Netherlands: Update on comedian death threats

A few updates on what's happening on this story:

Comedians Ewout Jansen and Etiënne Kemerink want to gather support from other comedians in order to file a complaint against the Assoena Mosque.

According to them the threats were made against all comedians in the Netherlands and the mosque supports that point of view.

The issue revolves not only specifically around Jansen, his jokes or the translator. His name was not even mentioned during the interview. The two would file a complaint only if they get support from other comedians.

According to Jansen the threats made were not a side issue during the interview. for half an hour they talked about what Islam says about comedy. Other known comedians were also mentioned by name. Jansen says he doesn't blame the translator/spokesman/visitor, Elekbir Kabli. "His tried to answer as best as he could what Islam says about comedy." The mosque and various organization prefer to direct this question to a mufti/Islamic scholar and Amsterdam alderman Ahmed Aboutaleb is trying to prevent that.

Aboutaleb denies these allegations.

Two high schools have announced that they're canceling Ewout Jansen's show due to his jokes about Muslims. The two schools are in Doorwerth and Rozendaal, both in Gelderland province.

Jansen was supposed to appear before the students at the end of February, but one of the schools principals says that his jokes do not fit with the educational view of the school. "We're open for all convictions, without wanting to offend anyone." the students were understanding of the decision.

Source: Ad.nl (Dutch), RTL (Dutch)

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