Dutch and foreign intelligence services are at high alert due to a five-day international Islamic conference in Eindhoven, starting today.
The intelligence services fear that the congress participants will secretly collect funds for armed Islamic battle.
It's also feared that the speakers in the conference will reverse the integration of Muslims in the Netherlands.
The conference is organized by the Al Waqf al Islami organization in Eindhoven, a board member of which was linked in the past with financing al-Qaeda. The organization invited renowned Islamic scholars to speak.
One of those, an imam from Saudi Arabia, was blacklisted by the Saudi royal family due to his radical opinions.
The conference participants will meet in the Al Fourqaan mosque in Eindhoven, a prayer house that is known to be radical and that the AIVD keeps an eye on.
According to intelligence sources, the aim of the conference is not the 'integration of Muslims in the Netherlands and the challenges," as it is formally named, but rather there's a secret agenda to stop the integration of Muslims in the Netherlands and collect money for Islamic battle.
The intelligence services are particularly interested in secret meeting outside the congress.
A spokesperson for the Waqf organization said he was not accountable for secret meetings of participants outisde the msoque. He says that during the conference various Islamic issues would be discussed, such as dealing with money and that everybody can enter, they have no door-policy.
Dutch imams, who are positive about integration, say they are unanimous against the conference.
"An imam who lives, works, and lives in for example Saudi Arabia, has a completely different scope of reference, experiences and opinions about issues which in the Netherlands are completely normal.
If Dutch Muslims ask in such a conference if their wife may drive a car, such a foreign imam will expressly forbid it, because he lives in Saudi Arabia, where that is absolutely banned," says one sources, who says this will work against integration. "This sort of conference frustrates all the good intentions of Dutch imams."
Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)
The intelligence services fear that the congress participants will secretly collect funds for armed Islamic battle.
It's also feared that the speakers in the conference will reverse the integration of Muslims in the Netherlands.
The conference is organized by the Al Waqf al Islami organization in Eindhoven, a board member of which was linked in the past with financing al-Qaeda. The organization invited renowned Islamic scholars to speak.
One of those, an imam from Saudi Arabia, was blacklisted by the Saudi royal family due to his radical opinions.
The conference participants will meet in the Al Fourqaan mosque in Eindhoven, a prayer house that is known to be radical and that the AIVD keeps an eye on.
According to intelligence sources, the aim of the conference is not the 'integration of Muslims in the Netherlands and the challenges," as it is formally named, but rather there's a secret agenda to stop the integration of Muslims in the Netherlands and collect money for Islamic battle.
The intelligence services are particularly interested in secret meeting outside the congress.
A spokesperson for the Waqf organization said he was not accountable for secret meetings of participants outisde the msoque. He says that during the conference various Islamic issues would be discussed, such as dealing with money and that everybody can enter, they have no door-policy.
Dutch imams, who are positive about integration, say they are unanimous against the conference.
"An imam who lives, works, and lives in for example Saudi Arabia, has a completely different scope of reference, experiences and opinions about issues which in the Netherlands are completely normal.
If Dutch Muslims ask in such a conference if their wife may drive a car, such a foreign imam will expressly forbid it, because he lives in Saudi Arabia, where that is absolutely banned," says one sources, who says this will work against integration. "This sort of conference frustrates all the good intentions of Dutch imams."
Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)
With thanks to Islam in Europe