Burning down Mosques; a serious problem?

Lawrence Auster who blogs at VFR quotes an AP article on the laywers on behalf of the plaintiffs in the trial against Mr. Geert Wilders:

Mr Enait, from Rotterdam, said the mosque he attended as a child had been burned down. Dozens of mosques in the Netherlands were burned in 2004 in apparent retaliatory attacks after the killing of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic radical who is now serving a life sentence.

Mr. Auster comments:

Dozens of mosques were burned in the Netherlands in 2004? If this were true, wouldn't we have, ah, heard something about it at the time?

Snouck's Commentary:
On 2 November 2004 Filmmaker Theo van Gogh was assassinated. The Dutch press reported a wave of attacks on mosques and Islamic schools. A number of churches was also attacked.

There are more than four hundred mosques in The Netherlands. Some attacks were very light, mere insulting graffiti texts. Schools and mosques were defiled with manure and (pigs) blood. There were also many more serious attempts at arson, by ethnic Dutch youngsters, who often added nationalist or neo-nazi graffiti. Several attacks were succesful. Schools and mosques were actually burned down. Although, the intensity of the violence lessened as time passed, it continues until today. Before 2004 there were already occassional attacks against mosques.

Recently arson was attempted against a mosque in the North (Selwerd) and a shot or shots were fired at a mosque in Dordrecht and other towns.

Looking at the pattern of the attacks I note that hardly any mosques are attacked in the mayor cities with large Muslim and non-white populations. The attacks are mostly in towns, where ethnic Dutch are the majority, but where there is a Muslim presence which is large enough to anger but not intimidate the local population.

Two days ago Mr. Geert Wilders tweeted on Twitter

the fewer mosques in The Netherlands, the better. But violence against existing mosques is unacceptable and must be fought and punished.

The Westermosque organisation tied up by verdict

The Milli Görüs mosque in Amsterdam known as the Westermosque has received a setback in its legal struggles against Building Corporation "Stadgenoot" (Formerly "Het Oosten"). A court judged that it will not be allowed to buy out Building Corporation "Stadgenoot" as intended, but that it will have to co-operate with the Building Corporation if it wishes to continue with its ambitious mosque building project.

Milli Görüs, a Islamist Turkish movement, wants to build a showpiece mosque in Amsterdam-West. In addition to a large mosque the complex will contain a shopping mall and residential housing. The Mosque is supposed to be build by Milli Görüs (Dutch), while the Building Corporation "Stadgenoot" is supposed to develop the mall and the residential housing. The participation of Building Corporation "Stadgenoot" is supposed to be a moderating influence on Milli Görüs. Milli Görüs wanted to dissolve the co-operation with Building Corporation "Stadgenoot", but this was forestalled by the Dutch Court, today.

Earlier posts on Snouck concerning the Westermosque are:

Westermosque: leader arrested
Westermosque: organisation's funds confisquated
Westermosque: the saga continues
Westermosque: Pride comes for the fall

Amsterdam Ghost Mosque Saga

The Westermosque, which is to be built in Amsterdam-West by the radical Turkish Milli Gorüs (national vision) is on the rails again. Or so it would seem. The local city council "De Baarsjes" has given the Islamisation project permission to go ahead again after concerns about the size of the mosque, corrupt financing and finally the hostile character of the Mill Gorüs Islamic movement, which is outlawed in Germany and seen as the threat to the state by the German and Turkish governments.

In Amsterdam however the authorities regard everything pertaining to the mosque cosher again. Perhaps. For the time being.

Amsterdam Mosque organisation's accounts are confiscated

I have blogged before about the building of the monumental Westermosque in Amsterdam-West. The leader of the project, a Turk by the name of Üzeyir Kabaktepe was arrested on August the 23rd. Effendi Kabaktepe was the director of Manderen BV, the company that had been awarded the contract to build the mosque by Mill Görüs, a powerful Turkish Islamic organisation. Mr. Kabaktepe had been accused of embezzling Manderen BV's money. Yesterday his arrest has been suspended.

Building organisation "Het Oosten" who was owed money by Manderen BV in the course of the mosque building project (Dutch) has confiscated the possessions and bank accounts of Manderen BV.

More Mosque for your money?

Amsterdam-West is the scene of an attempt to built a large mosque (including garage and shopping centre) by Milli Gorüs, a Turkish Islamic organisation.

