Europe’s main democracy and rights watchdog has expressed concern about increasing Dutch intolerance towards Muslims that was fanned by the murder last year of a filmmaker critical of Islam.
Omur Orhun, ambassador on combating discrimination against Muslims for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), was in the Netherlands to discuss the position of Muslim immigrants.
“Holland was reputed to be a country of tolerance where integration, as compared to other European countries, had been achieved acceptably. But recent events have shown there is a problem,” he told a news conference ending a three-day visit.
“Especially from representatives of some civil society organisations there were repeatedly feelings of fear expressed. Not claims of physical attacks or abuse, but a climate of fear.”
“The case of Babar Ahmad, jailed UK-US political prisoner, took one step closer to seeing Babar being extradited to the US, despite insufficient evidence to convict him under UK law and no evidence having been presented for his extradition. Once in the US, Babar faces the very real threat of transfer from civil to military courts under Military Order One and even torture at Guantánamo or by other governments, through a process the US authorities euphemistically call ‘extraordinary rendition’. Further, if convicted, under what would probably be a highly questionable legal process, he faces the risk of execution.”