Immigrant Moroccan Policeman Spied for Morocco
A Moroccan immigrant was caught spying for the Moroccan secret service in the Netherlands. The immigrants was a policeman.
The Dutch secret service found out about the immigrant’s spying activities after an anonymous source tipped them off.
An investigation was launched and it quickly found that the anonymous source was correct; the Moroccan-Dutch, for he had a Dutch passport as well as a Moroccan one, gave sensitive information to his bosses back in Morocco.
A diplomatic row has ensued. Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Verhagen told two leading Moroccan diplomats to leave. The ambassador, however, is allowed to stay – for now.
Verhagen informed Moroccan authorities that he will not accept such “harmful” practices.
The policeman was working in the region Rotterdam-Rijnmond. After investigators found him guilty he was dishonorable discharged or, a literal translation, ‘punish-fired.’
Rotterdam municipality member Fouad el Haji – also a Moroccan-Dutchman – said that this was certainly not the first or only time the Moroccan government tried to get Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands to work for it. Moroccan authories would try to pursuade immigrants to work for them through a variety of networks, he said.
One of the double-passport carrying Moroccan-Dutchman approached by the Moroccan secret service was Ali Lazrak, former member of Parliament. When asked about it by Dutch reporters Lazrak was not available for comment.
Dutch Parliament is concerned about the influence of the Moroccan government over immigrants. It will debate about the matter in an emergency debate next week. “Establishing relations with emigrants is fine, of course. But if the secret service” is establishing said relations “we can’t speak about freedom anymore,” Christian Democrat MP Madeleine van Toorenburg said.
PVV-leader Geert Wilders believes that sending two diplomats away isn’t enough. He also wants the Dutch government to tell the Moroccan ambassador to leave. He used the controversy to once again make his point that immigrants should not be allowed to have to passports; he wants them to choose.
The policeman himself, meanwhile, was dishonorably discharged and that seemed to be the end of it. Now, however, Dutch prosecutors have decided to go to court as well. The Dutch cabinet said yesterday that the suspect may lose his Dutch nationalisty.
Moroccan immigrants do not have a choice whether or not they want to lose their old passport. Moroccan laws make it impossible for one to lose the Moroccan identity. Even if such immigrants would want it, then, they would not be able to get rid of it.
Dutch politicians have long since talked about these immigrants; of all the immigrants in the Netherlands, Moroccans are the least well integrated, the most likely to commit crimes, and the most dismissive of Dutch values.
who is working to pay your taxes? not the immigrants? i can see that this issue gave you the possibility to show you racist point of view, deutch values, which values?
you found a good oportunity to misslead the reades about crime and minorities and integration, with all the economic probelms in holland you are looking to blame the immigrants, i can tell you that holland is a small kingdom and small country, Belgium is a small kingdom but a big country!
O fun. Uninformed individuals instantly accuse me of racism. Do some research on me. It should take you 2 minutes to figure out that your accusation is retarded.
As for the line you object so strongly to; they are facts. I’m not making anything up. Moroccans are on average the least integrated, the most conservative religious, the most dismissive of Dutch society, with almost 50% saying in the polls they consider Islam and democracy incompatible.
Jean Luis, Michael van der Galien is not a racist. You should read all of his articles before passing such a harsh opinion that is innappropriate and wrong.
My question is why the Moroccan government is even recruting immigrants to spy in the Netherlands in the first place? What are they up to and how many more spys have they recruited? Isn’t this sort of treason against the Netherlands from the immigrant that was caught? Shouldn’t that immigrant lose their Dutch nationality in this case?
To the editor,
I do not understand why you are calling them Moroccan immigrants while many of them have their Dutch nationality? Should not they be simply called "Dutch" or "Moroccan-Dutch"?
Further, given that I am not familiar with the topic of immigration in Holland, may you please give tell us what polls/research you based youself on in your conclusion that "all the immigrants in the Netherlands, Moroccans are the least well integrated, the most likely to commit crimes, and the most dismissive of Dutch values."
Thanks.
To the editor,I do not understand why you are calling them Moroccan immigrants while many of them have their Dutch nationality. Should not they be simply called "Dutch" or "Moroccan-Dutch"?