The project is controversial and keeps yielding juicy news. It is getting more and more unclear if the mosque will ever be built, depite strong support from the central government and Amsterdam townhall.

Former Justice Minister Donner laid the first stone in 2006, promoting Milli Gorüs in a grandiloquent speech. Donner has also said that he would support introduction of the Sharia as the Dutch constitution if this would be done according to democratic procedure.

However, there are those in the Amsterdam neighbourhood "De Baarsjes" that do not want the mosque to be built. This organisation, Bort, has been finding more and more allies in their opposition to the building of the mosque.

As opposition mounted, Fatih Dag, Milli Gorüs' spokesman in the Netherlands threatened violent demonstrations by Turks (Dutch) from all over Europe. Similar threats were made by the then spokesman Kabateke in 1995, when there was oppostion to the building of the mosque (Dutch).

This was the final straw to many Amsterdam and Parliamentary politicians. They reacted by deserting Milli Gorüs and publicly stating that the Turkish Muslims had lost their backing on the issue of the building of the Mosque.

The position of Milli Gorüs had been weakened when it turned out the organisation had used mosques and Islamic organisations as platforms to sell "Islamic investments" to Dutch Turks. These investments, often called "holdings" by Turks have been popular with German and Dutch Turks in the 90ies and later. Tens and hundreds of thousands of Euros were invested in the Islamic Investments by individual Turks, constituting their life savings. The total sums are estimated in the dozens and hundreds of millions of Euros. However the holdings turned out to be pyramid schemes and the investors saw their investments lose their value overnight. At least some of the money raised by the "Islamic Investments" was funneled into Jihadism in Turkey and other parts of the Middle East.

But the story has gotten worse. The cover-up seems to have collapsed and on June the 6th of June it transpired that the Amsterdam municipality in 2005 had supported Milli Gorüs' Amsterdam mega Mosque project by a shady real estate transaction that transferred two million Euros from the Municipal purse to the Turkish Muslims.

For some dark unstated reason, no heads rolled in Amsterdam politics after this came out. The politicos motivated their decisions by recounting threats that had been made by the Mosque's board. As the "Islamic Investments" had gone broke, Milli Gorüs Amsterdam had apparently become insolvent. In order to regain their financial position that if financial aid was essential. If it would not be forthcoming the Amsterdam Turks threathened that the radical German leadership of Milli Gorüs would become dominant after giving them the two million Euros.

In summary: in order to, among other things, finance Jihadism in Europe and the Middle East Milli Gorüs and other organisations defrauded their compatriots and co-religionists of millions of Euros. When their schemes collapsed their front organisations in Amsterdam was faced with a financial shortfall. In order to make up the deficit the Amsterdam Municipality was succesfully blackmailed into transferring 2 million Euros into the coffers of the Amsterdam Jihadist front Milli Gorüs. The Amsterdam Municipality was very easy to blackmail, despite the very obvious crossing of the separation between church and state that was involved. In the end the appeasement did not pay off and just whetted the appetite of the Turks for unearned money and rights. This does not result in a political scandal and is downplayed by the media. Heads do not roll.

Finally: I feel it is safe to state that this is not the last scandal that will be connected to the building of the Wester Mosque in particular and other mosque projects in The Netherlands in general. To be continued.

After the beep

Hans Teeuwen is the comedian who takes care of the press contacts of Ewout Jansen and Ettienne Kemerink. They are the comedians who were told by a member of the Amsterdam As-Soenah mosque that they must be killed by pious Muslims for ridiculing Islam.

His voice mail now says: "leave your death threats after the beep".

Alderman Aboutaleb's omission

The spokesman of Amsterdam mosque As-Soenah, Mr. Kabli, went on the record to state that according to Islam those who insult the faith have to be hurt and killed, to student paper Folia. Achmed Aboutaleb, the Labour Alderman of Moroccan descent quickly went to the mosque to quench the flames. Mr. Aboutaleb is the big Muslim vote magnet for the Labour party in Amsterdam, where Muslims are a big voting block.

After talking to the mosque's elders they came out with a statement that "Mr. Kabli was a passerby to the mosque and was not connected to the community in any official way".

Which is not far from the truth. Mr. Kabli was introduced to Folia's reporter as the spokesman / interpreter of the Mosque. One could say that Islam does not have such a position organisationally.

What Mr. Aboutaleb also knew, but did not say was that Mr. Kabli had been an elder of the Mosque during the 80ies and 90ies until the year 2000. Mr. Aboutaleb chose to hide that inflammatory fact and had to admit so in a TV interview broadcasted on regional TV station AT5.

