10 February 2005

AMSTERDAM — The radicalisation of young Muslims is partly caused by the negative way Islam is being talked about in the Netherlands, the head of the security service AIVD has claimed.

Sybrand van Hulst made the suggestion during an interview with television current affairs programme Zembla on Wednesday night.

Van Hulst's organisation is leading the investigation into the activities of extremists in the Netherlands and is deeply involved in the arrest and trial of 12 young Muslims said to be part of a terrorist network called the Hofstadgroep.

But he did not specify who he was referring too as being partly responsible for driving some young Muslims towards radicalism.

MPs Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders have led the criticism against aspects of Islam and the Muslim community in the Netherlands in recent years. Both have received death threats.

Filmmaker Theo van Gogh, another vocal critic of Islam, was murdered in Amsterdam on 2 November last year. Mohammed B., 26, who was arrested for the murder, was said to be on the edge of the Hofstadgroep.

Van Gogh had recently collaborated with Hirsi Ali to make the short film "Submission" which criticised violence against women in Islamic communities.

Submission featured female actors who were wearing see-through veils. Their breasts were visible, something that caused a lot of offence among Muslims, many of whom who were already offended by the film's accusations.

Van Hulst estimated that there are about 1,000 "radical Muslims" in the Netherlands. Of these, a few dozen are prepared to use violence.

He said one way to help counter the radicalisation of young Muslims was to make them feel welcome in the Netherlands, in order that they would see themselves as being Dutch.

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Dutch news