Stingray: a blog for salty Christians

May 02, 2006

Former Muslims face death threats in the Netherlands

Left and right-leaning parliamentarians in the Netherlands have joined together in urging the government to investigate reports of death threats against Muslims who have converted to Christianity. Jeroen Dijsselbloem (Labor Party) and Tineke Huizinga (Christian Union Party) have formally asked Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk and Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner to intervene for Christians from Muslim countries seeking asylum in the Netherlands for fear of persecution in their own countries. From BosNewsLife:

Minister Verdonk has said however that “if Christians don’t express their faith openly” in Iran they have no reason to be afraid. Verdonk is expected to make a decision by June 1 on the exportation of Iranian Christians, after she already immediately expelled a group of Syrian converts, including a father and son and another Christian, who immediately disappeared after arriving in Syria.

Estimates indicate that there are hundreds of Iranian Christian converts from Islam living in the Netherlands, most of whom fear death or torture if they are forced to return to Iran.

Tensions between Muslims and ethnic Dutch citizens have increased after the assassination of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh.

The murder led to a wider and more polarized debate about the position of the more than one million Muslims in the Netherlands and how they would be affected. Many ethnically Dutch citizens fear that Holland will lose its traditional tolerance and Western liberalism, becoming increasingly influenced by Islamic viewpoints on these issues. These fears are fueled by population growth studies and projections that show the Muslim community growing much faster than that of the “autochtonen” (autochthonous Dutch). In the four largest Dutch cities, the majority among children under 14 are Muslims, according to the conservative Washington Times. It is projected that the major Dutch cities will soon have a majority Islamic population. On the other hand, many Islamic Dutch residents feel discriminated against and singled out. The increasing polarization has led to calls from many religious leaders and politicians for calm and improved communication between the communities.

Meanwhile, the Dutch as well as the French and Swiss are worried about radical Muslims in their armies. According to the Brussels Journal:

At least ten to twenty groups of Muslim terrorists are said to be active in the Netherlands, planning assassinations of politicians and the bombing of the AIVD headquarters.

General Bert Dedden, the retiring MIVD chief, said today in the newspaper De Stem that the Ministry of Defense has started procedures to oust a radical Islamist from the army. According to Dedden about ten Dutch soldiers are known to adhere to Salafism, Wahabism or other forms of extremist Islam. These people can be a danger to Dutch national security, the general explained, because they can persuade others to become disloyal to the army or because they have access to protected buildings or grounds. “We try to prevent the disappearance of sensitive information, weapons or other material,” General Dedden said.

Other European countries also have growing numbers of Muslims soldiers. Last March three conscripts of the Austrian army refused to salute the Austrian flag because they said this was incompatible with their Islamic religion. It is said that one of the reasons why the French authorities did not employ the army during the November 2005 riots, despite calls to do so, was because 15% of the French armed forces are made up of Muslims. Last month a Swiss website reported that some are concerned about the rising number of Muslim soldiers in the Swiss army. The number of Muslim citizens in Switzerland has grown from 16,000 to 310,000 during the past four decades.