A "bouncer" at the mosque? From Expatica, with thanks to Anthony:
The El Tawheed mosque is a dilapidated-looking building on the Jan Hanzenstraat, part of the old working-class neighbourhood of Old West in Amsterdam. A neatly typed note (in perfect Dutch) has been taped onto the window, requesting the press to respect the privacy of the mosque's assembly.The building was bought about five years ago with a EUR 1.5 million loan from the Saudi Arabian charity Al Haramain, which has since been put on the United Nation's blacklist of organisations with al-Qaeda links.
Until earlier this year Al Haramain also used El Tawheed as its Dutch postal address but the mosque "got fed up with the negative publicity this attracted" and now claims to have "no contacts whatsoever" with the banned organisation, although the mosque's spokesman, Farid Zaari, does not accept El Haramain has terrorist connections.
According to Zaari, the loan and postal facility were the only contacts the mosque has ever had with al-Haramain. But in its report earlier this year, the AIVD claimed: "There is a financial, organisational and personnel interconnection between the El Tawheed mosque in Amsterdam and the above-mentioned organisation al-Haramain."
It went on to say: "In the past, the former head of the al-Haramain HQ in Saudi Arabia, Aqeel el Aqeel and his assistant Mansour al-Kadi, have acquired executive positions in the El Tawheed Foundation...in exchange for support in the financing of the Tawheed mosque in Amsterdam. The AIVD does not have evidence that these executives used their influence to interfere with the daily running of the Tawheed mosque. In practice the involvement of the duo remained limited to formal annual inspections."
El Tawheed spokesman Zaari denies categorically that his mosque is involved in any way with political extremists and strongly condemns violence. What the mosque does do is rigorously advocate the word of Allah. Zaari: "For example, we will not shake the hand of a woman because that is against our faith and we want to live in accordance to that faith."
Zaari believes this unequivocal stance may have contributed to the negative reputation of the mosque in the Dutch media over the last three years. "We are not ashamed to tell people what is in the Koran. For example, we condemn the act of homosexuality but we don't tell people to insult or hurt homosexuals. People should be free to disagree with each other but differences should be expressed with words, not violence."
Zaari is angry that politicians are now calling for the mosque to be closed down without providing any evidence to justify such a move. "Let them come with the evidence. The authorities are more than welcome to investigate us, it's in our own interest because then people will see we have a clean slate."
In fact, the El Tawheed mosque is mentioned on several occasions in the 2004 report by the Dutch security services into the influence of the radical Salafitism (sometimes also called Wahhabism) movement in the Netherlands. This 'orthodox' form of Islam believes that Western ideals such as democracy, gender equality and freedom of expression are un-Islamic and questions the desirability of Muslims integrating into Western society, says the AIVD.
"The Netherlands has a number of mosque foundations with an outspoken Salafitist character. They have emerged from missions and financing from Saudi Arabia. The mosques involved are Stichting El Tawheed in Amsterdam…" The AIVD goes on to name mosques in the southern towns of Eindhoven, Tilburg, Breda and Helmond.
The report also claimed that there had been talk of the "explicit and unstoppable spread of radical, extreme isolationist views" in some Dutch mosques.The report concluded that the AIVD did not have evidence that mosques in Holland openly propagated jihad. But it did say that this form of orthodox Islam was very attractive to Muslim communities in the West, especially to young Muslims to whom it seemed to offer a simple solution for their identity problems.
The report also claimed that there had been talk of the "explicit and unstoppable spread of radical, extreme isolationist views" in some Dutch mosques.
On top of the AIVD investigation, the El Tawheed mosque was also part of an investigation into the sale and/or distribution of radical Islamic literature by the Amsterdam public prosecution service launched in April this year.
According to Zaari, the prosecution office has cleared the mosque of any wrongdoing and the mosque's lawyer Ad Westendorp has confirmed this.
The public prosecution office said it could not comment as the investigation has not been officially concluded – according to Westendorp only two of the three books under scrutiny were available at El Tawheed's library and while these two have been cleared the authorities are still looking into the admissibility of the third.
The public prosecution office stressed that its investigation is related to anti-discrimination legislation and is in no way connected to terrorism.
According to Zaari, Mohammed B. was not a member of the El Tawheed mosque and as far as anyone there knows, not a regular visitor. "But we have around 500 people here on Friday nights so it's not inconceivable that he has prayed here. But we don’t know him so wouldn’t recognise him. He is not a member of any of our activities… as for Mohammed Attar, I had never heard of him until September 11." Attar was one of the leaders of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York.
