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims. Moreover, the fact that he had made these remarks only a few weeks after the passing of new legislation allowing homosexual marriages made it probably more painful. El Moumni had pointed at an issue that had involved a bitter struggle for several years and that seemed to have been finally resolved.
The attacks on 11 September 2001 were very rapidly considered as attacks on the West, on ‘us’, and on our Western values of democracy and freedom. The Dutch government first asked for thoughtfulness but then also stated that 9-11 was tantamount to a declaration of war. Sylvain Ephimenco (a Dutch writer) pointed to Islam as the fertile ground which produces terrorists; Leon de Winter (a Dutch writer) claimed that the West was in a state of war with Islam; and Frentrop (a Dutch journalist) pleaded for a ban on Islam. The Dutch filmmaker and columnist Van Gogh would declare later that 9-11 was an eye opener for him. One of the main questions raised in many of these reactions was how ‘ordinary’ Muslims related to these extremist Muslims. Several reactions (some intended, some unintended, some distorted) added fuel to the fire: Is Islam compatible with a democracy based on the separation of church and state as well as equal rights for men and women? Though several Muslim opinion leaders tried to contribute to the debate but the scope of their contributions remained limited because they were much divided and none could be considered as truly representative of the Muslim community. Moreover, their hesitation to combine a condemnation of the attacks in support of democracy, together with solidarity with the US, worsened the situation according to many people.

After Fortuyn’s death, Hirsi Ali together with several others became the leading Islam-critic voicing the concern that Islam, as a system, was incompatible with liberal Western culture. The criticism was partly caused by the fear that religion would become a leading factor in the public domain. She stated in the daily Trouw that prophet Mohammed would be considered a perverse man, a tyrant, according to our western standards of these days (she made that in reference to his (alleged) sexual intercourse with Aisha when she was nine). She also stressed her personal belief that Islam can be ‘ill’ used against women and she harshly criticized Islam. Sometimes she qualified her condemnation but the subtleties were lost or seen as irrelevant. Upon declaring her apostasy she started to receive death threats. The same was the case for Theo van Gogh.

Columnist and filmmaker Van Gogh called (radical) Muslims ‘goatfuckers’ and ‘fifth column’ and regularly insulted other groups as well in his daily column in the free daily Metro.  Together with Hirsi Ali he made the film Submission I in which they addressed the issue of abuse of women in the name of Islam. He was killed on 2 November 2004 by a Moroccan Dutch young man. This was, according to many people, the definite proof of the intolerance of Islam. The polarization between Muslims (as Muslims) and non-Muslims (as Dutch) increased in the aftermath of his murder, and which resulted, among other things, in the arson of a mosque, an Islamic school, churches and many similar attempts. In the public debate that followed two questions emerged: First, how large was this group of radical Muslims and how could it be controlled? Second, was there a limit to freedom of speech? Muslim organizations were called upon to speak out against this murder and to condemn violence. The fact that many young people on the Internet were more unambiguous in their condemnation became a cause for concern and a sign for many observers that Muslims should increase their capacity to endure criticism. For some politicians the time for dialogue with Muslims was over. The tension rose even more when the so-called Hofstadgroup was apprehended after a siege in The Hague. They were arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder several Dutch politicians such as Hirsi Ali, Cohen, and Aboutaleb, the mayor and an alderman from Amsterdam. Several other incidents such as the one with ‘youth-imam’ Abdul Jabber van de Ven (who publicly acknowledged that he would not mind that Wilders – a radical right wing politician – would die of cancer), the Tilburg imam Salam (who refused to shake hands with minister Verdonk), and the fact that two politicians (Hirsi Ali and Wilders) had to go into hiding, made the situation worse and strengthened the idea that Muslims were the fifth column.

Although the assassination of Van Gogh seems to have taken over the position as the most important landmark of relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims, ‘9-11’ remains important.

(more…)

0 comments.

