'Zionists Planned ISIS': Justice Official's Tweet Reflects Wider Problem (Het Parool, The Netherlands)
"'Apparently,
some things aren't allowed to be said in this regard,' suspended Justice
Ministry official Yasmina Haifi tells NPO Radio 1. She was in the news due to her tweet: 'ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. It's part of a plan by Zionists who are deliberately trying to blacken Islam's name.' ... The local Rotterdam New Dutch Islamic Party [NIDA] goes the
extra mile in a tweet that equates Zionism with IS, and is defended under the
right to free speech. … The measures taken by the government against IS-supporters
are not anti-Muslim, but against extremists who reject our society and prefer a
caliphate where there would be no place for freedom and democracy."
Highly educated
Muslims act as victims and pour oil on the fire of radicalization. Tough
measures are needed now, writes youth worker and member of the Party of Unity (PvdE)
Ibrahim Wijbenga.
Last Wednesday on a program hosted by Jeroen Pauw, Christian
Democratic Party chief SybrandBuma refused to debate
Okay Pala [video right], spokesman of the HizbutTahrir [a pan-Islamic
group that advocates a caliphate unifying all Muslim states]. Buma doesn't want
to give these fanatics a podium from which to preach their anti-democratic-caliphate
ideology. Rightly so: a discussion with followers of Hizb Ut-Tahrir is futile,
convinced as they are of their own correctness.
Pala presenting himself as a spokesman with extreme ideas is
not an isolated case. An increasing number of extremists openly embrace
his views. In the past they would have taken the trouble to disguise their
identities and hide their faces but now they appear without reservation in the
media, invoking their freedom of expression and talking to all and sundry.
Indeed, if their platform is denied they suddenly become the "misunderstood
Muslim" being discriminated against and whose free expression is
being curtailed.
"Apparently, some things aren't allowed to be
said on this subject," suspended Justice Ministry official Yasmina Haifi tells NPO Radio 1. She was
in the news due to her tweet: "ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. It's part of a plan by Zionists who are deliberately trying to blacken Islam's name." She hasn't taken
back her words: "I have taken the liberty to express myself and apparently
I have to pay the price. I think that officials also have the right to express themselves,"
was her first reaction to the commotion.
Someone like Haifi, at the time
employed by the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism, former
Green Party councilor in The Hague (and now a member of the Labor Party (PVDA),
is expected to know how things work in the public debate.
The local Rotterdam New Dutch Islamic Party [NIDA] goes the
extra mile in a tweet that equates Zionism with IS, and is defended under the
right to free speech.
Admiration
NIDA'sNourdin El Ouali speaks of
class justice when it comes to Muslims. According to him, Muslims are suspected
in advance and can be detained until proven innocent. "That is rights
inequality," he says.
He has won a lot of admiration among young Muslims for the
way he seeks the debate on the position of Muslims in the Netherlands. But the
idea that the justice system would act in such a way toward Muslims is utter
nonsense. The reality is that every Dutch citizen is equal before the law – and
that includes Muslims.
The fact that Ouali embraces a rapper who exclaims "fuck
the Talmud" is a bad sign, indicating that the party is sliding on thin
ice. NIDA uses double standards by condoning such statements, but oh dear, not if
people are critical or offensive about Islam.
With almost the same argument, Labor Party councilor at The
Hague, AbderazakKhoulani, defends
his own pro-IS-statements. As a result, the opening of a secondary school in
Amsterdam, for which he is a board member, has been postponed.
A lawyer for the followers if jihad fuels
the fire by talking about "the bullying of Muslims." This is a
completely false representation of the facts.
The measures taken by the government against IS-supporters
are not anti-Muslim, but against extremists who reject our society and prefer a
caliphate where there would be no place for freedom and democracy.
Danger
A society cannot afford to let such fanatics have their own
way unimpeded. They are a danger to our democracy and its citizens. These
people hide behind the community and make it appear as if the Dutch government wants
to gradually guide, restrict and ultimately ban Islam.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Successful Dutch Muslims precisely like Haifi,
Ouali and Khoulani allow themselves to be enamored by
this claptrap. This radical discourse has trapped them on matters no one
can really defend, and are being sucked into a virtual reality.
Law enforcement and justice officials must act on the
suspicion that there are families that wish to leave to join the Caliphate. This
may be premature in some cases, but the departure of Jermaine W. with his wife
and children prove that there is reason to be alert - highly alert.
[Editor's Note: Investigativeproject.org
reports: Last week, Dutch officials arrested two families from the town of Huizen as they prepared to join the jihad in Syria,
confiscating the passports of all parents and their six children, aged eight
months to nine years old. Around the same time, a Dutch-American radical known
as Jermaine W. successfully departed for Syria with his wife and children.
Jermaine, whose father was American, is well known in the Netherlands as a
member of Holland's extremist Hofstadgroep, and as a
friend of Hofstadgroep leader Mohammed Bouyeri, the terrorist killer of filmmaker Theo van Gogh.
Jermaine was arrested in 2004 for a letter in which he outlined plans to murder
activist and then-Parliamentarian AyaanHirsi Ali, but was released in 2006 on the basis of
"insufficient evidence."]
There are still Muslims who see the hand of an evil
government that poses a threat to them. The fact that the government also
protects the Muslim community has unfortunately passed them by.