That would be Muhammad Atta.
"...Imrani (he refused to give any further personal details] was the 'bouncer' at the mosque on Friday."
"Bouncer"? Forgive me my confusion, but in my life, I have never deen a bouncer at a church. I guess it's to keep all those pesky infidels and moderates out.
Well, well isn't this an interesting article.
El-Tawheed (http://www.eltawheed.nl/) finally made it to the international media through a respectable blog like Dhimmi Watch (or is that Dhimmi-ish? :D)
This mosque is actually just a few blocks from where I live, isn't that funny? [/sarcasm]
Apparently these extremely conservative, puritan mosques aren't fascist enough for ilk of the Van Gogh Slayer. Mr Zaari may not recall, but Mo-B showed up one time at the Al-Taweed craphouse to inform the Imam he wasn't preaching "pure" islam. The Imam mentioned this in his sermon, about this "little man" telling him what to do.
A few years back the Great Gay Leader Dittrich organised a protest for them selling a book calling for "throwing gays from buildings, head first". I'd argue that an organisation that calls for murder should be closed stante pede.
Gotta love a good Jihad once in a while huh?
Van Dutch
Can you tell me how the situation is now in Amsterdam and is there any sign that the good Dutch are going to do something, immigration reform, deportation of radicals, closing mosques anything but appeasmentin response to this insanity growing in their midsts?
While surfing the Canadian websites I found a 'Muslim-students" site and the Q+A section had a response to attending a school that has gay students there.
The Cleric cited the Quran for explaining why Muslims should avoid Homosexuals and why they are the enemies of Allah for their evil offensive behaviour,this attitude didn't surprise me since it's normal for Homosexuals in Palestine to be beaten to death in the streets by Peaceful followers of Islam.
BTW,a newspaper that ran a article on the van Gogh short "Submission" pointed out the photo that may have prompted the attack,well it didn't take long for the paper to get angry letters from Muslims that were offended by the article about intolerance by Muslims offended to different views by artists. Rather than express sorrow for the female Muslims that actually endured the pain
from the beatings,the typical reaction by male Muslims is to be offended that Quranic verses were
printed on a body that had welts from the beating.
I really wonder if Muslims know when they're being their own worse witness for promoting Islam
as a fath of Peace and Tolerance.
Hi Andrew,
It's not always easy for me to clearly point who is a good Dutch and who not. After all, sometimes those who appear bad can have their value.
The mood in Amsterdam is quite mellow on the surface, but that's kind of the cities trademark. I haven't noticed a real change in interpersonal behaviour, apart from maybe my Muslim baker and his headscarveless wife being extra friendly and giving me discounts when I ask for it.
Politically is quite another matter though. The establishment seems to be going crazy. We have one MP somewhere in solitary writing the definitive "shortcut to enlightenment" and making movies, another one, Wilders, is scaring the crap out of the elite with his one-man virtual 29 seat party, not to mention his haircut.
Our infamous "Justice" minister Donner has made a spectacle out of himself by calling for the re-use of anti-blasphemy laws. I assume that is quite the ultimate Dhimmi thing to do when an artist gets killed for insulting 'god's word' huh?
peace (in a non-Dhimmi kinda way)
Van Dutch
I'm sorry, I meant to say "The good Dutch people", as in the great people of the Netherlands, sorry.
Mellow, yes, I can imagine. I really hope badly needed reform is effected there because as you can imagine, it can only get worse if immigration is not immediately addressed.
Regards,
Anour El Haji asks:
"I'm just questioning Van Dutch, should the Dutch universities which have that same book in their libraries be closed too?"
I'm not going to get into moral equivocations with you. People like you who ask such questions are in my opinion, unfit for our society and should be deported back to their lands of origin, yourself included.
I say that because Muslims and others faring from Islamic countries are destroying Western societies and ultimately western civilization by interjecting their moral insanity into our democracies which were created ONLY for a people, a civilization that shares a common moral compass, not something as opposite in every respect as Islam is.
To entertain your idiotic comparisons is lending credence to your warped, though for you normal, civilizational world view and I will have no part in having you weaken my resolve to reject your reasoning and dhimmitude by engaging your nonsense.