Dutch woman charged with terrorist offence

Posted on September 9th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Yassin Nassari, a Syrian man who teaches English, was charged on by police with possessing information likely to be useful to a terrorist. He was charged under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Nassiri is charged on 30 May, under Section 57 of the Terrorism Act (Possession for terrorist purposes) with possessing a document likely to be useful to a terrorist after a pre- planned intelligence operation. Police sources said there was no suggestion that the allegations related to a threat to the UK. According to the prosecutor documents on his laptop computer were found about making a rocket-propelled explosive and a letter from his wife encouraging martyrdom.

After Nassari’s arrest, police searched his house and asked police in the Netherlands to search an address in Eindhoven related to his family. (more…)

1 comment.

FBI Role in Terror Probe Questioned

Posted on September 3rd, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

FBI Role in Terror Probe Questioned

Lawyers Point to Fine Line Between Sting and Entrapment

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 2, 2006; Page A01

Standing in an empty Miami warehouse on May 24 with a man he believed had ties to Osama bin Laden, a dejected Narseal Batiste talked of the setbacks to their terrorist plot and then uttered the words that helped put him in a federal prison cell.

“I want to fight some jihad,” he allegedly said. “That’s all I live for.”

0 comments.

Middle East Salafism and the Radicalization of Muslim Communities in Europe

Posted on September 1st, 2006 by .
Categories: My Research, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Middle East Salafism and the Radicalization of Muslim Communities in Europe
MIDDLE EAST SALAFISM’S INFLUENCE AND THE RADICALIZATION OF MUSLIM COMMUNITIES IN EUROPE
Juan José Escobar Stemmann*

This article discusses the Salafi ideology behind the recent terror attacks in Europe, including the Madrid (March 2004) and London bombings (July 2005) and the role of such attacks in the radicalization process among certain sectors of Europe’s Muslim communities.

0 comments.

C L O S E R – Back from liminoid

Posted on September 1st, 2006 by .
Categories: Blogosphere, Gouda Issues, Internal Debates, International Terrorism, Joy Category, Morocco, Religious and Political Radicalization, Some personal considerations.

Well, hello there. It’s been a while. I think besides during my stay in Morocco a few years ago, there was never a ‘blog-less’ period that was so long. Holidays (indeed, that was my liminoid phase), writing research applications, writing two chapters of my Ph.D (yes!) and a lot of small things kept me away from here. Not that there wasn’t anything to blog about. Let me give you a small tour of what happened and what would certainly have been part of the blog:

A Romeo and Juliet story

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 08/09/2006 | Love in the time of holy war
Love in the time of holy war
More than distance and prison separate a Muslim extremist and his Jewish girlfriend.

Racialization of Muslims

spiked | Making Muslims into a race apart
Making Muslims into a race apart
In his TV show on British Muslims, Jon Snow was more anthropologist than journalist, trekking to an exotic land to meet apparently peculiar people.

Some things about Israël and Hezbollah

towards God is our journey
Muslim disagreement on the ‘Party of God’

Islamicate: Invoking Spinoza

The Qana Conspiracy Theory – World Opinion Roundup
The Qana Conspiracy Theory

Some things about irritating aircraft passengers a.k.a. terrorists

Mirror.co.uk – News – EXCLUSIVE: MALAGA JET MUTINY PAIR’S SHOCK AT PLANE EJECTION
EXCLUSIVE: MALAGA JET MUTINY PAIR’S SHOCK AT PLANE EJECTION
Sohail Ashraf & Khuram Zeb
We just couldn’t believe they feared we were bombers We’re ordinary Asian lads who only wanted some fun

The Peninsula On-line: Qatar’s leading English Daily
All is well, say Indians in terror scare

Some Dutch stuff

NRC Handelsblad – Digitale Editie – Zaterdag 26 augustus 2006

Strijd in Midden-Oosten bewijst het failliet van de koude oorlog tegen de moslimdemocraten
Saad Eddin Ibrahim

NRC Handelsblad – Digitale Editie – Zaterdag 26 augustus 2006

Ook ik had een martelaar voor Allah kunnen worden
Naema Tahir

Het is, in je hoofd, niet eens zo’n grote stap, martelaar worden voor de islam. Toen schrijfster Naema Tahir als ontheemde puber klem zat tussen Pakistan, Engeland en Nederland, lokte het gastvrije hemelse paradijs heel wat meer dan het verwarrende leven als immigrant.

