Top news

Amsterdam University cancels debate with hardline Islamic cleric

Amsterdam’s Free University has cancelled an academic gathering featuring a radical Islamic cleric after it sparked a storm of protest.

Shaikh Haltham al-Haddad had been invited to a symposium at the Free University of Amsterdam on Friday and Saturday, despite complaints by Jewish groups.

In Parliament on Wednesday, a majority of MPs called for the British imam, who has described hatred of other religions as “necessary”, to be banned from entering the country.

Al-Haddad has previously called Jews “enemies of God and the descendants of apes and pigs” and said it is “necessary to hate Jews and Christians”.

The Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) has called for the Dutch government to shut the door on Al-Haddad because of his known anti-Semitic views.

The university said that the uproar around Al-Haddad’s presence meant that a proper academic debate was no longer possible.

The university’s newspaper Ad Valvas claimed there had been calls for by extreme right-wing groups to picket the venue in protest against Al-Haddad.

The parties in the governing centre-right coalition, the Liberals (VVD) and Christian Democrats (CDA) backed a resolution by the Christian Union (CU) party asking justice and security minister Ivo Opstelten to refuse entry.

The Freedom Party (PVV) and the Calvinist Reformed Party (SGP) also supported the measure.

Al-Haddad, who is an authority on Sharia law, recently had a lecture at the London School of Economics cancelled after the UK’s Jewish community protested.

In a speech at the National Islamic Congress in Amsterdam in 2009, he condemned democracy and spoke in support of Sharia courts and female circumcision.

Source: De Volkskrant: VU-symposium met omstreden shariageleerde afgelast

Photo by Andrew Black

See also: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (in English)