R'dam mayor Aboutaleb favors tough anti-jihad stance

Rotterdam's Mayor Aboutaleb is asking Dutch people planning to travel abroad to fight for IS to remember that if they choose IS and jihad, then they leave behind The Netherlands. Aboutaleb says if they choose their side consciously, then they should hand in their passports with him. "If you reject the Dutch constitution by wanting to fight with IS, then you also reject the Dutch passport", he tells the NOS. 

"Be a man, and come hand in your passport", Aboutaleb says. The Mayor does not call jihadists traitors yet. He says that it is instead an intense and immense feeling of rejection towards the Dutch society that has invested itself in these people.

In an open letter to all muslims, published in Trouw on Saturday, Aboutaleb is joined by Rotterdam alderman Joost Eerdmans as they call on muslims preaching for jihad are not only committing treason towards the core values of democracy, but also towards their grandparents who came to The Netherlands to give their children a better life.

Aboutaleb and Eerdmans also believes that it is the muslims who reject entirely the concept of jihad and the terrorist organization IS who must speak out more, let themselves be heard.

Furthermore, the city governors believe that it should not only be a national fight against jihadism, but also a local one. Aboutaleb and Eerdmans say that Rotterdam is already playing its role in preventing and setting up an early warning system for radicalization through schools, religious institutions, neighborhood watch officers and healthcare providers.