What will she do before closing them down remains unclear. Still, Femke Halsema should be congratulated and supported even for going this far. Few, if any, other mayors in Europe have made similar statements.
“Amsterdam’s mayor says closing mosques where imams sow hate is ‘a last resort,’” Dutch News, September 17, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema has told local broadcaster AT5 that she will close down mosques if imams are spreading messages of hate but ‘only as a last resort’.
Halsema, who outlined her strategy to deal with radicalisation in a briefing to councillors shortly after taking office, said that closing mosques is ‘a very rigorous [action] and that is something you only do as a last resort.’
You must be able to act if ‘an imam gives disgusting sermons, such as saying women should be subservient or that homosexuality is a crime,’ the mayor said….
CogitoErgoSum says
Last resort? As in do or die? As in,” What are you going to do ….. bleed all over me?”
Emilie Green says
“she will close down mosques if imams are spreading messages of hate but ‘only as a last resort’”
Question: Since an imam teaches from and lectures about the Qur’an, why haven’t these Dutch mosques been shut down already?
Michael Copeland says
“…between us and you enmity and hatred forever…”
Koran 60:4
Ron van Wiggen says
You can bet she will NOT!!
Halsema has a dubious past as a senior member and later leader of the far left GroenLinks. Not in a million years do I see her being critical towards islam. In any way.
This is just retorics to keep people in check.
Unless she has made a very hard turn toward the right. Which I deem as likely as Santa parking his sleigh on my roof this christmas.
StellaSaidSo says
I agree. She won’t do a damn thing. She knows where her votes are.
Georg says
Brings to mind Merkel rhetorically taking both sides of an issue, depending upon the time/situation/audience, so as to mislead those that would oppose her intentions.
Imagine the clarity that would come to an election if politicians were only allowed to discuss what they’d done in the past.
gravenimage says
Thanks for the background, Ron.
StellaSaidSo says
That would be most mosques, then, since nearly all preach violence against kuffar.
Jayell says
The trrouble is that these imams will lie through their teeth about ‘toeing the line’ if any pressure is put on them, and they’ll either find some devious way to carry on spreading their ‘message of peace’ behind the Authorities’ back, or/and try it on with some cock-and-bull excuse if they’re rumbled. Or they might ‘co-operate’ for the time being then revert back to their normal ways when they think no-one’s looking, or when they think the heat’s off, or when they’re convinced they’re running the show in the Netherlands. This mayor needs to realise that, as an antediluvian, proto-nazi totalitarian supremacist ideology, ‘hate preaching’ is about as good as it gets in islam, because after that they actually DO the stuff – just like Adolf Hitler & chums. Our friends in the Netherlands should know ALL about that!
gravenimage says
Grimly true, Jayell.
Renee says
Watch it, she also added!! she will close Christian churches as well, if what they preach does not appeal to her, like “submission” of women, or that homosexuality is a sin. So the first to be closed down will be a few churches, with wide applause of the people, and then she will walk in veiled into a mosque. Mark my words.
Logic&Reason says
A progressive’s mentality refuses to believe that Islam is anything but peace. Research and fact be damned. They simply equate the white supremacist KKK with terrorists. And they usually argue that terrorists are simply retaliating against the evil West oppressors. In that light, they also believe the “Palestinians” are victims of Israel.
It’s mainstream thinking, cultivated over a long time in the education system. We all went through it. In 1977, I took a Sociology course in university. The prof was a hardline Marxist. He focussed on the work of Marx and Engels….but said nothing of the atrocities of Soviet communism. Nor of Mao’s China, VietNam, Cambodia, Cuba…
Education! If we want peace, it’s about time we got our schools’ ideological focus in order in terms of what’s best overall for a safe, free society. It’s certainly not one under the Shariah. Or Socialism.
Dewevoga says
It’s not Groen Links, but Green Khmer, deadly. And she was the leader in parliament for them. And now she is the mayor of 198 nationalities with a dutch real Amsterdam minority.
gravenimage says
Grimly, you are not wrong, Dewevoga.
“Ethnic Dutch a minority in big cities, so how do they integrate?”
https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2017/03/ethnic-dutch-a-minority-in-big-cities-says-researcher/
(Note that this article’s comments are disabled)
Indiana Tom says
First resort sister. Now we are talking.
polderboy says
Halsema is from the Green party, which is a merger from the communist and pacifist party.
She has been a member of parliament in Holland, and a fighter for Islam and made sure a law was passed in parliament that no government policy or law would go against Islam:
https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/kst-32417-36.html
Her call to close down mosques should be taken in the whole context of the interview.
She spoke about the Dutch ant terror unit, the NCTV, that spoke about the growth of radicalization and the risk of terror violence, connected to the growth of radical Dutch mosques.
The NCTV views three groups, radical Muslims, radical right and radical left.
Radical Muslims show the greatest danger of becoming violent. This conclusion should be no surprise, and with more then 2 brain cells one could have drawn the conclusion.
Halsema sees radical right as anther great treat, but NCTV sees no violence coming from them.
Radical left, Halsema’s group, tend to be violent, attack for instance Islam critics, that are called “islamofobes”, Nazis, fascists, right extremist radicals, but they lose at this moment support, which is understandable.
Halsema is willing to close down mosques because of radicalization, as declared by the NCTV. These are not my words she even said, but the words of the NCTV, the terror busters.
She has a problem though with imams that preach against homo’s and equality of men an women, and since she has no instruments to do something about that, she will not talk with these imams. But, she said, we in Town Hall have many people, that have many contacts with these imams, so there is enough communication going on.
Actually she said nothing, why she is an excellent politician.
gravenimage says
Thanks for the additional background, polderboy.
henrik arboe jensen says
We all know she gets deaththreads daily.
Giacomo Latta says
Sounds to me like she is using muslim political practices: a different speech for different audiences.
gravenimage says
Could be–this is not uncommon.
StellaSaidSo says
This practice is not exclusive to Muslims. Politicians of all flavours have done it from Day 1. Hillary Clinton had it down to a fine art.
Cunamarra says
Now how might one manage to preach and teach from the Koran and other texts of Islam and not spread hate?
How might one teach others to revere the character of Muhammad and not cultivate murderous sociopathy?
gravenimage says
It takes a lot of omission, obfuscation, and whitewash to avoid preaching violence in Islam. Few Imams even want to do this.
abad says
What last resort?
Is she really too thick headed to understand that mosques have no place in Dutch culture?