Kuwaiti media is reporting that new Dutch converts to Islam attended lectures by Kuwait Muslim Brotherhood leader Tariq Suwaidan. According to a report in the Kuwait Times:
Dutch Muslim activists are all praise for the Islam Presentation Committee of Kuwait (IPC) for organizing workshops and training courses to guide new European Muslims in organizational skills for Dawah (propagation) work. Waleed Duisters, chairman of Dutch National Platform for New Muslims, was one of those Muslims from Europe who participated in the IPC courses held in Kuwait in December. “It was a workshop for those Muslims who have a leading role in their countries, to give them information a
bout organizational and leadership skills, in order to help Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe,” Duisters said. This was my first visit to Kuwait. It was very good and useful because normally you get information about Islam but not about organizational skills. We also attended some good lectures by famous Kuwaiti scholars like Tariq Swuaidan,” he added. Duisters spoke at the sidelines of the Fourth Dutch Muslim Converts’ National Day held in the Dutch city of The Hague on Saturday. The one-day event was organized by the OntdekIslam (Discover Islam) foundation and the Dutch National Platform for New Muslims. He noted that 1600 participants came from Holland, Belgium and a few other European countries to attend the conference. “The aim of the conference is to give a good idea about Islam to the new converts,”said Duisters noting that the western media tries to portray the new converts as being very strict and extreme.
Tariq Suwaidan is the General Manager of Al-Resalah Satellite TV, the brainchild of Saudi businessman Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Al-Suwaidan is also a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait who in May 2007, was listed by federal prosecutors in a group of U.S Muslim Brotherhood members named as part of a large group of Unindicted Co-Conspirators in the terrorism financing case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, alleged to have provide funds for Hamas. Al-Suwaidan is also the author of the anti-Semitic “Encyclopedia of Jews.” A previous post discussed both his background and the struggle to control his Wikipedia page.
Sources in the Netherlands report that Jacob van der Blom, the leader of Ontdek Islam (Discover Islam) is a rising star in the Dutch Muslim Brotherhood . He is secretary of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in the Netherlands (FION) and board member of the Europa Trust Nederland, both organizations part of the Federation of Islamic Organizations In Europe (FIOE) representing the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. Van der Blom attended a conference of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) in Turkey where he met its leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi as well as IUMS leaders Salman al-Awdah and Abdallah bin Bayyah. He was also attended at least two events in Kuwait last year, meeting Taraq al-Suwaidan.