AD.nl – 24 uur per dag actueel nieuws /
Groei islamitische basisschool Gouda zet door

STOPlog
De Vliegeraar
Dit boek geeft je het gevoel de geschiedenis van de laatste 30 jaar in Afghanistan van binnenuit te hebben beleefd. Daarin is schrijver Khaled Hosseini zondermeer geslaagd. De Vliegeraar van Kabul is een verpletterend boek dat je van het begin tot het eind gevangen houdt. Net als een vlieger zal de lezer het verhaal ook daarna niet meer loslaten, zoals dat bij bepaalde boeken het geval is.

Trouw, deVerdieping| letter-geest – Veroordeeld tot verstoting uit de maatschappij
Veroordeeld tot verstoting uit de maatschappij
door Joshua Livestro

Essayist Joshua Livestro signaleert een streven om te willen terugkeren naar vroeger, ’naar de tijd van vóór de polarisering, vóór de kogels, de messteken en de harde woorden over de (radicale) islam’.

Maar ’wat bedoeld is als een herstel van oude verhoudingen, draagt in praktijk vooral bij aan de voortschrijdende islamisering van de Nederlandse samenleving’. Degenen die zich hiertegen verzetten, worden maatschappelijk verstoten.

Van der Horst

Een gevalletje ‘vrijheid van meningsuiting’ van iemand die zich presenteert als de ridder van het vrije woord, maar dat beter niet kan doen (ook al had hij in de kwestie zelf gelijk).

Some interesting research stuff

Pearsall’s Books: Pentecostalism and the Berbers
Pentecostalism and the Berbers

rfmcdpei: [BRIEF NOTE] The Christianization of Kabylia?
The Christianization of Kabylia?

Something about free speech

Raed in the Middle: back from the mideast
One of the two men who approached me first, Inspector Harris, asked for my id card and boarding pass. I gave him my boarding pass and driver’s license. He said “people are feeling offended because of your t-shirt”. I looked at my t-shirt: I was wearing my shirt which states in both Arabic and English “we will not be silent”. You can take a look at it in this picture taken during our Jordan meetings with Iraqi MPs. I said “I am very sorry if I offended anyone, I didnt know that this t-shirt will be offensive”. He asked me if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all of my bags and I asked him “why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn’t it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?” The second man in a greenish suit interfered and said “people here in the US don’t understand these things about constitutional rights”. So I answered him “I live in the US, and I understand it is my right to wear this t-shirt”.

Something strange

There is this funny video I found only recently seems to make clear why we, men, never should be allowed to come close to an iron (which is undoubtedly true of course 😉 ). Funny thing is though that the same video was emailed to me and the video there was called: muslim-of-the-week (moslim-van-de-week). Don’t know how people know if this guy is a Muslim or not and I don’t know what it means this name change (there was no comment in the email), but nevertheless I found it remarkable. Another thing that is remarkable; I do a lot of stupid things every day and luckily no cameras around, while this one is filmed in such a way (angle) that the effect would be clear. So it is probably fake. But still, it is funny, so here watch it yourself:

Totallycrap: Call me on My Mobile

And something funny

Austin Powers in Goldmember – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
* Goldmember: “Hey, everybody! I’m from Holland! Isn’t that vierd?”
* Goldmember: “Look everyvone! My vinky vas a key!” (triumphantly holds up his penis/spare tractor-beam key)

Nigel Powers: “Only a bloody Dutchman!”

