By EMERSON VERMAAT
October 12, 2009 – San Francisco, CA – PipeLineNews.org – The number of so-called Muslim “import brides” is rapidly increasing in the Netherlands. There are now over 15,000 of them. Most of these young women are poorly educated teen-age girls from Turkey, Morocco or Somalia. They are forced by their parents to marry usually older relatives or Moroccan, Turkish or Somali immigrants in Holland. Eberhard van der Laan, the Dutch government Minister of Housing, Communities and Integration, now says things are getting out of control. “We can’t cope with it anymore.” The rapid influx of these import brides “leads to crime, fraud, domestic violence, polygamy and slavery,” he says. In other words, it is a trend which contributes to the destabilization of society.
In a belated attempt to stop the influx import brides, the Dutch government recently announced a number of restrictive measures. It is no longer permitted in Holland to marry a woman who is not yet 18 years old. These marriages are often concluded in Morocco or Turkey. Moreover, male immigrants who want to marry a young woman from their home country must not have any crime record, nor are marriages between cousins or between uncles and nieces – very common in Turkey – allowed anymore.
Eberhard van der Laan belongs to the leftist Dutch Labor Party (PvdA). It is this party that is largely responsible for failed immigration policies of the last three years. The previous center-right coalition government of Christian-Democrats (CDA) and the conservative liberal Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) which ruled between 2003 and 2007, took a tough stance on immigration and successfully curbed blatant abuses. The number of import brides went down, so did the number of asylum-seekers. The introduction of the following requirements then showed immediate results: an immigrant who wants to marry a young woman from his home county must have sufficient income to support her (120 percent of the minimum wage), and import brides under the age of 21 are no longer allowed into the country. These rules were relaxed, however, after the new center-leftist coalition government of Christian-Democrats and the Dutch Labor Party was formed in February 2007. Deputy Justice Minister Nebahat Albayrak (a second-generation Turkish immigrant and a member of the Labor Party) immediately pardoned some 27,000 asylum-seekers who came before 2001 but whose applications had been rejected repeatedly by Dutch courts. This proved to be another fatal mistake. As a result of the relaxation of immigration rules, the number of new asylum applications increased dramatically and is now even stretching the Dutch budget as a whole. It is, for example, no longer possible to pay the basic state pension for people aged 65 and over – the so-called AOW – when you become 65 years old. The age for receiving this pension will now gradually be increased from 65 to 67.
The case of Fayza Oum’Hamed
Until she was sixteen years old, Fayza Oum’Hamed lived happily in a village near the city of Nador in Northern Morocco. Her parents were neither rich nor poor. At home, she often watched Algerian TV news reports and was shocked by the brutal murders committed by Islamist terrorists. They killed the Algerian television journalist Ismail whom she deeply admired. This courageous journalist had severely criticized the Islamist terrorists, saying that “real jihad” means: Do not bow to the terrorists. There were millions of viewers. Fayza was just one of them and now she wanted to become a journalist herself. She spoke French and Arab, as well as, of course, her own Berber language.
Then came the fateful day that two bearded Moroccan men and a Moroccan woman from Holland arrived in her village. They were Haj Azzelarab, his wife and their son Bilal. Both men did not have jobs in Holland but were dependent on welfare, yet Bilal and his brothers made a lot of money in the black market and other illegal activities. (Cheating the Dutch welfare system by Moroccan immigrants is not exceptional in Holland and this has been going on for years now.) In Fayza’s village near Nador Haj Azzelarab and his son Bilal made the impression of being very rich. They also claimed to be strict Muslims and “faithful people.” It was not difficult for them to convince Fayza’s father to give his daughter away in marriage although she was not yet 16 years old. Bilal was to be Fayza’s future husband. No one asked Fayza if she wanted to marry that stranger from Holland. She was supposed to respect the honor of her family, obey her father and marry Bilal. But Fayza did not want to. She was then forced to marry Bilal against her will. After a few Moroccan officials had been bribed – Fayza was still too young – the marriage was concluded immediately.
