A parliamentary majority has asked Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten to ban the controversial Islamic scholar Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad from entering the Netherlands.
The sheikh had been invited to take part in a debate with Amsterdam students on Friday, but the VU University has cancelled the invitation.
MPs say the British-Palestinian sheikh Haitham Al-Haddad is known for anti-Semitic statements such as “Jews are the enemies of God” and “Jews are descended from apes and pigs.” The sheikh, a member of the Islamic Sharia Council in London, says he never made these statements.
In a telephone interview with Radio Netherlands Worldwide, he said that statements he made in 2002 regarding the Palestine-Israeli conflict were taken out of context and posted on the internet. He did admit to saying Hamas should rule the Palestinian Territories.
Academic debate
Sheikh Haitham was invited by the Islamic Students Association of Amsterdam. He had been invited to take part in a debate with Professor Yasser Ellethy of the Centre for Islamic Theology of the VU University Amsterdam. As a result of the commotion, VU decided to cancel its invitation.
A spokesperson said that “he has become the subject of debate to such an extent that an academic debate is no longer possible”. Earlier, VU still argued that the student association had fulfilled all conditions for a balanced debate and that Sheikh Haitham would have a “formidable opponent” in Yasser Ellethy.
Smear campaign
Mr al-Haddad claims to be the victim of a “smear campaign conducted by the British Zionist lobby”. He was unable to say whether there is such a thing as a Dutch Zionist lobby, but said “it does appear that way”. He is concerned about the political climate in the Netherlands. “Politicians like Geert Wilders are sowing hatred in society.”
Prior to the decision to cancel the debate, the controversial Sheikh said he expected Dutch MPs would not be “as simple-minded and cowardly as to ban me from coming to the Netherlands because of what somebody posted on the internet”.