Pakistani Muslim leader to speak in The Hague

6 May 2004

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch branch of the Arab European League (AEL) has invited the leader of a militant Muslim group in Pakistan to address a meeting in The Hague.

A pro-Israeli lobby group has written an urgent letter to the Dutch Justice and Interior Ministers demanding that fundamentalist Qazi Hussein Ahmad be denied entry to the Netherlands.

The Hague-based Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) warned the visit would endanger national security and public order. The government has yet to respond.

The AEL announced on its website on Thursday that Hussein Ahmad — the president of Jamaat-e-Islami — will speak about the future for the Muslim community at a meeting at the Haagse Hogeschool college in The Hague on 21 May.

Hussein Ahmad is a strong critic of the US military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. He has called for protests against the US and its allies and wants a boycott on American and Israeli products.

Jamaat-e-Islami has a military wing, which has been accused of carrying out bloody attacks on Indian targets in the disputed Kashmir region. The party has been accused of having links with Osama bin-Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network.

Dutch politicians have also voiced concerns about the AEL. It was founded by Lebanese-born immigrant Dyab Abou Jahjah, 32, during 2001 in Antwerp, Belgium.

The AEL, which later set up a branch in the Netherlands, claims to support integration, but not assimilation of Muslim and Arab immigrants into European society.

Abou Jahjah has campaigned against what he claims is police harassment of Muslims and Arabs and has spoken out against anti-immigrant bias from State organisations.

In April this year, the AEL’s website “saluted” the armed resistance to the US-led coalition being mounted by “the Iraqi population” in Fallujah. Five days later, the AEL’s internet service provider blocked the website. The AEL now uses a Malaysian-based internet service.

Subject: Dutch news + AEL + Islam