Belgium/Netherlands/Germany: Cell arrested for planning attack in Belgium

Belgium/Netherlands/Germany: Cell arrested for planning attack in Belgium


Via AFP:

Police on Tuesday detained 10 Islamists in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany suspected of plotting an attack in Belgium, the prosecutor's office said.

The arrests were part of "an inquiry into international jihadist terror," a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office told AFP.

"In total 10 people suspected of preparing an attack in Belgium were arrested in Belgium, Holland and Germany," he said.

The suspects are from Belgium, the Netherlands, Morocco and Chechnya, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. The group used the extremist website Ansar Al Mujahideen.

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AP reports the arrests follow arrests in Spain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Dutch authorities detained three people in Amsterdam. Austria was also involved in these arrests. Germany arrested one person near Aachen.

Seven people were arrested (NL) in Antwerp. Most of them were members of the Caucasus Emirate. Three of the suspect were also members of Sharia4 Belgium. The suspects planned an attack in Belgium through the internet. The plans did not yet reach an advanced stage and they did not yet set a target.

Update: Various news services are reporting different numbers. There are around 10 suspects. Most of them were arrested in Antwerp and are Belgian-Moroccans.

Netherlands: Gov't wants stricter sentences for forced marriage

Netherlands: Gov't wants stricter sentences for forced marriage

Via RNW:

The government wants to introduce stricter sentences for people who force people to marry a person against their will.

Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten wants to raise the maximum sentence from nine months to two years. People usually enter into a forced marriage as the result of strong psychological pressure or under threat of violence.

(more)

Netherlands: Somalis want ban on qat

Netherlands: Somalis want ban on qat

The Somali community in the Schalkwijk neighborhood of Haarlem wants a ban on qat. A concerned Somali says that more than 75% of Somalis in the Netherlands are addicted to qat.


Somali Hamza Dirije raised the topic with the PvdA party and the Haarlems Dagblad. An average qat user uses around 200 euro every month for the psychedelic drug, reports the paper. Dirije says that a user can't eat, drink or sleep through the night. He gets angry when his wife wakes him and doesn't get out of bed for work.

The Netherlands and the UK are the only European countries where qat is legal. Dirije says that the drug will be banned in the UK this year. It disrupts families, but is especially bad for your health. He says he visited his Somali neighbor three times last month, who was suffering from gastric hemorrhages due to chewing qat.

Uithoorn is the Dutch qat-capital. Somalis from all over Europe come to a distribution center in the city in order to buy the drug. Two Dutch run the distribution and control the European qat market. One of the distributors says that a truck comes with the merchandise five times a week.

The qat comes from Kenya and Ethiopia and is flown to the Netherlands on KLM. Some goes directly abroad, according to the distributor. That's illegal, says PvdA councilor Moussa Aynan. A crate of qat can give 900 euro profit, says a Somali trader. It's good business, but dangerous.

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

Netherlands: 100,000 animals slaughtered for Eid ul-Adha

Netherlands: 100,000 animals slaughtered for Eid ul-Adha

Around 95,000 sheep and about 4,000 cows were slaughtered this year in the Netherlands (NL) in honor of Eid ul-Adha. In general the rules for slaughtering and transporting the animals were observed, reports the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority.

Slaughterhouses had a veterinarian present during the Muslim holiday, to check for any violations of the law. In some slaughterhouses, people who nicked the neck before slaughter were sent away since they didn't seem to be skilled enough.

In some cattle slaughterhouses there were problems with the timing mechanism which ensures that the animals were fully dead. Those animals had been stunned. In some cases the animals weren't transported by the rules and the drivers were fined.

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The Alderman for Diversity in Antwerp (Belgium), Monica De Coninck, reported that fewer sheep were slaughtered (NL) in the city this year. Muslims in the city could slaughter their sheep in three slaughterhouses, one which was set up for the occasion. Altogether, 3,670 were slaughtered, 334 fewer than last year. Abdellatif Akhandaf of the municipality says that it's possible that people slaughtered their sheep elsewhere, and that there are now more alternatives for slaughtering one's sheep. One such alternative is a gift. The city encourages this option in its contacts with the Muslim community.

Ghent also offered a regular slaughterhouse (150 sheep slaughtered) or a "do-it-yourself" area (1200 sheep slaughtered). Slightly more sheep were slaughtered in the city this year.

In Brussels, Perrine Marchal of the municipality, reports they see an increasing demand every year. Four years ago 300 sheep were slaughtered and this year there were 548. They think that it's because people don't slaughter at home as much.