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By Crethi Plethi

In May 2013, Trouw published an article claiming that Dutch orthodox Muslims apparenly apply sharia rules on the streets in the Schilderswijk (a neighborhood in the Hague, Netherlands) turning it into a sharia enclave. Non-Muslim and also moderate Muslim residents are addressed and intimidated on the streets by veiled women and orthodox Muslim men who are acting as “sharia police” on matters that do not please the Salafi-orthodox Muslim majority of the neighborhood. This includes matters such as smoking, the use of alcohol and pork meat (which is a sin — “haram” — in Islam) and wearing “skirts above the knee” or “dresses with spaghetti straps.” Parts of the Schilderswijk — originally known as “The Forgotten Triangle” — are now called “The Sharia Triangle.” The neighborhood has three salafist mosques — including the As-Soennah mosque. The area is known as breeding ground for radicalization, incitement and recruitment of young jihadi fighters. Lately, tensions between the orthodox community and the police are rising as the police started monitoring ‘sharia-activity’ in the neighborhood.

The Sept 1, 2013 meeting in the Hague (Source: twitter @alsham_1434, http://t.co/ow3nsK6GAu)

I’ve enclosed some pictures from today’s newspapers (De Telegraaf and De Volkskrant) which show Dutch ‘salafi-orthodox’ Muslims uniting in public behind “Al-Qaeda” flags. Last Sunday, they gathered at the Richard Krajicek Playground — named after the Dutch tennisplayer who won Wimbledon in 1996 — and later at a soccer playground elsewhere in the Hague to “play soccer.” According to Dutch police, they yelled slogans and displayed Islamic flags (one of them also in use by the ISI), a Sunni-Islamist terror group in Iraq linked with al-Qaeda.

At sunset, 41 orthodox Muslims who were present in the Hondiusstreet started chanting creeds, yelled slogans and showed al-Qaeda flags. The police, who was on alert due to the previous meeting on September 1^st, entered the playground and asked for their ID’s and to leave the area. The Muslim ‘brothers’ didn’t comply and some pulling and pushing started with police resulting in 5 arrests for public disorder. The ‘brothers’ who weren’t arrested went to another soccer playground and provoked police again with chanting and showing “al-Qaeda” flags.

As mentioned before, one of these “Al-Qaeda” flags is also in use by the ISI terror group. This Islamic State of Iraq group is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and foreigners in Iraq. They have also carried out terrorist attacks against the Christian minority in Iraq supposedly in support of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and also as retaliation for the practice of Copts (in Egypt) who try to rescue their (Christian) daughters from being kidnapped, raped and afterwards forced to marry their Muslim attackers and convert to Islam. The aim of the group is to establish a caliphate in Iraq.

Of course, these ‘law-abiding’ radicals in the Hague exploit Western democratic freedoms for their own purpose (the same West they hate) as long as it is useful for their cause which is proselytizing, preaching of Islam and establishing sharia law in the West and in this case in the Netherlands. If orthodox Muslims express their faith in public it has — at least — a symbolic meaning as well and the naïve and blinded public in the West don’t fully understand that a simple act like waving an Islamic flag (in use by a terrorist al-Qaeda linked group) is a way for them to raise their middle finger to our free society and say “to hell with your democracy, to hell with your freedom, Sharia and Islam now.” This is how they poison the minds of young Muslims with radical and intolerant ideas and even use a soccer playground for that matter.

The Muslims involved in the disturbance in the Hague denied all allegations and are demanding their rights of free speech, free gathering and freedom of religion. Abou Moussa, one of the men arrested, said that

“We are lions. They can’t scare us. Next week, we’ll be back. And the week after also and we will continue to prove that the Netherlands is a police state where Muslims don’t have freedoms.”

Apparently, one of the goals of the meeting was also proselytizing other residents and the preaching of Islam — (Dawah)– according to the De Ware Religie website:

“We continued with our program and had a nice meal with each other. And of course, the group photos. If only to show that they cannot stop us…we’ll continue to play soccer and do Dawah,” says Abu Yazeed.

“I have been arrested and released later on,” says Abou Moussa, but “today’s result for the police: they were humiliated. And they didn’t succeed in deterring our meeting. Our result: we have a nice case study of the Netherlands as a police state and in the meantime we are proceeding with our activities.”

The Dutch orthodox Muslims moved to another soccer playground after some members were arrested earlier that evening by the police for public disorder. Here they continued making statements and showing different al-Qaeda flags (Photo source: De Ware Religie website)

Abu Suhayb — De Ware Religie columnist — wrote a piece about the events in the Hague and called it “The Battle of Hondiusstreet“. The use of these kind of disproportionate “military” phrases is a clear example of the ‘violent’ mindset of these individuals. They view their struggle as a jihad against the West. He writes:

“You don’t need to be a psychologist or anthropologist to know that a group of people [orthodox Muslims] won’t accept to be intimidated over and over again. Their patience will, sooner or later, end. Just look at the Arab countries. The revolution [Arab uprisings] is the best example of what can be expected.”

Suhayb actually hints here at a sort of ‘[Islamic] uprisings’ in the neighborhoods of our cities if these orthodox groups feel they are hindered in their goal to Islamize our societies [of course he will argue that he means if these orthodox groups are constantly harassed by police). These tactics are al part of the Islamization of the West.

Maybe you’re familiar with the Sharia4Belgium movement. This organization was a radical Muslim organisation founded in 2010 (March 3) in Belgium and was officially dissolved in 2012 (October 7). The organization was active in Belgium and for a while in the Netherlands as well. They had extremist positions on the role of Islam and Sharia in Western society and were known for their hatred against non-Muslims, Jews and gays. The spokesperson was Fouad Belkacem, alias Abu Imran, who was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment (in 2012) for incitement to hatred and violence against non-Muslims. They rejected Western democracy and called for an Islamic state in Belgium and Holland.

A few local Muslim boys, who always play soccer at the Richard Krajicek playground, have now testified that a number of the Muslim men who were removed by the police on Sunday evening, were actually members of the Sharia4Belgium movement.

More and more we see these phenomena appear in the West, but until now most of them also disappear again (underground no doubt or changing names). However, it is becoming a trend for these groups to present themselves publicly and spread their undemocratic islamic views misusing democratic principles to transform a democratic society into an Islamic society. Their boldness shows that they feel strong and confident. Some of these “wanna-be-jihadis” join Islamist terror groups in the Middle East (especially in Syria) to fight against the so-called “enemies of Islam” whether this is Bashar al-Assad, Shi’ites or moderate Muslims. But most of them will stay in our neighborhoods in the West, radicalize our youth and continue to try to enforce their radical beliefs upon our Western culture.

What will the next phase in Europe be?

Crethi Plethi is the pseudonym for Harald van Es and is the founder and director of CrethiPlethi.com. He writes articles for CrethiPlethi.com in Dutch and English on the Middle East, Israel, Revolutionary Islamism, Multiculturalism and the Netherlands. He has lived in Jaffa (Tel Aviv), Israel. He currently lives in the Netherlands. For all the exclusive blog entries by Crethi Plethi, go here.