Persecution of Homosexuals (Netherlands)

Note that this page may contain news regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite, and transsexual people (LGBTT)

First they came for the gays; "Sharia law may still be an alien concept to some Westerners, but it's staring gay Europeans right in the face"

One familiar response is: “Well, non-Muslims beat up gays, too!” Yep – indeed they do. Yet for a while there, in much of Western Europe, homosexuality was on its way to being a non-issue. In Amsterdam in the late 1990s, I was delightfully surprised to discover that when groups of straight teenage boys passed gay couples in the streets, they just walked past without any reaction whatsoever. The sight of gay people didn’t upset, threaten, amuse, or confuse them; the familiar, insecure urge to respond to open homosexuality with some kind of distancing, disdainful word or gesture – and thereby affirm to one another, and to themselves, their own heterosexual credentials – was simply not part of those kids’ makeup. For me, it was a remarkable experience. Amsterdam then seemed to me the leading edge of a new wave in the progress of human civilization.

Alas, it is now very clearly the opposite. The number of reported gay-bashings in Amsterdam now climbs steadily year by year. Nearly half Muslim, the city is a front in the struggle between democracy and sharia, under which, lest it be forgotten, homosexuality can be a capital offense. Things have gotten so bad there that even on the part of the exceedingly politically correct, there has been a degree of acknowledgment that something has changed, and is still changing. After a group of Amsterdam Muslims beat up Chris Crain, the six-foot-five editor of the gay newspaper The Washington Blade, in May 2005, the head of the Netherlands’ leading gay-rights organization admitted that tolerance of gay people in that city was “slipping away like sand through the fingers” and that “gays and lesbians are less willing to walk hand-in-hand because they might be beaten up.”
. . .
Even as Europeans in positions of authority persist in denying the plain facts about Muslim attitudes toward gay people, leading European Muslims keep reminding us what those attitudes are. Take Norway’s Asghar Ali, deputy chairman of Norway’s Islamic Council. Ali, who also holds high-ranking positions in Norway’s ruling Labor Party and in the powerful Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, and has worked in an advisory capacity on the government’s Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud, would seem to be a model of successful assimilation. Yet at a November 2007 debate arranged by the gay student organization at the University of Oslo, he refused to reject the death penalty for gays. When asked about this issue, the head of the Islamic Council, Senaid Kobilica, said that Norwegian Muslims needed to discuss it and consult religious authorities. “While this process is underway,” Kobilica said, “I ask for understanding and respect for the fact that I am unable to comment, either about my personal position or about the position of the Islamic Council of Norway.” Understanding and respect, that is, for his unwillingness to say flat out that he did not believe gay people should be murdered.

Perhaps younger, well educated Muslims are more enlightened? Another participant in the University of Oslo debate, Muslim Student Association head Usman Rana, said that he personally didn’t support making homosexuality a capital crime, but that he would not criticize other countries’ practices. “There is unfortunately a tendency in Norway to degrade religious people,” Rana told Universitas, the college newspaper. “It is due to an extreme secularism among the Norwegian public. I fervently hope that our participation [in the debate on the death penalty for gays] helps to create a more nuanced view of Islam. The Norwegian public needs to become more liberal.” Once again, it’s the assailants – or, in this case, the would-be executioners – who are the real victims.

First They Came for the Gays
Bruce Bawer, PJM, January 29, 2008

Gang of ten Muslim youths drag a gay model from the catwalk and beat him during a fashion show meant to promote tolerance towards gay people

Gay people in Holland have been shocked by a public attack on a gay man in Amsterdam.

Model Mike Du Pree was taking part in a fashion show to promote tolerance towards gay people when a gang of ten Muslim youths dragged him from the catwalk and beat him.
. . .
Newspaper Gay Krant reports that a bystander intervened as the model was being beaten and a fight erupted.

Fashion show organiser Jennifer Delano told the paper that the atmosphere at the event was tense, and that the violence shows Amsterdam is no longer a tolerant city.
. . .
Police arrived on the scene but it is unclear whether the ten homophobic Muslim youths were arrested or charged.

MPs have raised the incident in Parliament. “This shows how strong the Islamic gay bashers feel they are,” said Party of Freedom MP Martin Bosma. “Even at daylight, on Queen’s Day, in the heart of Amsterdam, they strike.
. . .
In December the mayor of Amsterdam commissioned academics to study a spate of attacks on gay people in the city. A substantial increase in homophobic attacks in the capital has been reported over the last few years.

More than half of Dutch gays feel less safe than they did a year ago, a survey carried out in August by current affairs programme EenVandaag revealed.

Muslim gang attacks gay catwalk model
Tony Grew, PinkNews, June 6, 2008

Gay couple attacked by a Muslim who sees them holding hands. Mugger claims "This is a Muslim area, and we don’t tolerate this stuff here"

On the evening of Sunday 9th of August 2009, a gay male couple were on their way home from a concert and dinner in the center of Oslo and were walking hand in hand along the road just next to where they live, in the Grønland district of east-central Oslo.

