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29 March 2007
Uproar over Imam's preaching against the infidel - in Holland
Imam Ahmed Salam, originally from Syria and resident in Tilburg in the Dutch province of Brabant and holder of a Dutch passport, has made a name for himself on account of his extreme outbursts. The Brabants Dagblad reported recently that "well-informed sources" claimed that this Islamic "spiritual leader" had among other things preached to his Islamic audience:
"Damage the Dutch state...don't pay taxes...be conscious that the infidels want to harm Islam...act accordingly..."
Muslim militants around the world have given us a clear picture of what is meant by "act accordingly". The smashed, torn and broken bodies of women and children are the testimony.
Understandably this was too much for Mayor Vreeman of Tilburg. Salam had been warned before about such outbursts that had "gone too far". The mayor told Ahmed Salam and his son, who acts more or less as his father's interpreter, that Salam "did not belong in Holland and that he should depart". In the meantime, Salam was on notice. He would be "given time to adjust his behaviour".
There was much commentary in the Dutch media. Elsevier Online reported that Henk Kamp, Minister for Defence in the previous government but now in opposition, proposed that "the law be changed so that radical imams could be removed from the country...[and that] consciously working against integration should be made punishable." On the current affairs program "Nova" Kamp also said: "Imams who stand in the way of integration, must be able to be punished with the loss of their Dutch nationality. Also we must be able to shut mosques where they preach."
Henk Kamp's party is the VVD - Party for Freedom and Democracy - which (if the reader has missed it) is a genuine liberal political party.
The winds of change are blowing hard through The Netherlands.
Note:
This same Imam had the whole country puffed up in indignation (November 2004) when in full view of the
furiously filming media he refused to shake the hand of the then Minister
for Integration, Rita Verdonk, because she was a woman. It was his "faith",
he said, that forbade him to take a woman's hand.
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