Hating for the Sake of Allah

Many thanks to our Flemish correspondent VH and the tireless Vlad Tepes for their collaboration on this news report from Dutch television.

VH includes this introduction:

For a whole year, the Dutch journalist Patrick Pouw took the course “Basic Islamology” at the “Institute for Upbringing and Education”. The teacher was the controversial Muslim Suhayb Salam of the city of Tilburg in the Netherlands, the son of the imam who once refused to shake the hand of the Dutch Minister of Integration, and who used GSM jammers to sabotage undercover agents and prevent the Secret Service from eavesdropping at his mosque.

Journalist Patrick Pouw wrote the book “Salaam, a year among orthodox Muslims”, about his experience as an undercover student of Suhayb Salam.

Patrick Pouw was interviewed for this video:


VH adds this afterword:

One of the anti-Wilders researchers, Henk Moors, said of the Salafi teachings: “The threat of radicalism and radicalization does not originate in the range of ideas [Islam]. Therefore it is striking, as we repeatedly note, the image that has formed of the mosque in Tilburg and in particular of the person of Imam Ahmed Salam and his closest followers [like Suhayb Salam], in the media and in public AIVD reports, in which the relationship is made between the body of thought [again: Islam] and radicalism, and potential social and security risks.” He referred to the call for tough action against this Salafism, “a neo-nationalist, or rather populist reflex.”

A full transcript of the video is below the jump:
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“To hate for the sake of Allah”

A year among orthodox Muslims

00:03		00:07		“Suhayb had started the lesson in a strikingly enthusiastic manner, also a bit too solemn.”
00:07		00:10		“He said: ‘We today will talk about the enemies of Allah…’
00:10		00:14		‘A sensitive issue. So we have to open our ears and hearts very well.’
00:14		00:17		‘Listen carefully to my exact words..’
00:17		00:22		“And so we did, busy writing in our workbooks with our textbook on our desk…
00:22		00:26		…in which 10 pages were dedicated to this sensitive topic.”
00:26		00:31		We are now in the Shönberglaan in Utrecht, in front of the building where I had been a student for a year…
00:31		00:34		…at the institute for upbringing and education.
00:34		00:37		That is an Islamic course of study given by Suhayb Salam.
00:37		00:42		He is the son of the imam who once refused to shake the hand of Minister Verdonk.
00:42		00:49		This Suhayb Salam started a course of study to educate youth in Salafi teachings,
00:49		00:53		a strict orthodox version of Islam.
00:53		01:01		According to him it is not a variety of Islam, but the true, pure Islam, as has always been intended.
01:01		01:07		And in this building for one year together with some 15 to 20 boys…
01:07		01:11		…and a unknown number of girls, I followed the lessons.
01:11		01:14
01:14		01:20		Well, this is the door I never was allowed to use, which is the entrance for women,
01:20		01:24		They have their own door, the men must enter there and the women here.
01:24		01:25
01:25		01:30		At the first lesson I almost made the mistake of going in here, and was immediately corrected.
01:30		01:30
01:32		01:39		This is to keep the gates closed to debauchery, which is why men and women have separate doors.
01:39		01:40
01:40		01:44		“We were told that Allah had declared war on the enemies of the Muslims”
01:44		01:47		“We were taught that all infidels are enemies of Allah…
01:47		01:50		…that anyone who does not adhere to Islam is an enemy of Allah.”
01:50		01:55		“We learned that sincere love for Allah means that we must hate his enemies…
01:55		01:57		…and view them as our enemies.”
01:57		02:00		“ That was no less than an obligation.”
02:00		02:03		—Why did you write this report?
02:03		02:07		I was quite fascinated by the question of why young boys in the Netherlands today…
02:07		02:12		…choose to live like a prophet from 1400 years ago.
02:12		02:15		This is really a sincere fascination.
02:15		02:22		I was also as journalist curious about exactly what they are taught there in such a classroom…
02:22		02:26		… and who teaches this to them, and what is the purpose of all the knowledge they learn about Islam.
02:26		02:27
02:27		02:32		“At the end of the first long lesson about hate, we only got one question for homework.”
02:32		02:35		“It was thus also a very important question, Suhayb said.”
02:35		02:39		“We had to explain what it meant, hating for the sake of Allah.”
02:39		02:44		“At home at my desk, I tried to reproduce Suhayb’s elucidation as closely as possible.”
02:44		02:50		“Making frequent use of the solemn, sometimes archaic words he liked to use so much in the lessons.”
02:50		02:54		“When I got my paper back a week later, a VG adorned it.”
02:54		02:59		“A ‘very good’: I had listened carefully; I had understood what it meant…”
02:59		03:02		“…to hate for the sake of Allah.”
03:02		03:08		The aim of the study was to train youngsters to become preachers of the true and only faith.
03:08		03:13		To this end they, well, they are all trained and prepared.
03:13		03:15		The meaning is that first they, in their own environment…
03:15		03:19		…the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters…
03:19		03:22		…spread and teach these ideas…
03:22		03:25		…and also tell them how they have to adapt their lives…
03:25		03:29		…and it also is intended for this to happen everywhere else…
03:29		03:33		… In the supermarkets, in schools, in mosques.
03:33		03:38		Suhayb called it his ideal to produce one large tribe of upbringing and education…
03:38		03:49		…by which the rest of Dutch Muslims could be re-educated.