But the most powerful political office in a Dutch city — as in most European cities — is the mayor. He does not gain his office by direct election, but is appointed by the local ruling party. In the case of Rotterdam it’s the PvdA (Socialists again), who have just announced that the next mayor of the city will be a Muslim.
The PvdA says the appointment of Ahmed Aboutaleb as mayor is part of a “tradition of anti-polarisation”, but those of a more dyspeptic disposition might consider it part of the creeping Islamization of the Netherlands.
According to NIS:
Muslim Aboutaleb to be Mayor of Rotterdam- - - - - - - - -
ROTTERDAM, 17/10/08 — Rotterdam is getting a Muslim as mayor. Social Affairs State Secretary Ahmed Aboutaleb will succeed Ivo Opstelten in the Netherlands’ second-largest city.
Aboutaleb is a member of Labour (PvdA). The PvdA-dominated local council of Rotterdam nominated him yesterday. Home Affairs Minister Guusje ter Horst has yet to appoint him but her approval is a mere formality.
Aboutaleb, like all Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands. has both Dutch and Moroccan nationality. He combines his Muslim faith with a political style that is typically Dutch: consensus and dialogue are paramount.
Some Muslims consider him too ‘white,’ some ‘whites’ find him too soft. In reality, Aboutaleb is in the Labour (PvdA) tradition of anti-polarisation.
Aboutaleb was born in Beni Sidel, Morocco on 29 August 1961. His father was an Imam. He came to the Netherlands aged 16.
[…]
Aboutaleb’s election is in two ways remarkable. Of course his Islamic faith makes the appointment unique. But also, a tradition has been broken of the established parties each claiming certain cities.
It is a public secret that the procedure of electing mayors, at least in the big cities, has been a closed circuit of agreements between the established parties. According to this logic, Gerd Leers should have emerged the winner. That is because he is a member of the Christian democrats (CDA) and the CDA was going to claim Rotterdam.
Rotterdam had to go to the CDA, because The Hague went earlier to the VVD. In the third-largest city, Jozias van Aartsen (VVD) recently took over the chain of office from CDA Mayor Wim Deetman. Insiders were convinced that CDA and VVD had swapped Rotterdam and The Hague.
Amsterdam and Utrecht, the biggest and fourth city respectively, already belong to the PvdA. Now that party, struggling in the polls, will be holding the mayoral position in three of the ‘big four’ cities.
The choice for PvdA’s Aboutaleb might have been pushed by a poll conducted recently by Algemeen Dagblad. The newspaper reported Rotterdammers wanted State Secretary Nebahat Albayrak as their mayor. She was not a candidate, but like Aboutaleb, she is a Muslim, a faith that many Rotterdammers share with her.
So it was the CDA’s turn to get Rotterdam, but the Muslims are so numerous in the city that their opinion outweighed an age-old corrupt political tradition.
Actually, I’ve changed my mind: “creeping” is not the right word to use in conjunction with the Islamization of the Netherlands. The process is up to a brisk walk now, and “galloping” will become the preferred descriptive before this decade is through.
Hat tip: TB.
12 comments:
Let's face it, Rotterdam is on its way to becoming a Muslim city like many other cities in Europe and the UK. As this process accelerates the exodus of non-Muslims from Europe and the UK will also accelerate. The question is: where can you migrate to in the West and get away from Muslims?
As Geert Wilders stated in his recent interview with Robert Spencer at JihadWatch.org:
". . .when I talk about the Netherlands, our two biggest cities, major cities, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. If you look at the people under the age of eighteen, the younger people . . .already today, half of them is from non-Western origin. Mostly Muslim. This will be incredible."
Incredible indeed.
This is completely insane! the dutch are not doing suicide slowly anymore, but they are jumping directly in front of the train. in a few years I expect NL to have it's first muslim Minister President/Prime Minister.
Nederland is a scary country
Okay, can I just inject some nuance here: Aboutaleb *is* a muslim, nominally, but he is also fully committed to the mores and values of Dutch society.
As far as I know he was the *only* one, who, in the wake of the van Gogh murder, had the courage to say out loud that those who do not ascribe to the Dutch notions of freedom and society should pack their bags and move. Aboutaleb is viewed, by much of the Moroccan population in Holland as a 'traitor', because of this.
In the past Aboutaleb has shown no inclination to favoritism towards Dutch-Moroccans, or muslims (not that I'm aware of, anyways). He has shown himself to be a relatively effective functionary.
Personally I am not completely happy with him being made mayor of Rotterdam. But this has more to do with the manner in which he was appointed (which seems to be somewhat of a coup d'etat by the Rotterdam socialist party) then it has with him as a person.
