The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a Dutch Muslim Brotherhood leader has said that his organization would be supporting an appeal to the European Court of Justice of the recent acquittal of politician Gert Wilders on hate speech charges in the Netherlands. According to the report:
Muslim groups expressed bitterness. “We’re very disappointed,” says Yahia Bouyafa, president of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in the Netherlands. “Freedom of thought is important, but so is freedom of religion,” which, he said, has been threatened by Mr. Wilders. Mr. Bouyafa said his organization would support an appeal of the case to the European Court of Justice. The trial began in October, after a long debate among prosecutors and judges about whether they were even entitled to press charges.”
The Islam in Europe Blog has published a translation of a Dutch newspaper article profiling Dutch Muslim Brotherhood leader Yahia Bouyafa. According to the translated report:
Yahia Bouyafa (47) from IJsselstein, publicly unknown, would be high up on the list of 100 most influential Muslims in the Netherlands, if one would exist. The Moroccan-Dutch is on a number of boards. He’s chairman of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in the Netherlands (FION), the National Muslim Organizations (LMO), the Council of Moroccan Mosques in the Netherlands (RMMN), and the charitable organizations Europe Trust Nederland and Maroc Relief. Until recently he was a government partner as chairman of the Contact Groep Islam (CGI). Bouyafa also heads the mosque where he lives, has a media company, is board-member of the Dutch Muslim Council. He seems to dedicate himself for Dutch Muslims. But is that the case? The IJsselstein resident belong to a European network of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), according to public sources on the internet.
Read the rest here.
Previous posts have reported on the activities of Mr. Bouyafa and the Federation of Islamic Organizations in the Netherlands (FION), the Dutch member of the Federation of Islamic Organizations In Europe (FIOE), representing the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe.