Dutch
Struggle to Rein In State-Funded Salafist School
by Abigail R. Esman
Special to IPT News
May 14, 2019
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There are two Islamic middle schools in the Netherlands.
One of them has terror ties.
This, at least, was the conclusion of the Dutch intelligence and
counterterrorism agencies in March, as described in a confidential letter to Amsterdam Mayor Femka Halsema. Based on an
anonymous tip
from a moderate Muslim group, the agencies warned that the city's Cornelius
Haga Lyceum had "anti-democratic," Salafist leanings. Moreover,
the agencies alleged, the school's directors had connections with the
Caucasus Emirate, a Chechen jihadist group with ties to the Islamic State.
"Certain administrators would like to devote half the curriculum to
Salafistic doctrine," Pieter-Jaap Aalsberg, director of Dutch
anti-terrorism agency NCTV, wrote. "They also plan to bring the children into
their spheres of influence outside of regular school hours." The goal,
it would seem, would be not unlike that of the ISIS leaders: to create a
new, young generation of extremists.
This is precisely what the NCTV warned of in its latest report on the terror threat, published in February.
"Political Salafists in particular are increasingly teaching an
anti-democratic interpretation of Salafist doctrines with the aim of
strengthening the 'Islamic identity' of Muslim youth and making their form
of Sharia law the guideline for the daily lives of Muslims in the
Netherlands," the report stated. "In this way, these political Salafists
strive for an autonomous community in which anti-democratic views and
behaviors are commonplace. Within the Salafist movement, political
Salafists are most actively striving for a replacement, alternative society
structure that cannot be reconciled with Dutch democratization."
And how better than to begin in the schools?
Yet current laws make it impossible for the government to remedy the
issue without potentially making matters worse. Closing the school down
would likely anger the Muslim community and create difficulties for Muslim
parents seeking to educate their children in keeping with their beliefs.
Meantime, while they grapple with the situation, tensions between Muslims
and the government, and between moderate and extremist Muslim communities,
are intensifying.
Some of those conflicts were evident in the statement that first alerted
the authorities, which was issued via WhatsApp. Describing themselves as
"Muslims against Salafism and extremism," the group stated that
the school's founders and directors, the brothers Soner and Son Tekin
Atasoy, were operating behind the backs of the children's parents and the
government, seeking to "indoctrinate young Muslims, with the aim of
creating confrontations with Dutch society, and recruiting youth for new rising
conflicts elsewhere in the world."
In addition, according to the group's statement, a number of other
radicals had infiltrated the school, including Arnoud van Doorn, a former
leading member of anti-Islam party Partij Voor de Vrijheid (PVV) who
converted to Islam in 2013. Van Doorn has been entirely clear about his
views, particularly on Twitter, where he has posted "May Allah destroy the Zionists," and "May Allah guide or destroy the enemies of
Islam."
On Monday, he also posted a photo of the school's Ramadan greeting on his
social media account.
To make matters worse, when inspectors attempted to visit the Cornelius
Haga school in March, administrators abruptly canceled a religion class without offering a
reason. According to the NRC Handelblad, which broke the story, a
second inspection effort was "made impossible" by the school's
directors.
In response, Mayor Halsema immediately halted all public funding of the
school, demanded full cooperation with inspectors, and called for Tekin
Atasoy to step down as director. But Atasoy refused, setting off a national
controversy. While Parliament argued for the forced closing of the school,
seeking ways around current laws to do so, radical imams placed videos in support of the school on social media.
Cornelius Haga students wrote an open letter to King Willem-Alexander asking if it is
his "royal wish for Muslims to be filthied with mud for no
cause."
The problem is not limited to Amsterdam. The school is already planning
expansion into other cities, leaving officials to grapple with the
conflicts between their concerns about the school and the Dutch
constitution, which guarantees education to all "with respect for
every person's religion or belief" and freedom within special
religious schools "with regard to the choice of teaching materials and
the appointment of teachers." Moreover, on average, students at
Islamic schools score higher than other students on national tests. At
the same time, indoctrinating children in radical and violent ideologies is
a clear threat to national security.
Hence the dilemma: if the government continues to allow the school to
operate and provides funding, it helps feed the Salafist and jihadist
narrative. But if it stops, schools like this will likely turn elsewhere
for support as mosques throughout Europe have in the past – to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, for instance – who then install their own
extremist directors, imams, and curricula instead.
Meantime, the NCTV has warned that the Islamic State's fall has brought
on a "new phase" in Islamic extremist strategy, with an emphasis
on recruitment and propaganda, by "setting up new educational and
educational initiatives" that will enable them to "dominate
non-regular Islamic education." To achieve these goals, the NCTV said,
"They successfully raise funds at home and abroad with which they
finance these new projects."
Consequently, counterterrorists must also adopt new strategies,
including a broader understanding of "jihad." As terror expert
Jelle van Buuren of Leiden University told Dutch newspaper Telegraaf, "When we
used to talk about jihad, we were always fixated on bombs and Kalashnikovs.
Now, we find ourselves looking more at intolerance, and the spread of
ideologies. The problem is: if you arrest someone with a Kalashnikov, it's
basic. But what do you do with clubs that use democratic rights to
undermine democratic values?"
Abigail R. Esman, the author, most recently, of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in
the West (Praeger, 2010), is a freelance writer based in New
York and the Netherlands Her next book, on domestic abuse and terrorism,
will be published by Potomac Books. Follow her at @radicalstates.
Related Topics: Education
| Abigail
R. Esman, Cornelius
Haga Lyceum, indoctrination,
Dutch
intelligence, Pieter-Jaap
Aalsberg, Salafists,
Caucasus
Emirate, Femka
Halsema, Arnoud
van Doorn, Partij
Voor de Vrijheid, Tekin
Atasoy, Jelle
van Buuren
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