The name Mohammed Bouyeri is not familiar to most Americans, but is well-known in the Netherlands. Mr. Bouyeri is the Islamic terrorist who ritually slaughtered Theo van Gogh on the streets of Amsterdam back in 2004, and is now serving a life sentence for the crime. Along with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Theo van Gogh had produced a movie about the plight of women under Islam, and the murderer was thus executing the punishment for blasphemy and slander against the prophet, as required by sharia law.
Now an Al Qaeda website is in effect calling for the taking of Dutch hostages so that they can be exchanged for Mr. Bouyeri. Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated an article from De Telegraaf about the latest warnings:
Al-Qaeda wants the murderer of Theo van Gogh
by Bart Olmer
Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of Theo van Gogh, must be exchanged with western hostages. Jihadists have made that call to al-Qaeda in North Africa.
This is stated in the document “Terrorist Threat Assessment Netherlands”, which was presented yesterday to Dutch Parliament by the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism (NCTb) Erik Akerboom.
“In North Africa outside Algeria, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) tries to strengthen its position and influence in the entire region,” the NCTb writes. “AQIM is particularly active outside Algeria in Mauritania, Mali, and Niger. Kidnappings of Westerners seems, besides committing attacks, to be increasingly the default modus operandi of AQIM. It is striking in this context that a call on a jihadist website to AQIM for an exchange of hostages for Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of Theo van Gogh who is detained in the Vught prison in the Netherlands. The call does not directly result in a heightened threat of kidnappings of Dutch in particular, but the release could be used as a demand once Dutch citizens have been kidnapped.
A remarkably different point in the report is that Afghanistan is in a stalemate, says the NCTb: “Afghanistan looks increasingly to be in a stalemate: the Afghan Taliban can not be defeated, but they are also unable to conquer the entire country.”
“International [Islamic] terrorist groups still consider the Netherlands a hostile country and thus a legitimate and attractive target”, especially due to the expressions by PVV-leader Geert Wilders and the now ended Dutch military mission in Uruzgan, according to the latest threat assessment.
According to the analysis, there has in recent months not been any concrete evidence of planned attacks against the Netherlands. The domestic jihadist networks seem to pose little threat. Therefore, the threat level for the Netherlands remains ‘limited’.
However, in recent months some Dutch Muslims have come into the focus of the intelligence services due to their desire to participate in armed struggle abroad. According the NCTb this involves a very limited number of people. Two new Dutch radical jihadist websites seem mostly focused on foreign battlefields.
According to the NCTb there are few incidents involving violent radicalization in the Netherlands. “But a breeding ground remains, particularly within the Somali community. That development is worrying, also because of the attraction the jihad in Somalia has on a limited number of youngsters in western countries, including the Netherlands.” In recent months a number of such jihadists have been declared undesirable aliens.
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