Dutch plan crackdown on Islamic extremists

[Rose Siding]

The Dutch government is planning to introduce measures to clamp down on Islamic radicals, two days after the murder of a controversial film-maker who had criticised the religion.

The proposals - including stripping suspected radicals with dual nationalities of their Dutch passports - were revealed by the Netherlands' immigration minister Rita Verdonk. She was speaking to the FT yesterday in her first interview since the murder of Theo van Gogh on Tuesday morning.

She said the Netherlands had been "naive" in failing to tackle deep-seated divisions within the country.

"For too long we have said we had a multi-cultural society and everyone would simply find each other," the minister said. "We were too naive in thinking people would exist in society together."

She said social integration problems centred on Turkish and Moroccan communities, about 800,000 people. "We have in this country a very traditional group of Turkish and Moroccan people. They have become more inward-looking rather than outward-looking in recent years. They have never learned about Dutch values."

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6b73e34e-2f80-11d9-984e-00000e2511c8.html