The article says,
"But it did say that this form of orthodox Islam was very attractive to Muslim communities in the West, especially to young Muslims to whom it seemed to offer a simple solution for their identity problems."
Identity problems? Why is it that Muslims, especially young Muslims, always seem to have some type of problem?
Is the identity problem going to be solved by adopting the identity of 1400 year old dead cult master?
Is it so hard to educate oneself, find a better job and create one's OWN identity without subscribing to some radical cause?
A cause, by the way, which served the earthly desires of one man.
Quit your whining and DEAL WITH LIFE! Jeez...
Anour El Hadj-
What book are you referring to? Some local Arabic-into-Dutch language puritannical screed?
If so, let everything be published, and let the chips fall where they may- prefereably cow chips on the heads of those who shout for murder. Of any ilk. Rapture-drunk christians hoping to dance the 'Apocalpyso' or 'restore the Solomonic Temple and bring on Armageddon' orthodox hebrews or mad uslim mullahs issuing fatuous fatwas.
The only 'blasphemy' is the tyranny of one mind- with homicide to enforce it- over another.
That proves to be a working definition of Islam.
Theo Van Gogh, a gadfly in the tradition of Socrates (who met a similar, if less-messy-for-the-streetcleaners' fate under the rule of his own theocratic crapheads), wrote a column entitled: MAG IK DIT ZEGGEN? ("May I say this?")
Those who wanted him silenced -through murder- are the enemies of all that Civilization stands for.
And it will eventually stand on their necks.
Like those elegant bronze images of 'Shiva dancing on the dwarf of Ignorance' / "Nataraja" sculptures from the Indian sub-continent.
If the Islamic fanatical iconoclasts had their way, they would destroy them all, as they did with the classical 'Buddhas of Bamiyan', in Afghanistan, and melt them down for knives to slice the throats of anyone who dares raise a skeptical finger to their fundamentalist absolutely-"Sura"-of-itself juggernaut, and ask the simple, human question:
"And, HOW do you know this?"
TO Van Dutch-
(wish we could share a 'pils op de Leidseplein' and talk of something more cheerful than
ji ha-ha-ha'd...)
A SIDE NOTE: The call to strengthen the 'anti-blasphemy' law by Donner has prompted the exact opposite reaction from his colleagues, who now want to scrap such a ridiculous notion from the legal code entirely.
So the snivelling boomerang hits to dumb parliamentarian in his politically correct puss. Goed zo! ("Good thing, that!" in Dutch)
"I stand in opposition to all forms of tyranny over the mind of Man." -T.J.
My sentiments exactly.
Or, as Xenophon, the old Greek put it:
"If lions and oxen could draw or sculpt, lions would have gods that were lionine and oxen would portray deities with tails and hooves and horns."
Moo-hammad?
Anour El Hadj:
I'm not so much in favor of banning books as I am in favor of dragging out backwardness into a spotlight and closely monitoring groups that may use "hate speech" to incite violence, as well as scrutinizing mosques known terrorists have visited.
Al Tawheed doesn't deny that 'the book' calls for the death penalty for sodomy, but reasures us that it "can only be applied in an Islamic State".
How is that acceptable?
How else can gays adress the practice of religious justification in Islam for murdering gays then how they did? (even if gays in Holland should be safe), or should they have just shut up?
As an aside: Rev. Phelps, with his www.gothatesfags.com - it's comparable IMO.
So, all to the Leidseplein for some drinks of choice then?
Anouar El Haji-
A non-alcoholic drink is like a bicyle without tires.
But, then, the Koran doesn't forbid 'alcohol' (al-kohl- Arabic for a powdered metal used for women's eyeshadow, ironically), technically, since the distilling method was not yet invented when Mohammad was scourging the non-submissive, but merely "wine", and whatever intoxicants were then extant (beer, cannabis, etc... even hasheesh is a later invention from the standard leafy kif). So you could have a shot of tequila (a New World plant utterly unknown to the Prophet).
Somehow "khat' (a kind of chewable leafy 'amphetamine mimick' is allowed in places like Sudan?)
But, if I were in the neighborhood of De Singel flowermarket, I'd be glad to buy a round -of whatever that X-beer is that Heineken makes.
And raise a toast:
"Anyone can come to their sense and see throught the veils spun by 'schleirermachers', whether theocratic, philosophic or merely cultural."
And:
"While there is breath, there is hope."