“Suddenly a man in his forties walked up to us and asked whether we spoke Norwegian. He then asked, ‘What is this?’ while pointing at our hands,” says Anders (24) to the newspaper Dagbladet.

The man, who came from an immigrant background, clearly indicated that he didn’t accept this kind of behavior.

“He said, ‘I don’t like this. This is a Muslim area.’“

The couple continued walking calmly along the sidewalk, but the man followed them and kicked one of them hard from behind. Anders’ boyfriend used his mobile phone to call the police, and the attacker quickly fled the scene. According to the Oslo police, the case in now under investigation.

“We take this very seriously. The Norwegian gay couple have explained that they were walking and met a man around 40, who shouted that ‘This is a Muslim area, and we don’t tolerate this stuff here,’“ says Oddleif Sveinungsen from the Oslo police.

Mugger to Gays: — This is a Muslim district (English translation)
VG Nett (Norwegian), August 19, 2009

Dutch Muslim forces his neighbours to move homes by threatening them with a knife and a gun. He mistook the two brothers for a homosexual couple, calling them "Dirty gay people"

The Amsterdam neighborhood Ymere, two brothers forced to move because their Muslim neighbor them a gay couple looketh and violence was threatened.

In late July the two men were at loggerheads with their neighbors. "Dirty gay people," said the man using one of the (heterosexual) brothers, "I take you off."

When he asked the man what exactly was going on, he came with a knife on him. When they wanted further explanation, the man returned to his home to its own words to get a gun. Then the brothers were abscond.

2 brothers forced to move because muslim neighbour thought they were gay
Gay Press, August 23, 2009 (machine translated from the original Dutch)

Amsterdam: “The gay-bashing capital of Europe.” Two thirds of the predators are Muslim youths. Media criticized for silence over Islamic gay bashing

Ezra Levant, a leading Canadian political activist, lawyer and blogger, writes in the Toronto Sun: “If you think Amsterdam is the gay capital of Europe, you’re half-right, but 10 years out of date. Today it’s the gay-bashing capital of Europe.”

The city isn’t just gay now, he says: it’s “Muslim, too,” and “sharia law rules the streets.” Gay bashing, he writes, is front-page news “only when it’s committed by a straight, white male.” Levant makes the point that media are reluctant to write about minorities when they’re attacking other minorities.
. . .
He says Muslim violence against gays is not a back-alley thing any more: it’s brazen and it’s in daylight.

He writes: In 2008, 10 Muslim youths broke into a fashion show, dragged gay model Michael du Pree off the stage and beat him bloody. Last month, several lesbians were hit by beer bottles thrown at their heads as they marched in a parade of thousands to protest violence against gays. There’s a gay community centre in Amsterdam – you’d think that would be safe. Wrong. It’s a target, with home-invasion style beatings. No one is immune. Last year Hugo Braakhuis, the founder of Amdsterdam’s gay pride parade, was attacked.
. . .
“The media is [sic] terribly uncomfortable writing about gay-bashing by minorities,” says Levant. “It’s the same reason why Canadian feminists are so eerily quiet about honour killings of Muslim girls.”

He says that research shows that for every reported gay-bashing crime in Amsterdam there are 25 that go unreported. “Two thirds of the predators are Muslim youths,” he writes.

Media criticized for silence over Islamic gay bashing
Andrew John, Digital Journal, October 11, 2010

Gay couple sues Dutch authorities over intimidation and violence. Over two years the men were continually intimidated, the windows of their house were broken, and their car was damaged by Moroccan youths

A gay couple from Utrecht is holding the municipality, the police and central government liable for the financial and emotional damage they suffered as a result of intimidation and violence of Moroccan youths.

The couple have made official police reports to the Utrecht police eight times in the past years. On no single occasion was a suspect arrested. Meanwhile, the two men have moved to another municipality.

The men are holding the municipality, the police and the State liable. They want to force a damages settlement from the three bodies via civil proceedings. In separate proceedings, they also want to compel judges to force the Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) to prosecute the perpetrators.

Between the summer of 2009 and 2010, the men were continually intimidated. Windows of their house were broken and their car was damaged. Because police there said they could not take action against this, the men eventually found themselves forced to sell their home at way below its estimated value.

Harrassed Gay Couple Takes Mayor to Court
NIS News, March 22, 2011

A homosexual couple is demanding damages from the government because the police allegedly refused to take action against Moroccan youths who systematically threatened them.

The men suffered multiple harassments. For example, their car windows were broken, 'homo' was scratched on the car and a brick and fireworks were thrown at their window. The couple made a police report for all these matters, but the police never took any action, says their lawyer Yehudi Moszkowicz.

On a certain day, the couple were crashed into in their car. This was done deliberately by the group of Moroccans. The police came along and asked the Moroccans if this was true; they denied it. "On this, the police concluded that there was no evidence for a deliberate collision," according to the lawyer.