* Nigel Powers: “There’s only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures…and the Dutch. ”

So, yes, that means that I’m back from going liminoid, but still without an answer to the most important question in the blogosphere: what’s the use of blogging? And for the people who have noticed that this blog wasn’t online the last few days, religionresearch.org (of which this blog is part of) had exceeded the bandwith limit. Mainly due to my blog but I don’t know why: a hundred and something visitors isn’t enough for that. So is anyone stealing my bandwith?

0 comments.

spiked | An explosion of pity

Posted on July 23rd, 2006 by .
Categories: Important Publications, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

spiked | An explosion of pity
Brendan O’Neill has an interesting article on Devji’s book Landscapes of Jihad; in my opinion a must read (so when will I start reading it…)

Devji cuts through the two most common perceptions about al-Qaeda: that it is political or religious. In fact, he says, it cannot be understood as a political movement in any traditional sense; indeed, it has dispensed with ‘an old-fashioned politics tied to states and citizenship’ (1). It is not traditionally religious, either, he argues, in the sense that it does not follow any recognisable Islamic hierarchy and chops and changes the religious justifications for its actions.

Devji argues that al-Qaeda is better understood as a new global movement more interested in making ‘ethical’ gestures than winning territory or building a state. The contemporary jihad, he argues, ‘is more a product of the media than it is of any local tradition or situation and school or lineage of Muslim authority…. [T]he jihad itself can be seen as an offspring of the media, composed as it is almost completely of pre-existing media themes, images and stereotypes.’ (2)

Most of the London bombers’ acts of bonding occurred in public – not in mosques but on rafting expeditions and at ink-ball shooting games, in clubs and gyms. There is nothing traditionally religious, or private, about that.

‘These men do not cut themselves off from British society; instead their politics and their bonding are conducted in the full glare of public scrutiny. They are made by the world we live in.’

Devji says the London bombers, and other al-Qaeda-style terrorists, appear to be driven more by pity than political conviction or ambition – and that this, too, is a common trend today. ‘Pity can be dangerous, precisely because one is not personally involved in the suffering. One is acting, apparently, on behalf of others. You see this among leftist groups today, as well. It’s vicarious, it’s luxurious in a way, and luxuriant; it is also narcissistic. It is a very dangerous and bitter passion.

‘It is so impersonal, this kind of pity, that the terrorists seem to exhibit no hatred even towards their victims. Actually they blend in with them; they are like them. The London bombers didn’t have any history of exhibiting dislike or hatred, or removing themselves from British society. They got along fine with Britons and were exactly like them. It is precisely because the hatred and the pity is so abstract – so removed from traditional political or religious structures – that they seem not to be killing real people, in a sense. It is more abstract than that. These bombers really could say, “It’s nothing personal.”’

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spiked | An explosion of pity

Posted on July 23rd, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Important Publications, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

spiked | An explosion of pity
Brendan O’Neill has an interesting article on Devji’s book Landscapes of Jihad; in my opinion a must read (so when will I start reading it…)

Devji cuts through the two most common perceptions about al-Qaeda: that it is political or religious. In fact, he says, it cannot be understood as a political movement in any traditional sense; indeed, it has dispensed with ‘an old-fashioned politics tied to states and citizenship’ (1). It is not traditionally religious, either, he argues, in the sense that it does not follow any recognisable Islamic hierarchy and chops and changes the religious justifications for its actions.

Devji argues that al-Qaeda is better understood as a new global movement more interested in making ‘ethical’ gestures than winning territory or building a state. The contemporary jihad, he argues, ‘is more a product of the media than it is of any local tradition or situation and school or lineage of Muslim authority…. [T]he jihad itself can be seen as an offspring of the media, composed as it is almost completely of pre-existing media themes, images and stereotypes.’ (2)

Most of the London bombers’ acts of bonding occurred in public – not in mosques but on rafting expeditions and at ink-ball shooting games, in clubs and gyms. There is nothing traditionally religious, or private, about that.

