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>International Terrorist Support Groups Thrive in
Belgium and Netherlands
>Adriana Stuijt
>Monday, Sept. 24, 2001
>
>ROTTERDAM Top international anti-terrorism experts
have identified two of
>Europe's most legally tolerant regions namely, the
Dutch-language areas
>around Europe's most important west coast harbors,
Antwerp and Rotterdam
>as the main breeding ground for Muslim-fundamentalist
terrorist groups.
>Osama bin Laden 's organization even runs shipping
companies as fronts
>from Amsterdam.
>
>The British researcher Dr. R. Gunaratna warned that,
especially in The
>Netherlands, because of its total lack of anti-
terrorism laws and its very
>high level of religious, cultural and judicial
tolerance,
>Muslim-fundamentalist terrorist groups are allowed to
thrive. They use
>Amsterdam and Rotterdam as central bases in the West
from which they
>garnish funds, recruit activists from the local Muslim
youth cultural
>groups, and purchase highly sophisticated arms in the
world's largest
>trading hub: Rotterdam harbor.
>
>The Kurdish PKK, the Tamil Tigers and the Philippines'
New People's Army
>all use the liberal Dutch territory, from which they
garnish new converts,
>turn them into activist supporters, launder and raise
funds and purchase
>sophisticated equipment. These Dutch-based groups,
especially, also create
>waves of propaganda material and, being based in
Amsterdam, Rotterdam and
>Antwerp, also have no difficulty in purchasing any
weapons and other
>high-tech support materials with which to mount
terrorist attacks abroad.
>
>A New Form of Terrorism
>
>Another new, disturbing pattern pointing to a new form
of terrorism
>against the civilian population at large has been
detected in both harbor
>towns of Antwerp and Rotterdam: "Muslim cultural
organizations"have also
>turned the streets of Antwerp and Rotterdam into main
battlegrounds for
>Muslim-fundamentalist male criminal youth gangs who
deliberately attack,
>rob and invade ethno-European cultural events and
throngs of shoppers in
>the large shopping districts.
>
>These well-organized attacks are leaving the local
Dutch-speaking
>ethno-Europeans totally vulnerable and defenseless
because their
>governments have no anti-terrorist laws with which to
stop such highly
>aggressive youth groups from forming in the first
place.
>
>For instance, about 5.1 percent of Rotterdam's
population is of Moroccan
>origin yet about 10 percent of all the city's arrested
criminal suspects
>are of Moroccan origin, according to Rotterdam's
latest police statistics
>issued by chief inspector J. Verbeek and Erasmus
University.
>
>In the Dutch-speaking region's latest criminal youth
gang attack in
>Belgium, in the suburb of Hasselt in Antwerp on Sept.
24, large groups of
>Algerian-Moroccan youths, centrally organized by cell
phones and armed
>with batons and insecticide spray, attacked hundreds
of local Flemish
>citizens holding their traditional end-of-summer fair
and circus event at
>Kruger market square.
>
>Many eyewitnesses who described the terror and
destruction at the usually
>jolly and peaceful Flemish circus fair said the
Algerian and Moroccan
>youths targeted especially women and girls as the
youth gangs tore into
>the carnival goers, spraying people's eyes with
insecticides and
>deodorants; spitting at and insulting especially the
Flemish; ordering the
>girls and women to wear headscarves and calling them
whores; cursing the
>men as "Flemish pork-eaters"; spitting on and
befouling with urine and
>soil the carnival's traditional pancake dinners and
destroying the
>antique, highly valuable carousel and circus equipment
hired for the
>Hasselt community carnival.
>
>Flemish old-age pensioners and children alike were
forced to flee in fear
>of being blinded by spray, and were beaten up and
kicked. The Flemish
>carnival goers all local residents had to flee from a
steady stream of
>loud, rude verbal abuse from the young Algerians and
Moroccans invading
>their neighborhood. Many witnesses also said the
youths chanted popular
>slogans used by the Muslim-terrorist organization GIA.
Some of these
>events were described in a local Antwerp newspaper.
