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| Europe |
| Imam accepts invitation |
| 2007-04-05 |
| AMSTERDAM - Imam Ahmed Salam has accepted the invitation to talk with the Tilburg municipal council about his role in the city's society. The controversial spiritual leader told the council on Wednesday that he would accept its invitation for a talk, the imam's son Suhayb Salam has announced. The meeting is planned for 16 April but will not be open to the public. Suhayb Salam stressed that he and his father would take this opportunity to eliminate a number of misunderstandings about statements by the imam. The two also see the meeting as an attempt to foster understanding for each other's opinions. Imam Salam was in the news again last week when Tilburg mayor Ruud Vreeman said that he didn't belong in the Netherlands because of his recent statements. The spiritual leader is accused of having told Muslims to damage the Dutch state by not paying taxes. Salam says that this and other claims are not true. Ahmed Salam belongs to a group of conservative Salafist imams and has been monitored by the Intelligence and Security Service AIVD for years. A number of other conservative Salafists has been deported. The Tilburg imam caused a stir in November 2004 when he refused to shake hands with minister at the time Rita Verdonk. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #4 Salam says that this and other claims are not true. Depends on what version ya want to hear, the Dutch one or the Arabic one... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-04-05 21:38 |
| #3 I clicked on this to see exactly what the invitation was. It wasn't what I was hoping for. :-) |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-04-05 17:00 |
| #2 you dont need to close the mosques. IIUC the Salafist dont usually have seperate mosques, a la Protestant churchs or American synagogues. Rather they form a faction within a community mosque (a la old time European synagogues)and then try to take it over. Expel the Salafi Imam, and the mosque presumably reverts to the control of the local non-Salafi muslims. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2007-04-05 16:41 |
| #1 A number of other conservative Salafists has been deported. Whoa, Nellie! A whiff of sanity! What's next, Mosque closures? (As if!) |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-05 02:25 |