Almere violated Muslims' fundamental rights by secretly infiltrating mosques: Ombudsman
The municipality of Almere violated Muslims’ fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of religion with its secret infiltration of mosques a few years ago, the ombudsman of the Amsterdam metropolitan region said in a report published on Tuesday. The ombudsman called Almere “seriously negligent” towards the Muslim community, NOS reports.
In 2021, around ten municipalities, including Almere hired the private investigative agency NTA to investigate mosques due to concerns about radicalization among Salafist Muslims. They did so on the advice of the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV). At the end of 2021, NRC revealed the NTA’s working methods, including sending investigators to infiltrate mosques and collect data from mosque-goers without their knowledge. A year later, NRC revealed that then NCTV boss and now Prime Minister Dick Schoof was aware of concerns about the NTA’s methods but failed to do anything about it.
Almere stopped the investigation amid the outrage that followed the revelation about secret infiltrations, and ombudsman Munish Ramlal launched an investigation.
According to Ramlal, the municipal government relied too much on the NTA. The municipality made no clear agreements with the agency regarding its working methods. “The municipality failed to conduct its own proper investigation into the legality of these practices, while it should have understood the sensitivity of the matter,” the ombudsman wrote in his report.
The mayor and aldermen decided not to inform the municipal council in advance about the NTA’s investigative methods, opting to only share the results afterward. That resulted in the city council being unable to exercise its supervisory role, Ramlal said. The mayor at the time was Franc Weerwind. He later became Minister of Justice and Security in the Rutte IV Cabinet.
The approach has undermined the trust of the Islamic communities in the Almere authorities. “The result is that mosque boards that have always worked together with the municipality to prevent radicalization have completely lost their trust because the municipality has shown itself to be unreliable,” Ramlal said.
The ombudsman recommended that Almere establish a structural test to determine whether its actions adhere to human rights and ethics. The municipality should also work on restoring the Muslim community’s trust.
The municipality responded that it regrets the use of secret investigative methods, NOS reported. “Although the municipality had the sincere intention at the time to take its social responsibility, with the knowledge of today, it recognizes that the implementation was not always the right one,” the municipality said. Almere said that it has now switched to “an approach that is completely different.” It did not elaborate.
