“Tolerance is gone.” From Expatica, with thanks to Anthony:
Armed with the promise of “several tens of millions of euros” in increased funding, the AIVD has been given new orders in direct response to the brutal assassination of Van Gogh. The organisation has been tasked with tightening surveillance on suspected “extremists” and preventing future attacks.
With 150 Muslims currently on its list of suspect characters, AIVD spokesman Vincent van Steen was unable to confirm how many more will be added. “It depends on the risk these people pose to us,” he said.
At any rate, the AIVD will recruit several hundred people and expand its surveillance net to include people moving in close proximity to anyone considered a prime suspect of carrying out an attack….
Calling for more co-operative efforts with the Muslim community to stop the process of radicalisation, Van Steen said the AIVD also needs to be “very creative and inventive” in its investigations because the threat of terrorism will remain for some time to come.
“It is a very difficult job to have a good eye on all those people who are both in the radicalisation process ,or in another way are willing to die for Jihad (holy war),” he said….
Edwin Bakker , a terror analyst with Clingendael — the Netherlands Institute of International Relations — said it is difficult to identify where the threat is coming from. The suspect in the Van Gogh killing was a well-integrated Amsterdam man.
Mohammed B. studied IT and later got involved in volunteer work to ease socio-economic problems in his local area of West Amsterdam.
In the last two years, he became “radicalised”. He was a member of a group of young Moroccan men who met regularly to discuss the Koran. He embraced very strict Islamic beliefs, grew a beard and took to wearing a Jellabah, a traditional Arab dress-like garment for men.…
A lecturer with Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Ko Colyn, claims that jihad veterans in other nations target young Muslims in their 20s to recruit them for terrorist operations. He said some of the recruiters enter the country as asylum seekers and gain access to youths at mosques.
Interestingly, Mohammed B. at 26 is one of the older suspects currently in detention.
Jason W., who was arrested in the terror stand-off in The Hague, is 19. His father is American and his mother is native Dutch.
One government minister went so far as to declare war on extremism.
While surprised by W.’s conversion to Islam at the age of 14 and the developments thereafter, Colyn said it is not unknown for Dutch, US and other westerners to step across to Islam.The second man arrested in The Hague has been identified as Ismael A., 21, a Dutch-Moroccan.
Although the AIVD is famous for being tight-lipped, spokesman Van Steen said he could not deny reports that W. and A. were planning to murder anti-Islamic MPs Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders.
Ismael A. is also reportedly friends with 18-year-old Samir A., a Dutch-Moroccan, who was arrested in June on suspicion of involvement in an armed robbery. A house raid discovered building layouts of possible terrorist attack targets such as Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
He is alleged to play a key role in the “Hofstadgroep”, of which the two suspects arrested in The Hague and five others arrested in Amsterdam and Amersfoort also on 10 November are also said to be members of.
Authorities are now investigating links between the group and Casablanca bombing suspect Abdeladim Akoudad, arrested in Barcelona in October 2003.
Carrot and the stick
To combat extremism and the radicalisation of young Muslims, Colyn, a defence correspondent for weekly Dutch newspaper Vrij Nederland called for long-term measures to reintegrate Muslims into Dutch society. But he said this depends on a lot of investment in education, the labour market and integration.
Acknowledging that forced integration might in itself spark extremism, Colyn noted the Dutch government is taking a hard-line stance. Those who do not accept Dutch values will no longer be allowed to stay.
“Tolerance is gone,” he said.