-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,751813,00.html
}}}>Begin
Human rights fears at Dutch inquiry into Muslim population
Andrew Osborn
Tuesday July 9, 2002
The Guardian
Concerned that the country may have become a hotbed of Islamist fundamentalism,
the Netherlands is to investigate the activities of its 800,000 Muslims.
The survey of beliefs and activities called for by the lower house of parliament has
alarmed human rights groups.
It will cover the funding and management of mosques and the training of clerics, and
will seek to discover how many Muslims can legitimately be classed as
fundamentalists.
This year's general election, in which the anti-immigration party founded by the
murdered libertarian Pim Fortuyn came second, has created a wave of anti-Muslim
feeling in the Netherlands, reinforced by a recent television report on the behaviour
of some imams.
The inquiry is strongly supported by Jan Peter Balkenende's rightwing coalition
government, led by Christian Democrats and including Fortuyn's party.
Nova, a current affairs programme, secretly recorded four imams railing against the
west and broadcast the tapes last month, provoking the indignation of Dutch citizens.
One imam in the Hague is heard asking Allah to "take care of" President George
Bush and the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and another in Amsterdam sings
the praises of Palestinian suicide bombers.
Others make derogatory remarks about women, angering the egalitarian-minded
Dutch, who are still incensed by the Rotterdam imam Khalil el-Moumni, who
described homosexuality as a "contagious disease".
Prosecutors are studying the tapes to decide whether the imams broke the law and
incited others to violence.
Islam and Citizenship, a lobby representing Muslims in the Netherlands, welcomed
the investigation as an opportunity to show that most Muslims are moderates, but
suggested that Muslims were being discriminated against.
"One has to wonder whether the government doesn't apply different standards to
different sections of the population," its spokesman Yassin Hartog said. "There has
been no such investigation into fundamentalist Christian groups for example."
He said the problem of Islamic fundamentalism in the Netherlands had been vastly
exaggerated. The report which did so much to provoke the investigation concerned
only four or five mosques out of a national total of 500, he pointed out.
But he admitted that his organisation was fighting a battle against public prejudice
which was difficult to win.
"I am afraid that the general public will mostly remember these bearded men talking
about hitting women and praying to God to punish Sharon. But instead of playing the
victim and being defensive it is better to welcome such initiatives... The main thing
that this investigation will do is put the whole question of imams into context."
A recent intelligence service report which suggested that young Muslims were being
recruited at mosques for anti-western missions in Afghanistan and elsewhere also
stirred up feelings.
The government is considering how it can school imams in Dutch values - including
attitudes to homosexuality and women's rights - and whether to license only those
born in the Netherlands.
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
End<{{{
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