Mayor of Delft faces criticism over secret investigation into Muslim community
Mayor Marja van Bijsterveldt is under fire for commissioning a covert investigation into the Islamic community of Delft in 2017, a move she admitted on a secretly recorded tape was made without specific cause. The recording, obtained by the Algemeen Dagblad (AD), is now central to a lawsuit brought against the municipality by the Stichting Al Ansaar, the organization behind the Al Ansaar Mosque.
Van Bijsterveldt’s comments on the tape contradict her previous public statements about the controversial investigation. “I am sometimes still flabbergasted by the enormous impact,” she is heard saying on the recording. “I think, how is it possible? What began as something like, ‘Oh, many municipalities do this, so let’s go ahead.’ And it had to be discreet? Fine, we’ll do it discreetly.”
The investigation, carried out by the consultancy Nuance door Training en Advies (NTA), included observing young people at the De Hoven Passage shopping center. According to the recording, Van Bijsterveldt confirmed this activity but insisted that no monitoring took place inside the mosque. “They were in spaces like the Hoven to observe how young people moved and what was happening,” she stated.
The mayor’s statements on the tape contrast with her earlier assurances to the city council and the public. In official communications, Van Bijsterveldt had cited concerns about the Al Ansaar community in 2017 as the reason for the investigation, maintaining that the municipality had not conducted surveillance or eavesdropping on individuals or mosques.
Stichting Al Ansaar, which was unaware of the investigation until 2021, is demanding access to the NTA report to determine what information was collected about its members. The foundation argues that the covert investigation violated their rights. “We are pursuing full transparency and accountability,” said Paul Tjiam, one of Al Ansaar’s lawyers.
The municipality has refused to release the report, citing confidentiality agreements with NTA and its informants. Van Bijsterveldt initially denied that the report was shared with the Nationaal Coördinator Terrorismebestrijding en Veiligheid (NCTV), but later admitted it was sent to the agency due to a “banal email error.”
The NTA conducted similar investigations for other municipalities during the same period, often under the guise of preventing radicalization. Independent reviews in municipalities like Zoetermeer and Leidschendam-Voorburg criticized NTA’s methods and found the studies lacked legal justification. In those cases, the mayors apologized to their Muslim communities.
Experts, including Professor Tom Zwart of Utrecht University, have questioned the legality of such investigations. “Mayors should not interfere with what happens behind closed doors in people’s homes or places of worship,” Zwart said. “Preventive measures require a direct link to public safety concerns, which was absent here.”
The AD verified the authenticity of the recording, which features Van Bijsterveldt acknowledging the absence of concrete reasons for initiating the investigation. The tape also contradicts the municipality’s earlier claims that no young Muslims were monitored.
“We had to use the tape as evidence because the municipality initially denied observing Muslim youth,” Tjiam stated. “It is very troubling that we had to prove the truth this way.”
Legal scholars believe the municipality crossed legal boundaries. “A shopping center is a public space, and profiling people based on religion is unacceptable,” said Gerard Ritsema van Eck, a law lecturer at the University of Groningen. He added that Delft should release portions of the report to address the rights of affected residents.
Al Ansaar also fears that the report may contain inaccuracies and that its contents could have been misused by the NCTV. The agency has the authority to place individuals on counterterrorism watchlists. “The information in the report might have serious consequences,” said Tjiam.