‘These men do not cut themselves off from British society; instead their politics and their bonding are conducted in the full glare of public scrutiny. They are made by the world we live in.’

Devji says the London bombers, and other al-Qaeda-style terrorists, appear to be driven more by pity than political conviction or ambition – and that this, too, is a common trend today. ‘Pity can be dangerous, precisely because one is not personally involved in the suffering. One is acting, apparently, on behalf of others. You see this among leftist groups today, as well. It’s vicarious, it’s luxurious in a way, and luxuriant; it is also narcissistic. It is a very dangerous and bitter passion.

‘It is so impersonal, this kind of pity, that the terrorists seem to exhibit no hatred even towards their victims. Actually they blend in with them; they are like them. The London bombers didn’t have any history of exhibiting dislike or hatred, or removing themselves from British society. They got along fine with Britons and were exactly like them. It is precisely because the hatred and the pity is so abstract – so removed from traditional political or religious structures – that they seem not to be killing real people, in a sense. It is more abstract than that. These bombers really could say, “It’s nothing personal.”’

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de Volkskrant – Binnenland – Bestrijding terrorisme kan verkeerd uitpakken

Posted on July 22nd, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

de Volkskrant – Binnenland – Bestrijding terrorisme kan verkeerd uitpakken
Bestrijding terrorisme kan verkeerd uitpakken

Van onze verslaggeefsters Janny Groen, Annieke Kranenberg

AMSTERDAM – De maatregelen van de regering om terrorisme te bestrijden werken radicalisering in de hand. Zowel wetenschappers als familieleden en vrienden van terreurverdachten zeggen dat het harde beleid contraproductief is. Ook in inlichtingenkringen groeit de zorg over de negatieve effecten van het huidige contraterrorismebeleid. Dit blijkt uit onderzoek van de Volkskrant.

Beatrice de Graaf, die de effecten van contraterrorisme onderzoekt, ziet vooralsnog ‘geen positieve resultaten’. Zij vergelijkt de maatregelen tegen terrorisme in Nederland, Duitsland, de Verenigde Staten en Italië in de jaren zeventig met die van nu. ‘In Nederland is het beleid 180 graden gekanteld, zegt De Graaf, die is verbonden aan de afdeling internationale geschiedenis van de Universiteit Utrecht.In het Hofstadnetwerk, en breder in orthodox-islamitische kring, doen talloze verhalen de ronde over ‘moedwillige vernedering van moslims’ door de politie. Slaapkamers van moslima’s worden binnengevallen zonder dat de vrouwen de tijd krijgen zich fatsoenlijk te bedekken. ‘Ik had wel naakt kunnen zijn. Wat respectloos’, fulmineert de zus van een verdachte in de zogenoemde Piranhazaak.

In deze zaak staat een groep verdachten rond Samir A. terecht wegens deelname aan een terroristische organisatie, het voorbereiden van aanslagen op politici en het AIVD-kantoor en werving voor de jihad. Bij een huiszoeking in Den Haag, eveneens in het kader van de Piranhazaak, kreeg een jongetje van anderhalf jaar glassplinters over zich heen.

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Middle East Times – Muslims must bear the grunt of their failure

Posted on July 20th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Middle East Times – Muslims must bear the grunt of their failure
Commentary by Salim Mansur

July 19, 2006

TORONTO — Muslim Canadians, as Muslims elsewhere in Western societies, have felt increasingly besieged for some time now, both from outside their community and from within.

This sense of isolation, of being misrepresented and misunderstood, will inevitably deepen as the full story of the arrests of 17 Toronto-area Muslims on terrorism charges unfolds.

But whose fault is this? Let us, Muslims, be brutally honest.

We have inherited a culture of denial, of too often refusing to acknowledge our own responsibility for the widespread malaise that has left most of the Arab-Muslim countries in economic, political, and social despair.

