Municipalities in the Netherlands target mosques with strange espionage operations

A report published by the French magazine "Le Courrie Internationale" revealed what it described as a "scandal" of an espionage operation targeting mosques and places of worship in the Netherlands.

The French magazine said, "It is a scandal that shakes the Muslim and Moroccan community in the Netherlands... a strange case of spying on mosques at the instigation of dozens of municipalities and a private polytheism founded by a former police officer."

The magazine, citing the Moroccan website Diaspora Tel Quel, stated that dozens of Dutch municipalities assigned a private company, Nuance door Training & Advies (NTA), to investigate the activity of Muslim communities in their regions.

According to the website, the company is run by Najib Touzani, the former police chief of the city of Utrecht, who has become an expert in counter-extremism services in the Netherlands.

The magazine pointed out that in the Netherlands, it is up to the municipalities to legally combat extremism at their level, especially after the return of ISIS terrorist fighters from Syria and Iraq.

She explained that the Dutch anti-terror services had given 7.5 million euros to the municipalities to deal with this issue, and because some of those municipalities "did not know how to do this, they paid part of this amount to a private security company to carry out the task."

The report pointed out that the company proposed to offer its services for 50,000 euros, and this includes preparing a mapping within the targeted communities for "balance of power", a term that, according to the company, refers to "research on different radical trends."

The site reported that these private investigators did not follow the way they announced, but rather acted as spies inside mosques, and this case caused an uproar in the targeted places of worship, especially since there is information indicating that "NTA" paid some leaders of Islamic societies to obtain information from them, and from Municipalities may use this information to carry out "direct action targeting religious centers or their members."

Ten municipalities from 39 municipalities requested the services of this company, and most of them refrained from “NTA” services precisely because of the methods used. In its own defense, the company said that it acted in accordance with “the law and regulations.”

The site added that several Dutch political parties asked the House of Representatives for clarification, but the worshipers in the targeted mosques were the most disturbed.

The Moroccan website quoted the Muslim Council, the body that includes 380 mosques in the Netherlands and defends Muslim issues before the government, describing this issue as suspicious and harmful to the reputation of any country that respects the law and freedoms.


Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news