Extremists must "fuck off": Rotterdam mayor in Mosque

Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb again repeated his call for religious extremists in the Netherlands to "fuck off," while speaking at a service in a mosque. The mayor visited the Essalam Mosque Saturday night and made his remarks in front of 250 people gathered there. "Really, then fuck off; I've said it several times," Mayor Aboutaleb repeated. "That is maybe something not nice to hear, but there must also be a line drawn. I am a mayor who wants to connect, but also I want to set limits," he told the crowd. "If you want to rise above the masses by grabbing a Kalashnikov, then you must leave. I see no legal ground to stop [radical jihadists] to stop them, so why should we do that?" People travelling through via the Netherlands to join a terrorist force in a conflict may be arrested for attempting to do so. Dutch citizens who want to fight with an organization classified as a terrorist group can also lose their passports. Mayor Aboutaleb was invited to explain his comments after the Islam extremist attacks in Paris earlier in January, when he said Muslims who did not like living in the Netherlands and wanted to murder comedians for making a joke could "fuck off." Aboutaleb, a Muslim himself, was met with great amounts of support at home and even abroad with London Mayor Boris Johnson writing of his support. However, Aboutaleb offended several in the Muslim community for being so blunt. "That is an unworthy mayor, people said to me," Mayor Aboutaleb said, according to RTV Rijnmond. "But this mayor is not unworthy; I want to be close to citizens," he implored. "I know how sharp words are when spoken in the living rooms. There the language is much Some Muslims have difficulty with the tone that Aboutaleb strike against his co-religionists. "That's a mayor unworthy people said to me. But that's the mayor not unworthy, because I want to be close to the people. I know how sharp is spoken in homes. Since the language is much more biting," said the mayor. The event at the mosque was arranged by the Platform of Islamic Organizations Rijnmond foundation (SPIOR).