The Emergence of Shariah as an Issue in The Netherlands
CIP
recommended to believe in the eventual arrival of a mahdi but are not required to so believe and do not identify the mahdi with a specific historic personage. Radical Shias predict the coming of a mahdi in the shorter rather than the longer perspective of history, but do not claim such a figure has lately emerged, since the coming of the mahdi would be accompanied by signs of the “last days”, or apocalyptic end of time. Two Dutch government agencies, the General Intelligence and Security Service (Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst – AIVD)156 and the National Coordinator for Investigation of Terrorism (Nationaal Coördinator Terrorismebestijding – NCTB),157 have issued authoritative reports on the appearance of Wahhabi-oriented extreme and violent interpretations of Sunni Islam in the Netherlands. These documents generally refer to Wahhabism by the more “politically-correct” term “Salafism”. They emphasise that, in the wording of the AIVD, “Muslim radicalism in the Netherlands is most successful in reaching young Dutch citizens of Moroccan origin and young members of other immigrant communities with their origins in the Middle East and Somalia, as
well as white converts”. The agency states that, from the 1980s forward, Saudi institutions and foundations established mosques in the country that “have dominated the ultra-orthodox debate within the Dutch Islamic community since the mid-1990s”. The AIVD identifies the original centres of Saudi-financed radicalism in the Netherlands at the Al-Tawheed mosque in Amsterdam and the Al-Fourkaan mosque in Eindhoven, followed by the As-Soennah mosque in Den Haag and the Islamic Foundation for Education and Propagation of Knowledge, affiliated with a mosque in Tilburg, and known by its Dutch initials as ISOOK. According to AIVD, “Since the mid-1990s, these mosques have been under the ideological direction of Arabic-speaking preachers originally from countries like Egypt, Syria and Sudan, but educated in Saudi Arabia… or at least familiar with Saudi… religious dogmas”. The imam of the As-Soennah mosque, a Syrian named Jneid Fawaz, had distinguished himself by his violent preaching against Theo Van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. ISOOK’s imam, Suhayb Salaam, whose father was also of Syrian origin, has preached in favour of polygamy,
Ijmuiden Mosque, North Holland
Rotterdam Mosque
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