Posted on 12/03/2002 3:21:47 PM PST by knighthawk
AMSTERDAM, December 3 (IslamOnline) - Dutch Immigration and Integration Minister Hilbrand Nawijn asked Imams and preachers in mosques across the country to use the Dutch language in their sermons.
He also pressed them to convince members of the Islamic minority to comply with the values and customs of the Dutch society.
Imams play a major role in rectifying the negative image of Islam and are steering the Islamic community to merge into the Dutch society, added the minister.
The statements of Nawijn, a member of the far-right List Pim Fortuyn (LPF) party, came Tuesday, October 1, during his inauguration of a school for training Islamic preachers and Imams to only use the Dutch language for their religious sermons.
According to an article published on the Islamic Al-Resala website, the new school will give the preachers and Imams intensive courses as well as lectures on the principal values of the Dutch society, including tolerance, religious freedom, and freedom of expression.
The school will also address some controversial issues such as Hijab and crimes of honor.
The Immigration and Integration Ministry, a newly introduced one, asserted that joining the school is compulsory for all new Imams.
Imams will not be given work permits unless obtaining a graduation certificate from the school, it added, stressing that failure in the school exam or drop-outs would prompt expulsion from the country.
A ministry spokeswoman said that if Imams fail to attend school lectures or refuse to come to the school, this would mean they are not welcomed in the country and would be expatriated.
According to her, the new law applies to new Imams while it would not affect already serving Imams.
She underlined, however, that the government works to convince old Imams to join the school and benefit from its courses.
According to Al-Resala website, 33 scholars have already been registered in the new school, mostly of Moroccan and Turkish origin.
They will be forced to get 600-hour lessons on Dutch language and values and foot the bill, it added.
The Immigration and Integration Ministry only promised them compensation for half the cost, if graduating, said the website.
The new school will be administrated by veteran Muslim activists known for their close ties with the Dutch government circles and their enthusiasm for merging Muslims into the Dutch society.
According to some Muslim activists, the school is a chance for Muslims to rectify misunderstandings inside the small Muslim community and help its members abandon extremists tendencies.
Most Muslims, however, were dumb founded by Nawijn's statements that only Dutch must be used in Holland 450 mosques.
In a related development, Yassein Hartough, a spokesman for the Islam and Citizenship Organization, deemed Nawijn's statements an intervention in religious affairs.
Religious organizations should be given freedom to organize themselves in the way they want, he said.
The new changes in Holland come on the backdrop of the Sept 11 attacks on New York and Washington as well as anti-Islam statements by the far-right opposition leader Pim Fortuyn who was assassinated in May be an environment advocate.
Holland was among the very first western countries to recognize the special nature of the Muslim minority and tried to organize Muslim groups and recognize Muslim schools.
These tolerate stances changed drastically after the arrival of a far-right coalition to the helm of power in Holland.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Fortuyn was a flamboyantly public homosexual, a socialist who once taught university courses on Marxism and a big advocate of legalized prostitution and drugs.
But, because he recognized the Religion of Peace for what it was and opposed illegal immigration he is called "far-right".
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Islamic educational books encourage hate against non-believers
From NOVA TV (December 25, 2001), by Peter ter Horst en Siem Eikelenboom
In the Netherlands there is a systematic distribution of fundamentalistic and hate-encouraging texts from extremistic muslims.
Nova (Dutch newsprogram) has done an investigation of the politic islam in the Netherlands and discovered that in many of the texts there is a call for hate against Christians, Jews, woman and homosexuals.
"I have been given oders to fight the people, to wage war with them, until they confess that allah is the only and true god and mohammed is his prophet", is one of the texts in a book that is currently in use by some schools for childeren aging 4 to 12 years in the Netherlands. The educational books are from the foundation Al Waqf from Eindhoven (Dutch city), that holds connections with Saudi-Arabia.
Criminal code expert A. Ellian from the university of Amsterdam says that the educational books from the foundation Al Waqf from Eindhoven call out for hate. In one of the studybooks from Al Waqf the teachers are instructed to motivate their "students to behave like conquerors".
Foundation Al Waqf aslo has a youthorganization where on the internet a cyber-imam answers a lot of questions from young muslims. Questions on this site are about the way islam teaches about homosexuality: "... the argument (about the punishment of homosexuality) that is amongst the "learned" is only about the way of how the punishment has to be; some say that the person needs to be beheaded with a sword, others say that he has to be tossed from a high point and then to be stoned".
The Amsterdam mosque and the foundation El Tawheed have spead a flyer where there is a warning about Christian celebrations/holidays: "How can you join the festivities from the enemy just as if it where you're own?". Also on the website of the foundation is stated about how muslims must deal with neighbors that are non-believers; "Advised is it not to live amongst them" and "We must never make friendship with them".
Minister Van Boxtel of Immigration reacts in NOVA about these statements. He announces a BVD (Dutch NSA) rapport about the influence of fundamentalistic muslimorganizations on education. This rapport is due somewhere in 2002. Also Van Boxtel askes, after the NOVA broadcast about this information, his collegue Hermans from Education for better control on these issues.
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Besides which, IIRC, the Dutch were very, very fond of one particular kind of meat, an animal we saw all over that country and which seemed very highly prized. Much more than by Americans, all of which have been reading Leviticus and Deuteronomy on the sly, it seems.
Let's see the Dutch reconcile the Imams to THAT!
Holland was among the very first western countries to recognize the special nature of the Muslim minority and tried to organize Muslim groups and recognize Muslim schools.
These tolerate stances changed drastically after the arrival of a far-right coalition to the helm of power in Holland.
Yeah baby! You gotta love that.
They will be forced to get 600-hour lessons on Dutch language and values and foot the bill, it added.
That's good too.
He also pressed them to convince members of the Islamic minority to comply with the values and customs of the Dutch society.
How politically incorrect of him. BTW, is Nawijn a Dutch name? Sounds more "East Indies" to me. Which is entirely possible, since the Dutch allowed in many citizens of it's former colony there.
Yeah, those Muslims have a real "special nature." They want to murder everyone
who isn't an Arab Muslim and take over the country!
I don't quite understand this rule
Is the Dutch government saying the people cannot worship in other language but Dutch?
If I want to participate in a traditional Catholic Mass in Latin, will I (or my priest) be committing a crime in the Netherlands?
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