As usual this is not about islam or muslims, it is about the fecklesness and arrogance of those who purport to be our leaders. There is a problem in the Netherlands. However, Aboutaleb is not it.
kleinverzet beat me to the punch. I find the whole scenario troubling for the same reasons.
That an apparent "modernist" Muslim got the top spot does not vindicate the multi-culti project in Holland in any way. No.
What it does means though, is that multiculturalism in Europe has just got a major shot in the arm, with Ahmed Aboutaleb being the new face of "Islam in Europe" that Tariq Ramadan and OIC Sec-Gen Ishanoglu have been pimping around Europe.
A front man or "poster boy" has been found for "project" to point to and rally itself around.
The next wave of "new faces of Islam" are being groomed for public office, what we are seeing is just the beginning of a bigger trend.
The fact that he has, besides his Dutch nationality, the Moroccan nationality and thus always has to stay loyal to the king of Morocco, makes him not suitable as a mayor in Holland.
I don't trust these muslims one bit. It's just taqyyia, nothing else. We got to fight for our countries because there will be nowhere to run in the end anyway. Better to stay and take the fight here, at least it is done on our own turf.
The rational position for us to adopt about Muslims is two-fold:
1) All Muslims are suspect -- i.e., all Muslims are to be considered dangerous.
2) The Muslims who seem benign and therefore who, through their seeming harmlessness, are capable of insinuating themselves more deeply into our institutions and social fabric, should be considered to be an even higher risk.
We need to resist the PC MC paradigm that tends to inculcate in the mind the reflex thought: "This Muslim seems good and moderate, therefore, he's harmless and should not be opposed".
It is disheartening to see so many in the anti-Islam movement succumb to that reflex thought in one way or another, and just goes to show how profoundly the tendrils of PC MC have wound their way into the hearts & minds of virtually everybody in the West.
The counter-paradigm to this "asymptotic position" I have articulated as the "holistic position" in my essay:
No asymptotic deed goes unpunished.
Hard link:
http://hesperado.blogspot.com/2008/10/no-asymptotic-deed-goes-unpunished.html
Well, a PvdA mayor certainly wouldn't be my first choiche. But by PvdA standards, Aboutaleb isn't a softie.
He can actually be quite harsh on his fellow muslims, wanting to stop welfare for women who wear the burqa.
He didn't make himself popular with his fellow muslims just after the murder of Van Gogh either,.. I think he is actually still under security because of threats from muslim extremists. Many see him as a traitor.
He is obviously no Wilders, but there are many native Dutch who would be much, much softer on Moroccan 'youths' than I expect Aboutaleb to be.
It doesn't matter whether this guy is a "moderate" Muslim or whether or not he is "harsh" on his fellow non-"moderate" Muslims. Know this: he will always, always choose his people over yours. This is the nature of mankind, since time immemorial. Distrinct peoples will always choose their own kind over other distinct peoples.
As Kleinverzet stated, the fact that he is of foreign origin is secondary. The real problem is that he is a Socialist.
Lisbon too has as major an half Indian man. Of course this is not as bad as a muslim, but is comparable.
What I don't like in the man is not the fact that he is half Indian but the fact that he is a Socialist (and a very influent one). I will not enumerate the plicies he has supported that range from the erradication of maternities and Hospitals in the interior (where 20 to 30 of the population live) to the mass immigration and bad mood against the police, not to mention that he actively helped to create a state of affairs in which you cannot deal 911 (112) in one third of the National territory and of course... abortions. I will not mention the tenths of other policies he supported.
I will only say that, like Obama, he can never be a good folk just taking into acount his geneology:
Mother - East Indian, that is, foreigner. The sense of National belonging or Nationalism to him is unkown. A true citizen of the world;
Father - A Communist. No comments. A very influent one.
Grandfather - A Free Mason. More, one of the masons who participated in the murdering of the King D. Carlos and is older son, the prince which would lead to the implementation of the Republic in 1910.
The fact that he's of foreign origin is no match to his caracther, which cannot be built, due to his geneology, that is, to his "bad blood".
I am not quite sure about Aboutaleb. If you understand Dutch, take a look at this fragment at the time Pim Fortuyn was gaining popularity:
http://www.hetvrijewoord.com/?p=286
He blatantly states he is an Islamist. He indirectly compares Fortuyn to Hitler by linking him to Auschwitz. Fortuyn said the things Wilders is saying now and because of it was called a racist, and unworthy as a human being.
Because of both the host and someone claiming to speak for a large group of Muslims the whole fragment will be an excellent piece for the documentary "How Holland succumbed to Islam". To be viewed online in 50 years in the few free countries left in the world.
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