>
>Carnival goers who tried to remain and finish their
traditional pancake
>meals or who tried to protect the antique circus
equipment were physically
>attacked by kick-boxing youths. The equipment and
musical instruments were
>destroyed during the racist rampage. There were very
few police in
>attendance. The mainstream Belgian news media briefly
described the event
>as a "scuffle"at a local carnival without mentioning
the racist overtones.
>
>In Rotterdam, only about 60 miles north of Antwerp, a
similar pattern has
>also been developing over the past year, with
widespread reports of
>assaults by Moroccan-Algerian youth gangs described by
Dutch police as
>"criminal youth gangs of North African descent"but who
are described by
>the news media as being highly centrally organized
through cell phones.
>
>These gangs target major shopping districts and
traditional European
>cultural and sporting events to rob, terrorize and
abuse especially the
>ethno-Dutch population. During these organized
attacks, the youths are
>also seen to deliberately target ethno-European girls
and women, demanding
>that they start obeying the strict Muslim shari'a laws
favored by
>terrorist regimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya,
which require total
>subservience to males. Many women shoppers now shun
these major shopping
>districts to avoid such confrontations.
>
>A Sociological Explanation
>
>Dutch sociologists do not link these aggressive
criminal North African
>male youth gangs to any Muslim-fundamentalist
terrorist organizations
>instead claiming that this first generation of
Algerian-Moroccan youths,
>primarily raised without fathers, were
"deculturized"and therefore
>aimlessly floating into such destructive criminal
behavior.
>
>The sociologists, in fact, urged even more government
subsidies to these
>"cultural"groups to try and combat such behavior. By
tradition and unlike
>Christian women, these sociologists point out, Muslim
women are never
>allowed to discipline any of their male children and
the cultural groups
>might be able to better "channel their male energies."
>
>However, there's a much more organized situation going
on here than these
>Dutch sociologists would have us believe. For example,
on the night after
>the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United
States, large groups of
>North African youths congregated in the town squares
in Antwerp and also
>in the town of Ede in The Netherlands. In this town, a
huge crowd of
>Muslim male youths had started to congregate shortly
after the attacks and
>started celebrating what they themselves told the
horrified local citizens
>was their personal "victory against America."
>
>This was too much even for the highly liberal Dutch
Ede citizens called in
>the local police and demanded the youths' removal.
However, the local
>police station commander lamely excused his lack of
inaction by saying
>that the youths had been "expressing their rights to
free speech available
>to all Dutch citizens"and that he was not allowed to
stop the distasteful
>celebration.
>
>And in a shock survey carried out by Muslim cultural
publications the day
>after the attack, a full 80 percent of the thousands
of Dutch Muslims
>questioned said that they had been in favor of the
terrorist attacks.
>
>Besides these clear danger signals from the Muslim
community in The
>Netherlands itself, the Dutch government this week was
also warned by the
>British anti-terrorism expert Gunaratna, of the Centre
for the Study of
>Terrorism and Political Science at St. Andrews
University in Scotland, to
>"stop disregarding the international fight against
terrorism, and start
>prohibiting these terrorist support groups by law."
>
>He urged the Dutch government to immediately change
its laws and
>immediately prohibit these support groups. "Your
country must change its
>laws at once if it wants to remain free of
terrorism,"he said.
>
>Dutch Law and Terrorism
>
>The Netherlands does not have any anti-terrorism laws
and thus openly
>allowed fundraising and arms purchase exporting by,
for instance,
>terrorist support groups during the anti-apartheid
movement's support of
>the terrorist cells of the African Nationalist
Congress (ANC) and the
>Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) before 1994.
>
>Many Dutch citizens such as the head of the now-
defunct "Anti-apartheid
>movement Netherlands,"the journalist Connie Braam even
actively
>participated in smuggling weapons and bombs into South
Africa from Dutch
>territory and without any intervention from the Dutch
government, which
>even provided government funding for this terrorist
support group.
>
>Dutch law itself contributes to the thriving terrorist
support-group
>culture in The Netherlands. It does not allow any
actions to be undertaken
>against support groups of terrorist organizations if
it cannot be firmly
>proven that their fundraising and other physical
support led to the terror
>attacks.