For Fayza the wedding night was a nightmare. Bilal was a brute who took away her virginity by behaving as if he raped her. When he did not succeed the first time because Fayza naturally was too tense, a black magician was consulted. Just like many sub-Saharan Africans, a lot of Moroccans believe in black magic and witchcraft. The black magician told Bilal: “There are evil spirits at work here – ‘sihr’.” Angry Bilal then went back to the bedroom and brutally tried to force himself into her once again. Now he was successful. Fayza’s mother-in-law proudy showed a small piece of cloth tainted with Fayza’s blood to other family members. “They looked like vampires,” Faysa wrote more than eight years later.
Bilal and his father promised that they would return the following year and that there would be a Dutch residence permit for Fayza. They did return but without the promised Dutch residence permit. So they somehow smuggled Fayza illegally into Holland. Bilal did have his own apartment in Amsterdam but he allowed two illegal Moroccan immigrants – friends of his – to live there. This, too, was totally against the law, of course. So he actually lived with his father and mother in Amsterdam East and Fayza had to join him there. Bilal’s father was a brute, too. He frequently intimidated and beat his daughter-in-law. Imitating his father, Bilal used to beat Fayza, too. She was not allowed to go out but had to stay indoors all day. Even talking to the neighbors was out of the question. Writing letters to family members in Morocco? No way.
On top of that, young Fayza was forced to wear the Islamic veil and adhere to the strict Islamic dress code, even when it was hot at home. She detested this and began to hate hypocritical fundamentalist Muslims for whom lying is second nature. She once discovered that Mr. Azzalarab was secretly watching a porn movie – naked women – on Dutch TV. When he noticed that she had seen him doing so, the dirty old man quickly switched channels.
Her marriage in Morocco, of course, was not valid under Dutch law. She had to wait till she was 18 years old, and then she was again forced to marry Bilal but now in accordance with Dutch law. She also obtained a Dutch passport.
Fayza quickly noticed that Bilal’s Moroccan family was anything but poor, although her husband and her father-in-law were both receiving welfare money from the Dutch government. Bilal was working illegally in the black market and one of Bilal’s brothers was serving a prison sentence. Gradually it dawned upon her that she was nothing but a domestic slave – in a free country known for the emancipation of women! It was only natural that she began to long for freedom. After she had given birth to a son and a daughter, she finally managed to escape. For eight years she had been been beaten and terrorized by her husband as well as her father-in-law. Her mother-in-law was completely subservient to this evil family “tradition” of dominant violent males at home. The first thing Fayza did after having left her husband was to put off the oppressive Muslim veil – to get rid of it. She could not understand why many Muslim women in Holland were (and increasingly still are) attached to this custom. She and her sisters never used to wear the veil in Morocco. But these unpleasant Moroccan fundamentalists in Holland forced her to adhere to the Islamic dress code. Meanwhile, her father-in-law, a so-called pious Muslim, was watching pornographic movies on TV. So did at least two of the 9/11 hijackers on the eve of 9/11. And not so few young Moroccan males in Holland, Belgium and France run prostitution networks.
There was a divorce and Fayza is now living freely and happily with her children. She still feels betrayed by her father who once gave her away to a brute like Bilal. Unfortunately, this is not exceptional in Morocco or Holland. There are many other “Faysas,” not just in Morocco but also in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Lyon, Marseilles, Madrid and Barcelona. That is why Fayza wrote a book describing in detail her ordeal – domestic violence, horror and slavery in Amsterdam, the capital of a free country. “I will kill you, you bitch, you whore!” Bilal told her more than once. He even claimed to have a pistol. He also used to beat his own (as well as Fayza’s) children who were terrified both of him and his father.
Fayza and her two children are now well integrated Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands. She went to college and found a good job. This is how it should have been from the very beginning. Fayza strongly criticizes oppressive Moroccan and Muslim “honor” traditions in her book “De Uitverkorene” (“The chosen one”). These traditions have been imported by immigrants from backward cultures. There are western liberals who claim we must even show understanding for these evil traditions. All too often honor crimes are nothing but plain murder. In Holland, a Pakistani woman named Hameeda Lakho wrote several books about child beating. She had been beaten numerous times by her violent and aggressive father, a Pakistani immigrant in the Netherlands. The same man was also beating his own wife, and then sent her back to Pakistan. Hameeda, too, criticizes Pakistani traditions of “honor” – which invariably imply that aggressive males are given free reign to terrorize their defenseless female victims – wives, daughters, even babies.