Statistics and intergovernmental reports over the past several decades have documented a gap, perhaps now unbridgeable, between Muslim countries and the advanced industrial democracies in the West.

In a recent “failed states index” published in the May/June issue of Foreign Policy magazine, Pakistan, for instance, is ranked among the top 10 failed states in the world – ahead of Afghanistan.

Pakistan is a Muslim country, a nuclear military power, but it can barely feed, clothe, educate, and shelter its population.

The reports on the Arab countries are a dismal catalogue of entrenched tyrannies, failing economies, squandered wealth, gender oppression, persecution of minorities, and endemic violence.

The cleric-led regime in Iran seeks nuclear weapons and threatens to obliterate Israel, repress domestic opposition, and seek confrontation with the West.

Instead of acknowledging the reality of the Arab-Muslim world as a broken civilization, we Muslims tend to indulge instead in blaming others for our ills; deflecting our responsibilities for failures that have become breeding grounds of violence and terrorism.

Many of our intellectuals in public life and our religious leaders in mosques remain adept in double-speak, saying contrary things in English or French and then in Arabic or Farsi or Urdu.

We have made hypocrisy an art, and have spun for ourselves a web of lies that blinds us to the real world around us. We seethe with grievances and resentment against the West, even as we have prospered in the freedom and security of Western democracies.

We have inculcated into our children false pride, and given them a sense of history that crumbles under critical scrutiny. We have burdened them with conflicting loyalties – and now some of them have become our nightmare.

We preach tolerance yet we are intolerant. We demand inclusion, yet we practice exclusion of gender, of minorities, of those with whom we disagree.

We repeat endlessly that Islam is a religion of peace, yet too many of us display conduct contrary to what we profess. We keep assuring ourselves and others that Muslims who violate Islam are a minuscule minority, yet we fail to hold this minority accountable in public.

A bowl of milk turns into curd with a single drop of lemon. The minuscule minority we blame is this drop of lemon that has curdled and made a shambles of our Islam, yet too many of us insist against all evidence that our belief somehow sets us apart as better than others.

In Islam, we insist, religion and politics are inseparable. As a result, politics dominates our religion – and our religion has become a cover for tribalism and nationalism.

We regularly quote from the Koran, but do not make repentance for our failings as the Koran instructs, by seeking forgiveness from those we have harmed.

We Muslims are the source of our own misery, and we are not misunderstood
by others who see in our conduct a threat to their peace.

Salim Mansur is an associate professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario. He is also a columnist at Canada’s Sun Media

0 comments.

Madrid11.net | Debates: Is Religion the Problem?

Posted on July 18th, 2006 by .
Categories: Religion Other, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Madrid11.net | Debates
Debate
Madrid11.net invited two prominent voices to start the debate on ‘Is Religion the Problem?’

Most of the terrorist atrocities committed in recent years claim to be inspired by religion. Terrorists frequently refer to religious texts, and use holy scriptures as a justification for the killing of innocent civilians. Indeed, some believe that religion itself has become the problem, while others argue that it merely serves as an excuse. What’s your view?
Mark Juergensmeyer, professor of sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, believes religion can be a problematic medium that may serve to justify violence.
Faisal Bodi is a leading commentator on Muslim affairs and columnist for the London Guardian newspaper, he points to the misuse of ‘religion’ and the aspect of secularity in most wars.

0 comments.

Madrid11.net | Debates: Is Religion the Problem?

Posted on July 18th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Religion Other, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Madrid11.net | Debates
Debate
Madrid11.net invited two prominent voices to start the debate on ‘Is Religion the Problem?’