Further, given that I am not familiar with the topic of immigration in Holland, may you please give tell us what polls/research you based youself on in your conclusion that "of all the immigrants in the Netherlands, Moroccans are the least well integrated, the most likely to commit crimes, and the most dismissive of Dutch values."
Thanks.
The one nagging question I have is why EU citizens that do not speak one word in Dutch, or even English for that matter do not have to integrate but Non EU citizens must integrate, even those from Western countries? Does that make sense? Are you seeing big discrepancies here? I see a lot of people from Poland, and Bulgaria that have been living here for years and still cannot speak one word in Dutch. Some cannot even speak a word in English, and yet they are integrated according to Dutch law? Michael, you are a fair man, what is your say on this? I know a lot of Americans and Canadians who have left because they feel discriminated against because of the inburgering laws that keep changing. Even passing new laws on oldcomers? I think that is against international human rights by the way. Many immigrants are tired of the Non EU immigrant rheroic when in fact the United States and Canada have for many years welcomed many Europeans onto their lands and build families for generations. Peter Hoekstra one of millions of Dutch living on American soil is also a Dutch immigrant who is a republican politician in America and is well aware of this and is also starting to question this wet inburgering law. Ella Vogelaar has even made the inburgering test on culture so ridiculous and long, a financial burden and the fact that it also focusses on how Americans helped free Europe from Nazi Germany etc, so Americans and Canadians must re-learn their own history on Nato and world war 2? How is that integrating by insulting the intelligence of allies? And splitting up families if they fail an integration test because of long drawn out culture questions that not even a Dutch national can answer half the time?
Integration is a big issue and should be taken seriously by all European countries that have immigrants. On the other hand, when a country passes certain laws that applies for certain immigrants only (Turkish or otherwise Muslim), that will definitely be interpreted as racist while that may not be the intent. For instance in Germany new immigrants coming from Turkey must pass language tests according to some recently passed legislation. Immigrants of EU member states or North America are not subject to such language proficiency requirement, but they should be. As much as I approve Germany’s right to testing their immigrants and the required "culture and integration courses", when not applied uniformly across all immigrants it perpetuates the feeling that they are being racist and unfair to immigrants of certain backgrounds.
BUT there needs to be a solution because a big reason why immigrants are alienated is because they may not speak the native language. And they live in their compounds where they do not need to interact with any natives, etc. So yes integration is a big issue and it needs to be dealt with… And certain groups are less integrated into the society than others. And there are ultra racist native factions in these countries who target these immigrants. So their lives are difficult indeed.
BUT on top of all that, when you approve of stuff like Shariah Courts like Britain (and I heard of Denmark), you will perpetuate the alienation while appearing "less racist" when in fact the opposite is true. Because allowing Muslims to operate under some corrupt Shariah system in one’s very own country is THE most racist thing I can think of.
So I don’t think it’s racist at all to wish for immigrants to be integrated into society because then these people can move up the ladder and hope to lead better lives in their new society. So if the reality is that Moroccans are in general less integrated into Dutch society, this should be accepted and something should be done about it without appearing racist. For instance I know that while a lot of Turks in Germany are very integrated, some others are not. This is not an immigrant problem, it’s a "German" problem. Similarly, Moroccans not being integrated into Dutch society is a "Dutch" problem and not a "Moroccan" issue. So it’s important to show people that no one is pointing the finger to Moroccans or others for "failing" to integrate. On the contrary, I’m more likely to point the finger to European governments or their people for collectively alienating immigrants from their own society. But it appears like Moroccan government is taking a big role in this specific issue as well.
But what IS racist is ignoring these alienated factions of society and even giving them their own ropes (as in Shariah laws) to hang themselves with. As in, "I don’t give a damn. I’m going to have my own system of Jurisprudence for all my people but I won’t interfere with what "others" do even it it’s on my very own territory. In fact, I’ll let "them" police, prosecute, defend, or judge eachother, or if they are embezzling funds out of one another, I won’t interfere. "
Now what kind of a justice system would that be? It would be the kind where German police or courts looked the other way when faced with one of the biggest embezzlement scandals in their country named "Deniz Feneri". They could have ignored the issue and framed this as a "Turkish problem" or a "Muslim problem", but they didn’t. It’s a "German problem", and I have to command their determination in owning up to it and framing it as such.
