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| Europe |
| Dutch spies warned politicos over Islamist threat |
| 2005-01-01 |
| The Dutch spy chief has accused politicians of ignoring intelligence warnings about rising Islamic militancy in his first newspaper interview since the murder of a Dutch filmmaker critical of Islam. "I was always surprised that politicians did not sound the alarm in reaction to our annual reports," the head of the country's main AIVD agency, Sybrand van Hulst, told the Friday edition of Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad. The NRC said it was van Hulst's first newspaper interview since the November murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who angered Muslims with his blunt criticism of their religion. A 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan has been charged with the killing that was followed by a wave of attacks on mosques, Muslim schools and churches. Van Hulst said the agency had warned that integration of immigrants was failing and that foreign powers sought to influence religious communities in the Netherlands. "In 2000 we said in our annual report that our society was facing increasing pressure. That is a very severe thing to say. But no word from the politicians. That really amazed me." "Politicians now realise that tougher laws were necessary," he said, but warned that measures against radical Muslims alone would not solve the problem. "We must make sure that Muslims feel welcome here, that they integrate, that they accept the identity of the country where they live," he said. Van Hulst said young Muslims were especially vulnerable to the appeal for radical Islam. "Nowadays young, second- or third-generation Moroccans don't see themselves as Moroccans anymore, but also not as Dutch. In the search for an identity, they decide that they are just Muslims and nothing else." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |