It is as if the foreign press in recent weeks are reporting on a completely different election than the one the Dutch are facing. Unlike the journalists streaming in the country that co-founded the EU, most citizens heading to the polling stations on Wednesday are not obsessed by far-right leader Geert Wilders. Recent articles in…
Jamestown Foundation: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 19 In December 2014, a video testament emerged in which 19-year-old Sultan Berzel, from the Netherlands’ southern city of Maastricht, called on Muslims to make hijra (a religious migration) to the self-proclaimed Islamic State group. He delivered his message in a quiet voice and with a local Maastricht accent. The…
Newsweek did an article on Dutch far-right MP Geert Wilders for which I was interviewed too. I tried to explain the reporter a bit on his “successful” polarisation of Dutch society, how he manages to set the agenda on various issues including Islam, immigration and crime – and finally, his media antics. A brief look…
A Dutch Jabhat al Nusra (JAN) fighter who goes by the nom de guerre “Muhajiri Shaam” or “Abu Mohammed al Hollandi” has recently gained lots of traction in Dutch media. Following the US-coalition air-strikes on al JAN-strongholds on Monday, in which three Dutch Nusra fighters died, he uploaded a video on his Facebook page in…
Because pictures say more than words sometimes.
The world is in a state of shock after Mosul was taken by ISIS, the terrorist movement that is said to be too extreme for al Qaeda. ISIS is freely translated to the Islamic State in Iraq and (greater) Syria, and now controls large parts of both countries. Have the ruthless warriors of ISIS achieved…
Now that ISIS captured Mosul in Northern Iraq, there is a lot of speculation that the ‘Islamic State’, or Dawlah, is now a reality on the ground. It controls vast amounts of land, major cities such as Raqqah in Syria and Ramadi and Mosul in Iraq, and even oil fields. It operates Sharia courts and…