Import brides and domestic violence: also a huge problem in England
“Import brides” and domestic violence are not just a huge problem in the Netherlands but also in Belgium, Germany, Britain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the United States, Canada and Australia. British journalist Sue Lloyd Roberts has been investigating this issue since the late 1990s. Several of her BBC TV reports were edited by me and aired on Dutch television as well. She focussed on Pakistan and found out that quite a number of young British girls of Pakistani origin are forced by their parents to marry a cousin in Pakistan. These cousins then usually apply to enter the United Kingdom. Similarly, British males of Pakistani origin travel to Pakistan to marry a young woman from a village and then take her to Britain. These often backward Pakistani women do not speak English, nor do they know anything about western society and their rights there. Once in Britain, their husbands often beat them, forcing them to wear the Islamic veal or the black “Niqab” while allowing themselves all kinds of sexual liberties such as watching pornographic movies. (As one of the victims said.) Sue Lloyd Roberts describes the case of Kaheema, a young westernized Pakistani woman in Britain. She was taken to Pakistan by her parents “to attend a cousins wedding” only to find that the wedding being prepared by her extended family was in fact her own. She tried refusing the cousin chosen for her but was physically beaten into submission. She tried to escape. “What would happen if your parents know you were trying to escape,” Sue Lloyd Roberts asked her. “They would kill me,” she replied.
What is at stake here is the above mentioned “family honor.” Honor crimes are quite common among immigrants from the Middle East, Turkey, North Africa, Pakistan or Bangladesh. The London Times reported in October 2004 “that women brought from abroad, notably from Bangladesh to marry a British Muslim have been victims of honor killings by their families after being sent home, when the relationship has failed.”
Another issue in Britain is polygamy. The London Times reported “that up to 4000 British Muslim men have entered into polygamous marriages, some of them keeping as many as five wives.” According Dr. Daniel Pipes, an American expert on Islam, “a Scottish judge recently bent the law to benefit a polygamous household.” There are now 15,000-20,000 harems in Italy, 30,000 harems in France and 50,000 to 100,000 polygamists in the United States and social acceptance is growing. “Islamists argue polygamy’s virtues and call for official recognition,” Pipes observed in November 2008.
Domestic violence and polygamy: an adverse effect on children
Domestic violence and polygamy are bound to have an adverse effect on children. Anthony Storr, a British psychiatrist who studied “human destructiveness,” makes the following interesting observation: “One factor in the production of aggressive psychopaths is the absence of loving care from parents in early childhood.” If “paranoia” comes into play as well, the end result may be very disastrous indeed. Today’s children might then be tomorrow’s murderers and terrorists. By far most terrorists and murderers are males. “Male sexuality and aggression are intimately linked,” says Storr. It is by no means coincidental, therefore, that societies where “honor” and “male dominated family relationships” are the rule rather than the exception often produce Islamist terrorists, suicide bombers, drug criminals and murderers of women and children. (See, for example, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Mexico.) Immigrants from these violent societies often take their cultural and religious baggage with them. Unfortunately, only a minority of them are able and willing to “westernize.”