Most of the terrorist atrocities committed in recent years claim to be inspired by religion. Terrorists frequently refer to religious texts, and use holy scriptures as a justification for the killing of innocent civilians. Indeed, some believe that religion itself has become the problem, while others argue that it merely serves as an excuse. What’s your view?
Mark Juergensmeyer, professor of sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, believes religion can be a problematic medium that may serve to justify violence.
Faisal Bodi is a leading commentator on Muslim affairs and columnist for the London Guardian newspaper, he points to the misuse of ‘religion’ and the aspect of secularity in most wars.

0 comments.

Protected: Het Nieuwsblad – Jihad krijgt girlpower: Radicale moslima’s tokkelen

Posted on July 11th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

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Protected: Het Nieuwsblad – Jihad krijgt girlpower: Radicale moslima's tokkelen

Posted on July 11th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

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IslamiCity.com – Muslims set up coalition to fight extremism

Posted on July 8th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

IslamiCity.com

Muslims set up coalition to fight extremism
By Ben Russell and Nigel Morris
Published: 07 July 2006

Fourteen Islamic groups have formed a coalition to fight extremists, amid continuing anger at Tony Blair’s demand for their community to do more to combat radicalism. The groups, which include the Muslim Parliament and the Association of British Muslims, aim to raise awareness of extremism and speak out against “extremist ideologies and related propaganda”.

Forum members hope to commission research into why people are attracted to extremist ideologies and “to speak up for democratic values, and the principles of tolerance, justice and citizenship while maintaining our identity as British Muslims”.

The forum said: “We are aware that some from the Muslim community may be uneasy about the creation of a new body, arguing that Islam is not to blame for extremism and that Muslims as a whole cannot be held responsible for acts of terror committed in the name of their religion.

“We acknowledge this may be true, but we emphasise that Muslims must accept that there are extremists and terrorists who justify themselves by reference to Islam and this places a particular responsibility on Muslim citizens to expose these false claims and to refute such false justifications for acts that are clearly against Islam.”

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, attacked Mr Blair for suggesting Muslims were not doing enough to combat extremism. He said: “Blaming a community, especially those who have been working for the last five years to bringing sanity in the community, bringing peace and harmony in the community. This blaming is not helpful to us.”

Fourteen Islamic groups have formed a coalition to fight extremists, amid continuing anger at Tony Blair’s demand for their community to do more to combat radicalism. The groups, which include the Muslim Parliament and the Association of British Muslims, aim to raise awareness of extremism and speak out against “extremist ideologies and related propaganda”.

Forum members hope to commission research into why people are attracted to extremist ideologies and “to speak up for democratic values, and the principles of tolerance, justice and citizenship while maintaining our identity as British Muslims”.

The forum said: “We are aware that some from the Muslim community may be uneasy about the creation of a new body, arguing that Islam is not to blame for extremism and that Muslims as a whole cannot be held responsible for acts of terror committed in the name of their religion.

“We acknowledge this may be true, but we emphasise that Muslims must accept that there are extremists and terrorists who justify themselves by reference to Islam and this places a particular responsibility on Muslim citizens to expose these false claims and to refute such false justifications for acts that are clearly against Islam.”

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, attacked Mr Blair for suggesting Muslims were not doing enough to combat extremism. He said: “Blaming a community, especially those who have been working for the last five years to bringing sanity in the community, bringing peace and harmony in the community. This blaming is not helpful to us.”

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Transatlantic Intelligencer :: Talking With Islamists: The European Left and its “Dialogue” with the Arab World

Posted on July 8th, 2006 by .
Categories: Multiculti Issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Transatlantic Intelligencer :: Talking With Islamists: The European Left and its “Dialogue” with the Arab World
One of the main political themes (but also in social sciences) at this moment is whether or not to include islamists of different types in the democratic process and negotiate with them. In this article the politics of the European Left and the Islamists are connected to eachother and, so the authors argue, this dialogue has led to nothing. The Dutch WRR-report on islamic activism has mainly the same theme and the WRR sees possibilities for this dialogue (on the level of the state). It is an important theme and an important question.

