January 10, 2014 Amsterdam’s city council plans to spend 400,000Euros encouraging ethnic minorities to vote in the upcoming local elections. Turnout in local elections is usually 50% and the city council wants to see an increase to 65%. To do this the city is planning a ‘specific approach to target specific groups’, says mayor van der Laan. Some…
January 15, 2014 Two individuals have been arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of helping a 15 year old girl travel to Syria. Friends of the girl contacted the police, who stopped the girl before she boarded a plane. The investigation into the girl’s plans led to the couple – a 20 year old man and 17…
January 9, 2014 A Belgian appeal court has found three men from Amsterdam, of Moroccan origin, guilty of membership in a terrorist organization. They were said to have collected money and recruited fighters for Chechnya, though charges of conspiring to launch a terrorist attack in Belgium were dropped. The men deny any involvement in…
December 20, 2013 Dutch politician Geert Wilders has recently generated public controversy after posting a sticker on the door of his parliamentary office resembling a Saudi Arabian flag and reading “Islam is a lie, Mohammed is a criminal, the Koran is poison.” The government condemned the sticker, with deputy prime minister Lodewijk Asscher calling…
December 11, 2013 A Dutch couple kidnapped in Yemen in June have been released, according to the foreign affairs ministry. Journalist Judith Spiegel and Boudewijn Berendsen were taken from their house in Sana’a. The couple returned to the Netherlands on Wednesday. Spiegel denied speculation that the captors were affiliated with Al Qaeda, saying “…I…