It is not very helpful either that the number of non-western immigrants in some western cities now partly exceeds the number of original (native) inhabitants. It is not just Muslim cultures that should be addressed here. The violent macho culture of Latin American societies (Mexico, Colombia, etc.) has already infected whole neighborhoods in US and Canadian cities. Similarly, Amsterdam South-East is now virtually a no-go area where gun and knife crime, drug trafficking and other forms of crime abound. More than 90 percent of the inhabitants living in these neighborhoods are immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, the Dutch Antilles and Surinam, a former Dutch colony. One of them is a Nigerian man named Solomon Osaikhwuwuomwan. He is currently on trial for his alleged role in a Nigerian criminal gang involved in female trafficking and prostitution. (Just a few days ago, I was present at the trial when Josephine, a terrified victim of the gang, testified against Solomon and another Nigerian man.) Many of the violent and aggressive Antillean and Surinamese youths in Amsterdam South-East are growing up in single parent families. To a large extend, Antillean culture, too, is dominated by dissatisfied macho males and violent rap music. Indeed, the battle for western values is being waged right now, and there is no one who can tell us if we in the West are going to win it. This battle won’t be over very soon. It’s a battle for freedom, our freedom.
Two-thirds of MI5 annual budget goes to countering Islamist terrorism
Western societies are gradually being undermined by the unabated flow of immigrants from Muslim countries and sub-Saharan Africa – by migrant trafficking and the continued Islamist threat. A recent and authoritative study on the British Security Service MI5 written by Professor Christopher Andrew, a British historian, claims that two-thirds of Security Service resources are devoted to countering Islamist terrorism, “by far the greatest threat to national security.” Former MI5 Director-General Elizabeth Manningham-Buller said in December 2005: “We will continue to stop most terrorist attacks, but we will not stop all of them.”
The Security Service was quite lucky in September 2000 – just one year before the 9/11 attacks. “Thanks to its counter-proliferation operations the Security Service – without realizing it at the time – succeeded in disrupting an attempt by Al-Qaeda to develop biological weapons (BW),” Andrew now reveals for the first time. Professor Andrew, a known expert on intelligence, had exclusive access to MI5 files. He writes that Pakistani microbiologist Rauf Ahmad “attended a conference in Britain on pathogens, where he sought samples from other delegates as well as help in obtaining a bioreactor and cell counter.” MI5 was alerted to his activities and searched his lugguage. After 9/11, it transpired that Dr. Ahmad had been ordered by Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda’s number two, to procure equipment, cultures and training for BW production. (The first time I saw Ayman Al-Zawahiri’s name surface in a confidential document was back in 1996.)
Between 2000 and June 2007, the UK security authorities have investigated at least sixteen Islamist terrorist plots, many of which were directly or indirectly linked to Pakistan. Major terrorist plots have also been disrupted in France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, the United States, Canada and Australia. In virtually all of these cases those involved in the plots were Muslim extremists or radicalized converts to Islam. In their silly adoration of death and destruction, young Somali immigrants living in peaceful Minneapolis returned to Somalia to wage jihad. Some have blown themselves up in suicide attacks. Other aggressive and paranoid psychopaths may be planning suicide attacks on US territory – as a way of saying thanks to the very society that welcomed and sheltered them. Why, then, did they leave their home country in the first place? And should these so-called asylum-seekers or refugees be welcomed in ever larger numbers?
In Germany the Federal Crime Police Office (BKA) has to monitor at least 180 Muslim extremists who already received or plan to receive training in a terrorist training camp. About 85 of these Muslim extremists are still in Pakistan/Afghanistan, or somewhere else. There are more than 200 terrorist investigations. So far, German authorities have arrested only 15 Islamist terrorists. Once of them was Aleem Nasir. Last July, Nasir was convicted to eight years by a German court in Koblenz. He was trained by Al-Qaeda – an extremely dangerous fellow whose network extended all over Germany.
The problem of Islamist terrorism would be virtually nonexistent if there would not be large Muslim immigrant communities in Europe, North America and Australia. I am sure that most Muslim immigrants reject extremism and terrorism. Yet, polls showed that a striking number of them applauded the 9/11 attacks in America or showed a degree of understanding for these attacks. Indeed, only a minority of Muslims are really moderate, “liberal” or sufficiently westernized. Few dare to criticize their own religion or even the Koran itself, says Farish Noor. He is a moderate Muslim from Malaysia who now attacks his own government for planning to lash a woman for drinking a beer. Noor also criticizes Barack Obama’s understanding of the Koran: “It is not just love, love, love, it is not John Lennon who wrote the Koran.” “Quoting selectively from the Koran is ridiculous,” says Noor. He knows what he he talking about – much better than Obama at least.