And discuss something like:
Oliver Cromwell saying to the Papists, before he slaughtered them (and was driven out later, in turn): "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, to consider that you may be wrong!"
Somehow he never heard his own words.
And neither do any True Believers.
Me, I preach:
"Preserve your freedom to be a heretic*."
And let's start building a 'safety civilization' of Mars, just in case another 70,000,000 year cycle meteorite gives the Earth its Sixth Great Extinction.
[*in Greek, ltierally "to think for yourself"]
profitsbeard says,
"Preserve your freedom to be a heretic*."
One of the few doctrines to which I subscribe.
The other is, "Eat, drink and be merry for tommorrow we die."
Ecclesiastes I believe or maybe Martin Luther. I don't think I care who came up with the quote.
But, it fits the existence of the human animal which I am.
So Anour El Hadj happened to be born in the Netherlands from immigrant parents no doubt and considers himself Dutch. I suppose if he'd been born in China he'd be Chinese or in the North Pole an Eskimo. It's just that easy. I'll never get used to thinking of immigrant moslims or their progeny as Dutch in fact I refuse to think of them as Dutch.
Well said Arhopala ! I hate this PC logic of an accident of birth somehow making people, overnight, become British, German, American, Dutch etc. If an Irish couple, for instance, are travelling around the world and stop off in Brazil to give birth to a child, does that make the child Brazilian ? Of course not. Being part of a culture, raised in that culture, roots in that culture is what makes you Dutch, French, British etc.
Just a note to share I greatly enjoy this site and the intelligence of the conversation in the comments..The humor and sarcasm aren't wasted on me either...A baby born to a traveller/immigrant legal or illegal here is often referred to as an "anchor baby"...I tend to agree the soil one was born on does not have as much impact as the culture of the family one is born into
Mo's Foe-
I think the genesis (sic) of the original quote "Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die", is a line spoken the woman barkeep in "The Epic of Gilgamesh", paraphased by Ecclesiastes a lot later.
Worth a read, that old "Gilgamesh" yarn (although avoid the newest translation, which tends toward the p.c. and special-pleading for the translator's more-than-brotherly affection agenda).
Penguin has a fine one.
As intersting than "The Odyssey" - and more 'human' than the Bible stories- since it spells out the most profound quest in human literature. The first truly heroic figure.
But the sensual sentiments are mine as well.
(Although not to Dorothy Parker's extreme of:
"Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse.")
The 'hard-boiled' writer Raymond "The Big Sleep" Chandler put it nicely:
"To refuse to die in a corner... to take the false gods and make them over..."
profitsbeard,
Have you noticed that it is a requirement for a sheik, iman or mullah to have his sense of sight impaired in some way?
I have noticed without infrequency that most of the spiritual leaders covered by the press have an empty socket, a crudely made eye replacement, an eye with a strange film or walleye affect, or one who that is completely devoid of light.
Another observation is that the higher the level of spiritual leadership seems to demand a more hideous defect concerning this sensory perception.
For example, a sheik with a single eye wound is simply a sheik, but the doctrinaire (whatever his title) warrants himself as "Supreme" disseminator of spiritual "truths".
Moe's Foe-
The imam (Sheik Ra'tull'n'raoul?)- who was the 'spiritual leader' behind the original World Trade Tower truck bombing in 1993- fits your blind-as-a-bat bill exactly.
I guess having no literal vision qualifies them surpremely for having no matching spiritual insight. At least in this myopic cult.
They lack the 'aqeous humor'-
-as well any 'sense of ...'
As I have found out, many times, when trying to ask 'believers' on Muslim websites upon what 'root understanding' they base their beliefs, -trying to plumb deeper than dogma. They generally don't have any idea what you mean when you talk outside of the Koranic realm. ("Epistemolgy", what's that, a urinary infection?)
It seems futile.
You might as well be talking to a pre-recorded Mess-Age.
Reminding me of the thought-process of an early Muslim warlord, who, when his army was ransacking a library, was asked by an aide "which books they should preserve".
His reply:
"If they agree with the Koran, we don't need them. If they disagree, we don't want them. Burn them all!"
That's about as witty as they get.
Moe's Foe and Profitsbeard:
Now that you mention it... ...Sheik Yasin, spiritual leader of Hamas, was also visually impaired (as well as mentally/morally).
some great comments on this thread,Pity,GUS DUR[ex- President of something or other]cannot read them due to -------- also visually impaired