He defended himself that he would have said so if he had been asked directly whether Mr. Kabli had been an official of the As-Soenah mosque in the past. He deliberately framed the facts, co-ordinating his story with the As-Soenah imam and the elders AND Mr. Kabli in such a way that it would create the impression that the damning statement by Mr. Kabli is not as serious as it is.

Mr. Aboutaleb is advancing a hidden agenda that seeks to strengthen the power of the Muslim community in Amsterdam and The Netherlands, at the expense of the other communities and the non-muslim taxpayer. In future Dutchmen would be well-advised not to trust the stories that Mr. Aboutaleb and the Labour party is telling them.

Hubris

A picture speaks more eloquently than a thousand words.

As the Muslim population of The Netherlands is increasing they diverse Muslim ethnic and sectarian groups commission the building of places of worship: Mosques. Some of them are in old schools of churches and some of them specially designed as Mosques, striking markers of the takeover of Dutch neighbourhoods. The Ethnic Dutch call them "Hovels of Hatred" (Haathutten).

Growing up a young Dutchman sees images on TV of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, the areas were Islam is strong and were the Mosque is a part of the local architecture. Little does the Dutchman expect to find these elegant buildings in his own cities.

When I visit Rotterdam with a passenger I like to get off the highway. Into the Spangen neighbourhood. As I turn through the cobbled streets of this working class neighbourhood we get into a street running towards a canal. The street is narrow and all the 4-story apartment buildings have sattelite dishes, a marker of immigrant populations. Beyond the canal, filling the full width of the street is the Mevlana Mosque.

On the streets little Arab and Turkish boys are playing "soldier" and the pavements is filled with veiled and burqa'ed women pushing wheel prams.

For most people the scene is a bit much to take in. They suddenly stop talking about whatever it was they were talking about and take a sharp hissing breath. Their eyes open wide and they look at the sattelite dishes, the lads, the prams, the burqas and the mosque.

A picture says more than a thousand words.

In Amsterdam, the Turkish Milli Görüs movement has been raising funds to build a show-piece mosque in Amsterdam-West, in the De Baarsjes borough. On the site of a former factory a Mosque will be build in combination with one-hundred-eleven apartments, seven-hundred-sixty square meter set aside for offices and shops, one-thousand-forty square meter of meeting rooms for "societal purposes" and a parking with room for two-hundred-thirty-eight cars. On a long canal called the Kostverloren canal.

It will boast the highest minaret in The Netherlands. Forty-two meters high. It MUST be forty-two meters high according to the golden rule. In order to place the top of the minaret at a 45 degree angle with the dome of the mosque. It will be higher than the Munt tower.But lower than the tower of the Westerkerk. The mosque will be build in the style of the "Amsterdamse School" of architecture to make it fit in the surroundings.

A final detail. The design is fundamentally inspired by the design of the "Aya Sophia" church, the main Church of the Byzantine Empire. This grand church was turned into a mosque in 1453, when Constantinopel became Istanbul. The capital of a mighty Islamic empire that ruled from Morocco to Croatia and from the Tigris to the Danube.

The commissioners of the mosque put special emphasis on this piece of history.

Anyway a picture says more than a thousand words.

So if I want to shock people with a picture of the Islamification of The Netherlands, I do not have to go to Rotterdam anymore. Who said progress is a thing of the past?

The old has to make place for the new. A long time ago, in the 17th century the factory site on the Kostverloren canal was already an industrial site. The site was occupied by a windmill for milling wheat. The windmill was called: "Eendragt". That is "Unity". That mill went a long time ago. In 1842.

Something else that had to go was a monument that had been placed on the quay of the canal. A monument were Dutch people gather to remember those who were killed by the German occupiers in the Second World War. According to the borrough the Islamic and Jewish communities had requested the removal of the monument, because it had the shape of a Christian Cross. When asked the local Jewish community said they had never asked anything and to be displeased that their monument was removed. The had also been miffed when Morroccan lads had been kicking the wreaths just after the wreath laying ceremony in 2003. The Turkish, Moroccan and Pakistani communities have confirmed (Dutch) that they asked for the removal of the offensive Cross. They do not like Christian symbols near their mosque.

O well. I got a monumental Mosque now. With a shopping centre. My cup runneth over.

And a picture says more than a thousand words.