Is the Netherlands Subsidizing the Ground Zero Mosque?

Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated an article from today’s De Telegraaf about the Dutch government’s indirect role in financing the proposed mosque at Ground Zero. Geert Wilders and the PVV have been instrumental in exposing this sordid little arrangement:

“Netherlands subsidizes Ground Zero mosque”

The Party for Freedom has filed parliamentary questions in response to an article on the Dutch website “text2|Dagelijkse Standaard}”in which it is reported^[1] that the Netherlands co-finances the construction of a mosque a stone’s throw from Ground Zero in New York City with a million U.S. dollars of Dutch taxpayers’ money.

The website of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that a subsidy of $ 1,000,000 was awarded to the organization American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA). That organization is, in cooperation with the Islamic organization Cordoba Initiative, responsible for the hundred million U.S. dollar cost of the Islamic Center Mosque, which will be built near Ground Zero.

The PVV demands clarification^[2] and calls the already-approved plans for the building of a mosque right next to Ground Zero absurd and an insult to the thousands of relatives of the victims who fell on September 11, 2001.

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The party wants the subsidy to ASMA to be immediately withdrawn.

Notes:

[1]		The scandal was first made public by the Dutch section of International Civil Liberties Alliance in May this year: “A mosque too far”. According to the article, it is not “only” the mentioned $1,000,000 that has been funded by the Dutch Minister of Development Aid, Bert Koenders (PvdA, Labour Party, Socialists). His “Millennium Development Goals Fund” (MDG3) also transferred half a million dollars directly to ASMA, only days before Feisal Abdul Rauf closed the purchase of the building (June 20, 2009).
[2]		PVV: No Dutch aid to an organization that wants to build a mosque on Ground Zero Questions of the members Wilders and Fritsma (both PVV) to the Minister for WWI and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands about the co-funding of a mosque on Ground Zero. 1.   Is it true that Dutch taxpayers’ money is used for the support of ASMA, the organization of Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, who wants to build a mosque on Ground Zero?* If yes, 2.   Do you acknowledge that it is absurd to build a mosque right at Ground Zero and that this is also an insult to (the families of) the victims of 9-11? If not, why not? If so, 3.   Are you, given the offensive plan to build said mosque, willing to immediately withdraw the subsidy to ASMA? If not, why not? * American Society for Muslim Advancement, Minbuza.nl.