http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/the-islamization-of-belgium-and-the-netherlands-in-2013/
The Islamization of Belgium and the Netherlands in 2013
Posted on January 15, 2014 by creeping
by Soeren Kern
In January, the gangland shootings
of two young Moroccan men in downtown Amsterdam drew renewed attention
to the growing problem of violent crime among Muslim immigrants. The two
men were gunned down with AK-47 assault rifles in a shooting the mayor
of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, described as reminiscent of “the
Wild West.”
In March, the Dutch public broadcasting system NOS television reported that the Netherlands has become one of the major European suppliers of Islamic jihadists. According to NOS, about 100 Dutch Muslims are active as jihadists in Syria; most have joined the notorious Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group.
Belgium and the Netherlands have some of the largest Muslim communities in the European Union, in percentage terms.
THE GOAL OF ISLAM IS TO BE WORLD WIDE!
Belgium is home to an estimated 650,000 Muslims, or around 6% of the overall population, based on an average of several statistical estimates. The Netherlands is home to an estimated 925,000 Muslims, which also works out to around 6% of the overall population. Within the EU, only France (7.5%) has more Muslims in relative terms.
Belgian
and Dutch cities have significant Muslim populations, comprised mostly
of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants, as well as a growing number of
converts to Islam.The number of Muslims in Brussels—where roughly half of the number of Muslims in Belgium currently live—has reached 300,000, which means that the self-styled “Capital of Europe” is now one of the most Islamic cities in Europe.
In 2013, Muslims made up approximately 26% of the population of metropolitan Brussels, followed by Rotterdam (25%), Amsterdam (24%), Antwerp (17%), The Hague (14%) and Utrecht (13%), according to a panoply of research.
Not
coincidentally, Belgium and the Netherlands have been at the forefront
of the debate over Muslim immigration and integration in Europe. What
follows is a chronological summary of some of the main stories about the
rise of Islam in Belgium and the Netherlands during 2013.In January, the Belgian branch of the Dutch department store chain HEMA lost a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a Muslim shop assistant whose contract was not renewed because she refused to stop wearing a hijab, the traditional Islamic headscarf.
The woman, a Belgian convert to Islam, had been employed as temporary sales staff for two months, during which time she wore the hijab at work. But when customers complained, the store manager asked her to remove the headscarf.
After she
refused to comply, HEMA declined to extend her contract in sales, but
did offer her an alternative job in its warehouse, where she would not
have direct contact with clients. She said the alternative job offer was
unsatisfactory and then consulted a lawyer.
Lawyers
defending the Belgian shop said that to maintain the “neutral and
discreet image of HEMA, the shop did not want employees wearing any kind
of religious symbols.”
But
a labor court in the nearby Belgian city of Tongeren ruled that HEMA
did not have a clearly stated policy on headscarves and thus had no
valid justification to dismiss the woman. The court ordered HEMA to pay
the 21-year-old woman €9,000 ($12,000), the equivalent of six month’s
salary, as compensation.
According to the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism,
an NGO that helped bring the woman’s case to trial, the main purpose of
the legal action was to clarify how far a company can go in seeking to
present a “neutral image” to its customers. The NGO believes neutrality
cannot be invoked as a genuine and determining occupational requirement,
and says it is not self-evident that neutrality can amount to a
legitimate goal if and when it is chiefly invoked to please a private
company’s clients.
Also in January, the gangland shootings
of two young Moroccan men in downtown Amsterdam drew renewed attention
to the growing problem of violent crime among Muslim immigrants. The two
men were gunned down with AK-47 assault rifles in a shooting the mayor
of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, described as reminiscent of “the
Wild West.”
According to the Amsterdam-based newspaper Het Parool,
young Moroccans continue their “unstoppable march to become the largest
group of violent criminals” in the country, despite decades of
government programs aimed at steering young Muslims away from a life of
crime. Moroccan gangsters specialize mainly in robberies of banks and
jewelry stores, as well as in drug trafficking, according to Het Parool.Meanwhile, the Dutch newspaper Trouw reported that the Protestant Church of the Netherlands is planning to close up to 800 of its 2,000 churches around the country due to the dwindling number of practicing Christians. Critics of the move say many of these buildings are likely to be converted into mosques.
In February, Members of the Belgian Parliament introduced a bill that would limit the power of Muslim extremists who win elected office at the local or national levels and isolate themselves from the political mainstream.
The move came after members of the newly established Islam Party vowed to implement Islamic Sharia law in Belgium.
Addressing the Belgian Parliament on February 28, Alain Destexhe, an MP with the Reformist Movement [Mouvement Réformateur], the largest French-speaking classical liberal party in Belgium, and Philippe Pivin,
a liberal MP who is also the deputy mayor of Koekelberg, a suburb of
Brussels, said it is imperative to curb the power of elected Muslims
whose beliefs are inconsistent with the European Convention on Human
Rights.
The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled in February 2003 that Islamic Sharia law is “incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy.”
The court said that a legal system based on Sharia law “would diverge
from the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly with regard
to the rules on the status of women, and its intervention in all spheres
of private and public life in accordance with religious precepts.”
Destexhe said the measure is necessary because Muslim politicians in Belgium are creating isolated communities and parallel societies.
“The people of the Islam Party refuse to shake hands with women,” he
said. “They do not want to mix with others in public transport and other
communal places. They advocate getting married and wearing a veil at 12
years old, based on Islamic law.”
Also in February, the growing problem of rampant anti-Semitism among Muslim high school students
in Arnhem, a city in eastern Holland that has a large Muslim
population, was brought to the fore after Turkish students interviewed
by NTR public television said they approved of the murder of millions of Jews during World War II and called the Jewish Holocaust “a blessing.”
The
February 24 broadcast of the NTR program “Unauthorized Authority”
[Onbevoegd Gezag] shows a 15-year-old Turkish boy saying: “I hate Jews.
It is clear. This thought cannot be taken away from me. I am very
pleased with what Hitler did to the Jews.” (Six minute video here, in Dutch.) The Turkish boys said in the program that many Dutch friends agree with them.
After
the creator of the program, Mehmet Sahin, publicly reprimanded the
boys, he was forced to go into hiding due to death threats from members
of the Muslim community, who accused Sahin of being a “Jewish agent” and
a “collaborator.”Dutch public prosecutors said the boy had violated Article 137c of the Dutch Penal Code, which restricts hate speech. But they decided not to prosecute the boy after he said he was sorry for his remarks.
The Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel
(CIDI), an anti-Semitism watchdog group, called on Dutch Education
Minister Jet Bussemaker to investigate the rise of anti-Semitic
prejudices among high school students in Holland.
Meanwhile, a new research report, entitled “Youth Groups and Violence,” found that more than 1,200 youth gangs are active in the Netherlands, and about 300 of these gangs are extremely violent. The report, which was produced under the auspices of the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice, said the gangs of mostly Moroccan youths
operate on the national and international levels and specialize in
muggings, armed robberies, house invasions, violent drug crimes and
extortion.
In March, the Dutch public broadcasting system NOS television reported that the Netherlands has become one of the major European suppliers of Islamic jihadists. According to NOS, about 100 Dutch Muslims are active as jihadists in Syria; most have joined the notorious Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group.
As
in other European countries, Dutch counter-terrorism experts are
worried that Dutch jihadists will bring their war-fighting skills back
to the Netherlands.
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