Hirsi Ali: shut anti-woman, anti-gay Dutch mosque  

22 April 2004

AMSTERDAM — Somali-born MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali demanded on Thursday the
closure of an Amsterdam mosque that sells books supporting female
circumcision, beating wives and the murder of gay people.

The Dutch Parliament is to hold an emergency debate about the El Tawheed
mosque next week. MPs want Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and
Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk to explain what they
intend to do about the book "De weg van de moslim".
 
The publication  translated as The Way of the Muslim in English  is said
to advocate violence against women and killing gay people.

Gay people should be thrown head first off high buildings. If not killed
on hitting the ground, they should then be stoned to death, the book
allegedly suggests.

In her column in newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, Hirsi Ali  who was raised
as a Muslim  went one step further and called on the government to close
the mosque. The MP has been a strident opponent of Islamic teachings on
women and gay people.

The  Liberal VVD party MP said it was time for the Justice Ministry to
indicate whether it intended to go to court to have the mosque banned.

Hirsi Ali said the latest revelations about the book advocating beating
women and killing gay people was the last straw. Closure of the mosque
was a question of "political will", she wrote.

"This mosque has been warned repeatedly by the authorities that
intolerance against non-Muslims and undermining the law is unacceptable
in the Netherlands," Hirsi Ali said.

"The Way of the Muslim" is one of the publications on sale at the El
Tawheed mosque. Earlier this month the mosque was at the centre of a
storm about another book available at its open day organised to help
combat the mosque's negative public image.

That book "Fatwas of Muslim Women" says that women who lie deserve 100
blows and the husband's duty of care for his wife is negated if she
refuses him sex or leaves the home without his permission. One of its
most controversial aspects is the call for Muslim girls to be
circumcised.

A fatwa is an official statement or order from an Islamic religious
leader.

MPs in the Dutch Parliament have indicated they want the second book,
"The Way of the Muslim", banned if it supports violence towards women
and killing gay people.

VVD parliamentarian Geert Wilders has called for the emergency debate
next week.

Another MP, Mirjam Sterk of the Christian Democrat CDA, said imams
(Islamic religious leaders) must distance themselves from the book's
content. If not, the imams must be prosecuted or deported.

An Islamic cleric was deported from France to his native Algeria on
Wednesday after he caused uproar by his endorsement of wife-beating and
polygamy.

Clerics at El Tawheed feel they have been unfairly singled out in the
media as part of a wider campaign against Islamic institutions in
Europe.

MPs and media commentators attacked the Amsterdam mosque previously when
one of the imams referred to non-Muslims as "firewood for hell". He also
forbade Islamic women from leaving the family home without the
permission of their husbands.

RTL Television reported on Thursday a cameraman was assaulted when a
news team attempted to buy "The Way of the Muslim" at the mosque.

Eventually RTL's female reporter managed to buy the book, albeit while
accompanied by police protection.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004 and Novum Nieuws]

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Ah.....they're gonna talk about it next week.  Now this is Scandinavia
and not the UK but turn things around a bit here: the BNP puts out a
book, publicly, advocating something similar.
That would last exactly how long?  Even long enough for a reporter to
buy a copy at BNP HQ?

FACE