solutions

from Peaktalk

RED LIGHTS UNDER THREAT

Nothing is sacred to the jihadists. Dutch police have arrested a man of Moroccan descent who was part of a group that was planning to attack Amsterdam’s world-famous red-light district:

Muslim extremists, the paper said, were allegedly furious at the lack of morals in the prostitution zone.

It depends on where your moral compass is, and I guess Christian fundamentalists would equally cheer such an attack. The red light area is probably one of the city’s safest neighborhoods as it is essentially run by the Amsterdam underworld who have a vested interest in protecting the unique franchise they enjoy. Jihadists however are different from competing gangs, drug addicts or unruly drunks and it is a good thing Dutch security services stepped in and arrested suspect Bilal L.:

L. was allegedly in contact with Syrian Redouan al-Issa, the fugitive leader of the terror network Hofstadgroep (Main City Group). The Syrian was an illegal immigrant in the Netherlands and gave Koran lessons in the home of Mohammed B., the suspected murderer of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. B. is also a member of the Main City Group.

The emails claimed the Syrian was involved in the plans to attack the Red Light District, while another target was the Dutch Parliament in The Hague. L. is alleged to have bought equipment needed to carry out the attack.

In earlier reports the Main City Group was alleged to be planning an attack on nuclear facilities. While the immediate outlook for Europe and its struggle with radical Islam is bleak, there are small victories here and there and this is one of them, saving one of Holland's treasured cultural icons and cash cows.

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CheebaMonkey

Like one reader mentioned, although I'm sure the fundamentalist Christians hate the Red Light District, I don't think they'd be in favor of a terrorist attack upon it.

Did any articles ever explain how they were going to attack it? Explosives, I'm guessing.

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MickityMike

Isn't this a pretty good example of the jihadists hating Western freedoms?

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I'd be delighted to live in a country where happily married gay couples had closets full of assault weapons. - Glenn Reynolds

solutions

I can't remember ever hearing about an act of violence by fundamentalist christians in the Netherlands (say last 20 years). It could be that mr. Peaktalk, blogging for an American audience, shares a common (mis)conception about the USA, as in: an overwhelming number of the people call themselve religious, there have been (some?) attacks in the USA against abortion clinics by people claiming The Bible as their justification, the people oppose gay marriage (and what other argument could there be beside being a religious fundamentalist) so there must be fundamentalist Christians in the US who wouldn't mind "God" destroying the city of Gomorrah.

Or something like that.

Anyway, I'm quite confident the overwhelming majority of muslims wouldn't want to see a terrorist attack in the Red Light district either. A recent intelligence report indicated that 5% of Dutch muslims (50,000) had radical beliefs, and of these fundi's hundreds to several thousand could be capable of terrorist activities.

When reports surfaced that Van Goghs killer and his friends were active on a Dutch-Moroccan discussion community I registered there and started posting and browsing the forum. There's some marvelous discussions going on there, and a few rats, from islamist extremist posting links to books that explain why those who insult the Prophet (disclaimer) should be killed to Holocaust denying anti-semite Nazi's to discussions about banning the Qu'ran like Mein Kampf, a "mistake" in the Qu'ran about the origins of sperm (23 pages and counting), and so on. The "anonymous emails" about the alledged plot were sent to the police by a member of that community and newspapers have been quoting a few posts, so pretty fascinating.

They didn't say how, just that this pizza guy was exploring the area for an attack, chances are they would have gone for explosives.

Yeah, though I'm hearing more and more people saying this is an example of Islam being uncompatible with Western values. It's probably the #1 issue being debated at the moment (what global warming? )

Stephanie S.

Alright. When they start messing with the live sex shows that's when I'll get my panties all in a wad. The red light district is but one of my favorite places in Amsterdam.

This gives me cause to wonder....how well are various countries communicating with each other about these types of things? Is there like, an international network where everyone can access a list of known terrorists and threats they may pose? It seems that the Netherlands has some pretty serious issues with Fundamentalist Islamic terrorists. Are they "battening down the hatches"?

peace

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vladimir

one time when i went to amsterdam, we (me and a couple of friends) had a room right by the red light district for a week, and besides being bothered by drug dealers everytime we walked down the street, one friend almost got mugged until my other friend decided to defend him.
so i guess nothing really bad happened to us, but i wouldnt call it the safest area ive ever been to.
also, sucks about what's been happening with the fundamentalists in the netherlands. i hope this doesnt lead to an end of the liberal society just because some idiots feel the need to blow themselves up to teach someone a lesson.

MickityMike

Heh, at least we know what your breaking point is, Steph. FWIW, I too am against Islamists blowing up prostitutes. (Hey, it's a free market, let's let that puppy work!)

Stephanie S.

How did I know...as I typed that post that you would say that?

peace

HappyMan

As horrible as it would be, look on the bright side. If terrorist blow up some Red Light district hookers they make enemies of the mob.....Jihad versus cement shoes........

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MickityMike

I've heard people say that Islam isn't compatible with Western values, but my take on that is that it's a total crock of ****. Extremist Islam, definitely. But just some guy who happens to be Muslim is supposed to be incapable of living in Western society? I think that's ridiculous, and more than slightly prejudiced. (Sure, the West is much more hedonistic in nature than a goodly portion of the Middle East, but as you've noted, around 5% of Dutch Muslims are pro-terrorist. I imagine that the figure is similar, if not smaller, in other Western nations.)

That's like saying that Christianity and Judaism are incompatible with Western culture - and so untrue.