Moszkowicz notes that the police were aware of the earlier reports by the gay couple against the Moroccans at the time of the collision. "Nonetheless, the officers concluded that they could find no witnesses who could tell them which of the two versions of the story was the right one."

On Friday, an appeal court in Arnhem will hear the couple's case. They are demanding that the judges order the police to arrest the suspects and that the Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) prosecute them. In a civil case against the municipality, the police and the State, they are also demanding damages of 40,000 euros.

The gay couple moved out of the neighbourhood, Terwijde in Utrecht, due to the harassment They say they have suffered substantial damages, among other things because they had to sell their house at below its valuation.

Harassed Gay Couple Taking Police to Court
NIS News, May 24, 2011

Muslim mob from Sharia4Belgium storm a discussion on Islam in Amsterdam, throwing eggs at the audience and call for a Canadian Muslim lesbian author to be killed

An Islamist group called for a Muslim lesbian author to be killed and invaded a discussion on Islam in Amsterdam last week.

A December 8 debate, which included the Canadian Muslim lesbian author Irshad Manji and MP Tofik Dibi on a panel, was disrupted when extremists from the group Sharia4Belgium stormed the event, held at the De Balie theater in Amsterdam. The mob threw eggs and called for Manji’s neck to be broken.

The group of about 20 men and boys arrived halfway through the evening, chanted slogans and pelted the audience with eggs. A police mobile unit had to be called to eject the rioters, and two Belgian men aged 19 and 22 were arrested.

The people who disrupted the debate were members of the Belgian group Sharia4Belgium, an offshoot of Sharia4Holland. Irshad Manji has experienced death threats for several years since her outspoken attack on traditional Islam in her book The Trouble with Islam Today.

Dibi is a young, gay Dutch-Moroccan GreenLeft (GroenLinks) MP. In September, he launched a campaign calling on Muslims around the world to stop blindly following decrees issued by a handful of extremists, and to start thinking for themselves.

Manji was in Europe to promote her new book, Allah, Liberty and Love. She says that the key teaching of the book is “moral courage, the willingness to speak up when everyone else wants to shut you up.”

The mob made clear that they felft that Dibi and Manji had no right to talk about Islam because they were too liberal, said Dibi. When the riot started, the audience made efforts to protect both speakers.

“What was really nice to see, and I have never seen, was that the whole audience stood up for us. And we have said, while they were shouting: ‘We will not move. We do not go off the stage, we continue to stand here. You only have to listen to us. And if you do not like to hear us speak, then you zapping’” said Dibi.

Manji said:

"I never felt afraid. Not once. Neither did Tofik. In fact, all of us refused to leave, even when police asked. We wouldn’t play on Jihadi terms. Some things are simply more important than fear."

Said Dibi:

"The disruption shows that even in the Netherlands it is necessary to continue the debate on reforming Islam."

Islamic Extremists Call for Lesbian’s Death (Video)
Paul Canning, Care2, December 13, 2011

Turkey launches massive legal campaign to retrieve a child who was taken from abusive Muslim parents and placed with a loving lesbian couple. Claims "4000" Turkish children placed with gay or Christian Europeans

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ has said that Turkey has launched a massive campaign and is mobilizing its diplomatic efforts to retrieve Turkish children put in the foster care system of a number of European countries, primarily because the foster families do not share Turkish families' sensitivity and values.

Speaking to reporters at the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) headquarters on Monday, Bozdağ said Turkey will tackle the issue of Turkish children who have been put in the European foster care system.

In response to a question over a child named Yunus, who was given to a lesbian couple in the Netherlands, Bozdağ said Turkey has launched a campaign to retrieve the child. “Officials [in the Netherlands] dismissed the demands of the [boy’s] Turkish family. We have mobilized all our efforts to provide legal assistance to the family to take back their child, and if that’s not possible, then to push for having the child placed with foster parents the Turkish family approves of," he noted.

Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission head Ayhan Sefer Üstün recently claimed that three children of Turkish origin in Belgium were placed with gay couples by child welfare officers.

The debate over the state of Turkish children in Europe came to the forefront late last month when Deputy Prime Minister Bozdağ said some 4,000 Turkish children in Europe had been taken away from their families and given to Christian families.

Turkish children in Europe are being taken away from their families by child welfare offices over claims of abuse or financial problems, leading to the break-up of many families and the assimilation of children -- who grow up never learning about their culture and traditions and eventually lose contact with their families -- into European cultures.

"Turkish families do not want to give their children to gay and lesbian couples," Bozdoğ said, underlining that it is of critical importance that the children should be raised in a cultural environment similar to that of their families.

Bozdağ also said European officials do not respect the sensitivities and values held dear by Turkish families. Turkey is pursuing legal mechanisms to solve this problem, Bozdağ added, expressing his hope that positive developments will be seen with regard to Yunus' case.

Turkey working to bring Turkish children out of European foster care
Today's Zaman, February 18, 2013

---

• ← Back to Persecution of Homosexuals