>
>However, the internal security service of The
Netherlands (BVD) itself is
>also not concentrating on probing such Muslim-
fundamentalist terrorist
>activities as much as they are infiltrating right-wing
or neo-Nazi groups,
>as the Dutch government has traditionally viewed such
fascism as the prime
>enemy of peace and prosperity since the Nazi
occupation during WWII.
>
>As long as the Muslim-fundamentalist terrorist support
groups do not
>misbehave inside The Netherlands, they can therefore
continue to use the
>Dutch territory from which to garnish economic and
material support
>including purchasing highly sophisticated weaponry
from the local arms
>industry even if these directly lead to terrorist
attacks outside The
>Netherlands, as also happened during the terrorist
campaign conducted by
>the ANC and the PAC against the apartheid government
in South Africa prior
>to 1994.
>
>Belgium does have some anti-terrorist legislation also
primarily targeting
>right-wing neo-Nazi groups but is juristically more
lenient toward
>Muslim-fundamentalist terrorist support groups on
Belgian soil.
>
>Other European countries do have better anti-terrorist
legislation, with
>Great Britain having the most stringent laws due to
its Northern Ireland
>troubles.
>
>Terrorist Support Groups
>
>Gunaratna said many of these groups have been active
in The Netherlands
>for many years. "They conduct fundraisers and launder
funds in The
>Netherlands to carry out violent attacks in Asia and
the Middle East,"he
>said.
>
>He also noticed such support groups among other Muslim
communities not
>known for terrorist activities, such as the Sikhs, Sri
Lankans, and
>Pakistani and Kurd cultural groups many of which are
even subsidized by
>the Dutch government.
>
>American expert Yossef Bodansky, author of a book on
bin Laden, also
>confirmed that Amsterdam-based shipping companies
operate as front
>organizations for the Al Qaida organization. This was
also confirmed by
>the French-Arabian newspaper Al Watan Al Arabi.
>
>Dutch internal affairs minister De Vries shrugged a
dismayed "So what can
>I do about it?"reaction when confronted with these
warnings from
>international experts telling the TV program
"Buitenhof"that he actually
>"could not exclude that subversive activities might be
taking place inside
>such Muslim cultural groups."
>
>And he even warned a few days later after talks with
the 25 mayors of the
>main Dutch cities in charge of the regional police
corps that "the Dutch
>cannot now start waging a cold war against Muslim
religious groups."
>
>He also warned Amsterdam's chief justice officer L. de
Wit who had told
>the news media that he would call in the defense force
in case of pro-bin
>Laden riots in the capital city that it was "very
foolish to speculate in
>public about possible riots."
>
>He also considered it unnecessary to rush to protect
and beef up the
>security for all the public buildings and public
figures against terrorist
>attacks. "There is no concrete terrorist threat in The
Netherlands,"he
>concluded and advised that only "some public
buildings"had had their
>security stepped up. Al Watan
>
>Meanwhile, Rotterdam's mayor, Mr. I. Opstelten, said
the four men arrested
>in his city last week as suspects connected to the
terrorist attacks on
>America still have not provided any leads that could
link them. One is in
>a routine holding facility for illegal aliens and the
other three are in
>police custody pending the investigation, he said.
>
>The Dutch internal security organization, the BVD, has
managed to
>confiscate a "suspicious parcel"destined for the
United States, which was
>posted in the Swartjan street post office in
Rotterdam. The country's
>anti-terrorist expert P. van der Molen said the main
suspect of this
>Muslim support group, a Tunisian citizen, is still in
custody in Brussels,
>Belgium.
>
>Some anti-Muslim reactions were also recorded in The
Netherlands since the
>Sept. 11 infamy. About 25 incidents were recorded by
Dutch police,
>including arson, graffiti, and threats against mosques
and Islamic schools
>in the towns of Vlissingen, Uden, Zwolle, Heerlen, The
Hague and Rijssen.
>Two Islamic schools were torched, one in Nijmegen and
the other in Drachten.
>
>The Dutch cabinet minister in charge of "integration
management,"Mr. Van
>Boxtel, said this "unacceptable behavior against our
young new Dutch
>citizens, this mini-terrorism, will be punished with
the full force of
>Dutch law."
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