Mosques reject talks with ministry about undercover investigations

Hundreds of mosques rejected an invitation from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment to further discuss alleged undercover investigations in mosques in a meeting on January 24. This was reported by several mosque umbrella associations, including the Stichting Platform Islamitische Organisaties Rijnmond (SPIOR). The mosque umbrella organizations considered the reflection on undercover investigations a thing of the past for now.

In late 2021, the newspaper NRC wrote, based on its own research, that several municipalities had secretly commissioned investigations of the Muslim community. This included collecting sensitive information, such as on mosque administrators and imams. The National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) reportedly paid for it and allegedly chose the agency in charge of the investigation.

The mosque umbrella association SPIOR stated that over the past 14 months there have been discussions between the government and various Islamic organizations about "these excessive spying activities and the major breach of trust that has taken place."

During these talks, it was reported that the Islamic organizations are now demanding full access to the documents and a guarantee that nothing like this will ever happen again. Furthermore, they also demanded an apology. "Once these (demands) are met, there will be room again to start the conversation and work toward a new, constructive relationship between the government and the community."

The mosque umbrella organizations also mentioned that they already came up with a work plan earlier. They found it "strange" that they have now been invited again for a reflection meeting and called for "concrete measures to restore the breach of trust that has occurred."

Therefore, they are more interested in a meeting in a few months, they wrote, at which they can look back on "first steps" that must then have been taken by the government in response to the work plan.

However, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment had not yet responded to the cancellation of the meeting on Thursday evening.