Emerson Vermaat is a Dutch investigative reporter specialized in crime and terrorism. Website: emersonvermaat.com.
Sources:
De Telegraaf (Amsterdam), October 3, 2009, p. 1 (“Drempel voor importbruid weer omhoog”); de Volkskrant (Amsterdam), October 3, 2009, p. 3 (“Regels voor migratiehuwelijk worden verder aangescherpt”); NRC Handelsblad (Rotterdam), October 3, 2009, p. 3 (“Regels voor importbruid aangescherpt”); Dutch TV and radio news reports, October 2 and 3, 2009.
Fayza Oum’Hamed, De Uitverkorene. Een importbruid acht jaar lang opgesloten in Nederland (Amsterdam: Artemis & Co, 2009). Watching Algerian TV, see: p. 21; Father-in-law Azzelarab, a strict Muslim, watching a porn movie on Dutch TV, see: p. 66; on black magic, see: p. 58, 59, 98, 154; Bilal’s brother has a criminal record, see: p. 85; on “family honor”, see, for example: p. 54, 59, 96; on removing the Islamic veil, see: p. 128; on welfare money, black market money and big expensive cars, see: p. 51, 62, 85, 192; Bilal beating Fayza, saying “I’ll kill you, you dirty whore!”, see: p. 110-115, 117. The name “Fayza” means “the chosen one” (“uitverkorene” in Dutch).
Sociaal en Cultureel Rapport 2002 (The Hague: Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau, 2002), p. 312 (abuse of Dutch welfare system by Moroccan immigrants). According to a 2002 estimate, this was costing the Dutch taxpayer 750 million euros. It is also a tremendous problem in Belgium.
Gilles Kepel, The War for Muslim Minds. Islam and the West (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004), p. 107. “Two of Atta’s comrades, who watched a pay-perview porn film in their motel room on the night of September 10 – hardly an act of Muslim piety…”
Hameeda Lakho, Geheim Geweld. Een openhartig en persoonlijk boek over de gevolgen van kindermishandeling (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Arena, 2006), p. 31 (Father was beating my mother), p. 142 (Father tells his young daughter Hameeda: “I’ll kill you!”).
Sue Lloyd Roberts, On the run, in: The Independent, May 31, 2000.
Lewis Smith, Muslim men use law loophole to get a harem of “wives”, Timesonline, October 21, 2004.
Daniel Pipes, Westerners Welcome Harems, November 28, 2008 (Internet, pdf, http://www.unitedcopts.org).
Anthony Storr, Human Destructiveness (London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1972), p. 39 (“aggressive psychopaths”), p. 56 (“male sexuality”), p. 109 (“the paranoid attitude leads to murder”).
NRC Weekblad, October 3-9, 2009, p. 12-17 (“Groeten uit Holendrecht”); author’s file on West-African and Antillean crime networks in Amsterdam South-East; Dutch and Dutch Antillean (Curacao) police records.
Author’s notes during a session of the so-called “Koolvis” court case (eleven Nigerians in the Netherlands, suspected of female trafficking and running a prostitution network, currently on trial), Zwolle (Netherlands), October 7, 2009.
Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm. The Authorized History of MI5 (London: Allen Lane, 2009), p. 808, 809 (BW), p. 826, 827 (Two-thirds of Security Service resources), p. 851 (BW).
Home-grown Terrorism. What does it mean for Business?, p. 19 (London: Lloyds and IISS, 2008). Sixteen Islamist terrorist plots.
Der Spiegel, September 26, 2009, p. 22-26 (“Terrorismus: Langsame Eskalation”). On the BKA and the case of Aleem Nasir.
Interview Farish Noor (by Kustaw Bessems), Stop met die dialoog, het is zo zinloos, in: Dagblad De Pers, October 9, 2009, p. 8, 9. Mr. Bessems is a bright young Dutch journalist who has followed Islamist activities and websites since 2001.
©2009 Emerson Vermaat. All rights reserved.
Mission Europa Netzwerk Karl Martell 