8 July 2011 Family and friends of a 22 year old Turkish man found dead in his detention cell in the Netherlands are accusing police of brutality. Dutch officials claim the young man died of a heart attack. The man was arrested in Beverwijk after a fight with a bistro owner regarding use of…
10 July 2011 A doctoral student at Amsterdam’s Free University (VU) has investigated the attitude of European countries towards headscarves and concluded that ‘national ideas about religion and ethnicity play an important role’. Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports on Doutje Lettinga’s thesis and summarizes her findings that women wearing the headscarf are being ignored in the…
13 July 2011 A spokesperson for the Dutch Minister of Justice has clarified that in line with a 2008 ‘police lifestyle neutrality’ code of conduct, officers may not wear flashy accessories or religious symbols. In addition to signs of religious expression such as a cross on a chain, visible tattoos, Mohawk hairstyles and ostentatious…
14 July 2011 Radio Netherlands Worldwide carries a feature on upcoming elections in Egypt this fall, describing the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country as ‘the party to beat’. It follows the attendance of two party representatives at a workshop, given by the Dutch consultancy bureau BKB at the Dutch embassy, which…
16 July 2011 Following a description of Muslim women who wear burqa as ‘scum’ in an online clip, Dutch Parliamentary Aide Sam van Rooy of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) has been suspended. The footage has since been removed from YouTube, and a PVV spokeswoman noted that the clip “goes much to far”.