So in summary, it’s not racist to point out that a group is having difficulty integrating. However it would be wrong to not own up to the host country’s own responsibility for alienating the group.
Selin, I agree all immigrants should learn the language of the host country that they choose to live in, however delibrately making a language test into more than just a language test, involving outragous questions that have nothing to do with integration, nor is it considered really Dutch Culture because most Dutch could not answer half the long drawn out questions that actually hinder learning the language by creating long difficult questions and obstacles for those wishing to learn the langauge. Learning ones culture comes after you learn the language and by living and experiencing the culture, not by ignorance and trick questions designed to make the immigrant fail. I also believe that if you pass such a law, that it should be for everyone, not only non-EU immigrants. Can you scientifically prove to me that a polish or Bulgarian can integrate quicker than an American or Turkish person? People are people, no matter what ethnic background they come from, or country. I am Dutch and I am also American, I have dual citizenship and for me I find the law very discrimitive. I grew up in the United states, and yet I knew the Dutch culture before coming here because my parents are Dutch. In the United States, there are 8 million decendents of Dutch people and 38 million German decendents. We also have Millions of Irish and English decendents. In canada, the same. Are you so closed minded to think that our ancestors did not pass their culture down to us? I am not saying we do not have faults in the USA or Canada, we do but we also do not treat one group of persons immigranting to the USA different from another group. For instance, The Arab immigrants in the United States are to us, American and are not forced to integrate in our country. In The USA people are on their own to learn the language and integrate. It is up to them if they choose to integrate or fail and live on the streets. We do not spoil or coddle people by giving them free welfare or social security benifits because they are too lazy to integrate. So it is sink or swim in that country and it is more successful treating all equal then it is by discriminating against one group of people and giving special rights to another group. By discriminating against one group of people and favoring another nationality only creates hatred and resentment towards your country and will have the opposite affect of integration. As Nato members, the Netherlands and the United States and also WTO members, there is a clause in the friendship treaty, perhaps you should read it more closely. Also the EU human rights laws along with international laws.
"I am not saying we do not have faults in the USA or Canada, we do but we also do not treat one group of persons immigranting to the USA different from another group."
Um, yes you do. Despite speaking flawless English, my education, training AND the fact that I was on a higher-income bracket, I was discriminated mainly due to the fact that I was open about being "Muslim". Several times.
However, what I’m watching in awe above is how this discussion turned into Americans allegedly facing discrimination in Netherlands when in reality the issue was about Muslims (Moroccans in specific) finding it difficult to integrate into Europe AND clearly being on a lower socio-economic status than others?
The issue at hand was giving immigrants the tools to break the cycle of poverty with and integration happens to be a big part of that. Nobody suggested handing out welfare checks to achieve this purpose. In fact, the less Dutch immigrants speak, the more likely they are to receive welfare checks. You TRUELY distorted the point I was trying to make above AND in the process revealed your own anti-immigrant biases about Bulgarians or Poles.
Finally, does EVERY discussion need to become about Americans one way or another? This is PRECISELY why Americans get a bad rep around the world. Perhaps there IS a world where doors don’t necessarily open and people don’t immediately start hailing towards you just because you happen to be American.
What I wrote was concerning Muslims in Europe, I did NOT opine a word on "disenfranchised" Americans. Perhaps when Americans get treated like *any* other person on the planet, they should for once just take it as a fact of life rather than going on the offensive about it mentioning NATO and all.
Now there IS an organization called the EU, although I have a lot of doubts about what it actually does (I happen to think it does nothing useful), its member organizations have agreements with eachother regarding movements across one another’s border. Now you may whine all you want about Polish and Bulgarian people because they get to have priviliges that Americans don’t despite not speaking a word of English. Welcome to the world as non-Americans experience it, it may prove to be unfair even to Americans sometimes.
Why bring up the statistics of the other Moroccan-Dutch in this case? This case involves a single individual caught doing something illegal in Holland. Prosecute THAT person and put them in jail or throw them out of the country if found guilty. The rest of the story is irrelevent unless there is a hidden agenda like "I don’t like the immigrants so I’ll take every opportunity to bad mouth them all."