The effect of conferences like that in Beirut is to promote radical Islamists to the status of serious negotiating partners.

Among other things, this has become possible because European Islamists, partly from conviction and partly from opportunism, have now nearly perfectly mastered the use of a vocabulary that dovetails seamlessly with “left-wing” ideas and programs. Just as in the case of Tariq Ramadan, who found an enthusiastic audience at the European Social Forum in Paris, so the success of the British Islamist al-Tamimi derives from his consciously relating his Islamism to the discourses of anti-Americanism and the anti-globalization movement. Thus, in an essay on Arab anti-Semitism, he writes that “In essence, the Zionist project is a Western colonial enterprise whose success depends on two main factors. The first factor is the determination of a powerful West to see this enterprise continue. The second factor is the weakness of the Arabs and the Muslims who have been robbed of the possibilities of defending themselves”. [18] In the same measure as the “Muslim world” is presented as the victim of the “New World Order”, he proposes it as the bearer of a more just one. “Evidently, the Muslim world is witnessing a massive awakening that will transform its weakness into strength. When the Arabs and Muslims again achieve strength and confidence, this will coincide with a retreat of the World Order due to dwindling material and military resources and as a result of the escalation of the current crisis. Then the end of the Zionist project will also have come and the State of Israel will no longer exist.” Packaged in academic language, Tamimi presents the same program of global jihad as that expressed in cruder form by Osama bin Laden and al-Qa’ida. The resistance to a “New World Order” controlled by Israel and the Zionists will succeed if it can exact a rising military price through a multiplication of conflicts and so sap the enemy’s strength. The call to murder could hardly be more soberly stated. And this is in fact essentially the program followed by the Ba’thists and Islamists in Iraq since the fall of Saddam.

1 comment.

Boston Review – The Brotherhood

Posted on July 8th, 2006 by .
Categories: Religious and Political Radicalization.

Stephen Glain: The Brotherhood

Assuming its fidelity to the word of Sayyid Qutb, the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy is to cinch control over Egyptian politics and establish sharia through constitutional fiat. The most populous and geopolitically vital Arab nation would then go the way of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Sudan to become an orthodox Islamic regime, perhaps to be joined one day by Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, and possibly Syria and several of the lesser Gulf states.

Or not. It is just as likely that Brotherhood members really believe their big-tent talk of coalition-building and interfaith harmony. They may also know that hammering Arab states together into a borderless fiefdom is just as absurd and impractical as it was when Nasser and the Syrians tried it in 1958.

More important, however, is what the people in al Catatny’s chambers believe. If they think the Muslim Brotherhood is the only political group in Egypt with the commitment and resources to address their needs, then they will buoy the Brotherhood to power regardless of its intentions. If, on the other hand, there is a political awakening to match the Islamic one, with a proliferation of secular parties competing for voter loyalty, then the Brotherhood will have to reveal itself as either a center-right political party with an Islamist character or an Islamist movement with a regional agenda.

These are two different things. The former would appeal to the moderate sensibilities of most Egyptians. To follow this path would be to swap orthodoxy for legitimacy, an exchange familiar to all radicals who have traveled from the tributaries of politics to its main currents. The latter would alienate all but a small host of Egyptian radicals. To embrace it would be to strangle political Islam in its crib, as just another failed conceit of Arab self-government.

Stephen Glain is a contributing editor to Newsweek International and the author of Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants: The Economic Collapse of the Arab World.

(Via Arabesque)

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Independent Online Edition – How British Muslim whose partner died in 7 July attacks confronted bomber's father

Posted on July 6th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Independent Online Edition:  How British Muslim whose partner died in 7 July attacks confronted bomber’s father
How British Muslim whose partner died in 7 July attacks confronted bomber’s father

A British Muslim whose partner died in the London bombs on 7 July last year has confronted the father of the suicide bomber responsible and uncovered the first real insight into the trauma the bombers have heaped upon their own families, as well as the bereaved. (more…)

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