Hague: Imam wants censorship committee

Imam Fawaz Jneid has Dutch nationality, but cannot speak Dutch. In the past he's been investigated for cursing Van Gogh just weeks before he was murdered.

The Netherlands does have double morals. Lying on an asylum form, as Hirsi Ali did, is grounds for losing your passport no questions asked, but being part of a radicalization network for Dutch Muslim terrorists is cause for debate.

The deputy national coordinator for anti-terrorism Lidewijde Ongering said this week that the Dutch anti-terror approach is unique since it is devoted both to combating terror and to preventing it. Ongering said that Islamist websites were being shut down. However this should also be applied to "live" radicals who hide behind the "freedom of speech" while they prepare the next generation of terrorists.

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Imam Sheik Fawaz Jneid of the As-Soennah mosque in the Hague had asked for a committe which would decide which words can and can't be used in columns. He said that in a reaction to the commotion caused after the website of the mosque published harsh statements about professor and publicist Afshin Ellian.

The curses on the publicist were a reaction to a column by Ellian in which he wrote that Salafism, a radical and ultra-orthodox movement in Islam, should be destroyed root and branch ( in Dutch). "The statements of this man are too crazy for words. I ask for a committee which would examine what can and cannot be said in such columns," according to the imam.

Fawaz Jneid was himself under fire in the parliament on Wednesday. The VVD and PVV parties were upset that Ellian was described on the website of the mosque as a "vicious tumor" that "thanks to the double moral of the Netherlands can pump his poison in our society undisturbed." They demanded the resignation of the imam and would prefer to see his Dutch nationality removed.

The imam denies that he made these statements, which which were attributed to him. "I was indeed aware of the response, but not of its contents. I support the fact that there's a response to Ellian's piece, but I would have chosen other words myself. Ellian plays with fire, he calls for terrible things, and then it is best to call something back."

According to Fawaz Jneid he's the subject of a "witch hunt". "Nobody had problems with the statements of Ellian. Politicians and media attack me together while I did not make this response at all. There are people who want to make use of this type of incidents to get rid of me."
The imam says he will not start legal proceedings to fight the accusations against him. "I know that a court case from me can never be won. In the past I've started a case against two journalists, but nothing was heard from it."

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

See also:
The Hague: Imam claims he's being threatened, Sheikh Fawaz Jneid of the As Soennah Mosque wants the state to prosecute parliament member Geert Wilders

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