Zacht Ei - Arrested men belong to 'Hofstad Group'

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Arrested men belong to 'Hofstad Group'

The seven men which were arrested yesterday in The Hague, Amersfoort and Amsterdam, are part of the so-called Hofstad Group (Hofstadgroep in Dutch). 'De Hofstad' is a colloquiall Dutch name for The Hague, where two of the men were arrested. I wonder whether this is an informal name used by authorities, or the name the group has given itself. Either way, Mohammed B. was in regular contact with one of the people from this group, Samir A., who as this blog has previously reported, was already arrested some time ago on suspicion of preparing terrorist attacks. There is very little known about de Hofstad Group, but of course, I'll post it if more information becomes available.

Update 16.14: Three members of the Hofstad Group travelled to the European soccer championships in Portugal, De Telegraaf reports. The Dutch intelligence agency AIVD tipped off the Portuguese, who arrested them.

13:19

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Van Gogh song

Chairman of political party threatens his own people

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More here of interest:

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/005861.php

John (ip:217.158.145.68) 11 November 2004 - 13:44 uur

Even more at http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/005877.php, including a pointer to BBC coverage in English: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3998347.stm

Engineer-Poet (ip:148.59.80.126) 11 November 2004 - 15:03 uur

From the-shoe-is-on-the-other-foot department:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/europe_netherlands_mourns_van_gogh/html/10.stm is part of the photoessay accompanying the BBC piece I linked to above. Money quote:

"I was born here but I'm Turkish and a Muslim. I hear 'Muslims this' and 'Muslims that' and I fall under that - I don’t feel so safe any more even when I'm in a mosque."

Engineer-Poet (ip:148.59.80.126) 11 November 2004 - 15:17 uur

Interestingly, Turks are, or are at least perceived as being, far less inclined toward extremist Islam than other Muslims in the Netherlands, especially Moroccans. Whenever Muslim criminals or terrorists are mentioned, by individuals or on TV, they're almost invariably identified as Moroccans. Likewise, "kut Marokkanen" ("Moroccan c*nts") is a common epithet, but I rarely hear the same level of invective directed at Turks.

I've often wondered what relations are like between the two groups. We may be about to find out.

vaara (ip:195.86.124.243) 11 November 2004 - 15:40 uur

Vaara, interestingly this is something that occured to me also. Maybe this is because the turkish state is more secular than many European countries. Unlike in Turkey where the Burqua and Islamic symbols are prohibited in a good part of public life (before government etc.) it's getting commonplace in European countries all over...

best rgrds
MAXX (from Austria)

MAXX (from Austria) (ip:80.108.31.227) 11 November 2004 - 17:43 uur

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Arrested men belong to 'Hofstad Group'

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