5 - 11 July 2001
Issue No.541
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 5 - 11 July 2001 Issue No.541 |
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Double Dutch
A Moroccan imam's homophobia has rocked the Netherlands. Judit Neurink reports from Amsterdam
Dutch gays are all in a froth. A Moroccan imam, Khalil Al- Moumni, appeared on Dutch television recently and described homosexuality as a disease. "If the illness spreads, everybody will be infected! This will lead to extinction," he said, while on a popular late night news show. There was outrage. Even Wim Kok, the Dutch prime minister, felt moved to respond. Kok called the outspoken imam, "especially offending."
The Netherlands is the only country in the world where gay couples have the same rights as straight couples: including the right to marry.
Two sacred cows of the Dutch constitution clash in the Al- Moumni case: freedom of religion and freedom of speech. In a similar case a couple of years ago, a fundamentalist Christian Protestant politician, who compared homosexuals to thieves, was taken to court, but was eventually acquitted.
Kok fears that imams may contribute to anti-gay violence. He publicly cited reports in the Dutch press about groups of young, second generation Dutch, of Moroccan descent, who attack gays in car-parks.
The gay movement complained about Al-Moumni to the court of justice. Some right-wing politicians want the imam expelled.
The Netherlands has a million Muslims (out of a total populace of 16 million). They come mostly from Morocco, Turkey, the Middle East and the former Dutch colony of Indonesia. As the Al-Moumni crisis broke, the Dutch internal intelligence service (the BVD) was warning that imams were working against the integration of ethnic minorities into Dutch society. A Libyan imam was expelled last year for preaching against integration. A worried government met Muslim leaders on 23 May. During the meeting, Al-Moumni told the chairman, Minister of Immigration Roger van Boxtel, that he never intended to offend or whip up hatred against homosexuals. The meeting was declared a success, because "a dialogue was born," a participant said.
Al-Moumni is no stranger to controversy. The Moroccan ministry of religion banned him from preaching in Morocco, for being a member of fundamentalist Sheikh Yassin's Al-Adl wal-Ihsan movement and for inciting riots between Muslim and Marxist students. He came to the Netherlands in 1992 at the invitation of Al-Nasr mosque in Rotterdam.
After his television appearance, a Dutch newspaper published excerpts from Al-Moumni's Rotterdam sermons. In them, the imam, whose flight to Europe may have saved him from imprisonment in a Moroccan all-male jail, calls Europeans lower than pigs or dogs because they tolerate homosexuality. He also advises Muslims not to allow their daughters to mix with people of a different faith. "This will lead to big problems. Wake up, fathers. Guard your honour," he preached. After nine years in the Netherlands, the Imam has still not learnt Dutch.
Immigration Minister van Boxtel, when shown the excerpts, responded angrily, telling the press that "I still want a dialogue with Muslims, but I have a problem with Al-Moumni.
Van Boxtel's ire may be in vain. The Netherlands is famed for its tolerance. Legal ways to gag the Imam are few. For now, Al-Moumni will continue to be allowed to denounce sodomy, while Dutch liberals and gays grow ever more distressed.
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