Zuhal Demir on the Koran schools: “It’s no coincidence that religious extremism is targeting society’s youngest”

In a Facebook post, MP Zuhal Demir responds to the report on Koran schools in the Netherlands. MP Zuhal Demir also responded on the news programme De Ochtend on Radio 1.

The report on the Dutch Nieuwsuur programme demonstrates what teachers in primary and secondary schools are constantly warning me about. Religious extremism in Islam is no fabrication. It is not a fantasy created by people with the aim of polarising, as some would like to have you believe. It is a bitter reality that undermines society. Not just in the Netherlands, but here too. I am calling on the press, and above all on our national security, to do some thorough research into the proliferation of Koran schools.

Girls as a gateway

It really is no coincidence that religious extremism is targeting the very youngest, it is no coincidence that girls are being made to wear headscarves at ever-younger ages, it is no coincidence that children are being indoctrinated after school with the cruelty of Sharia law. When I was a little girl growing up in Limburg, headscarves were something our grandmothers wore. Today, very young girls are expected to wear them as well. We are not making any progress. Extremism is growing. And no, I do not wish to start a crusade against headscarves. I respect women who, as adults, choose to wear this religious symbol. However, I will never respect a system that reduces girls to submissive channels for hatred and which uses the headscarf as an instrument in this process. We must continue to make that distinction.

Defending against hate

I do see one ray of hope in the Nieuwsuur report: the pronounced aversion of imams to the indoctrination of children. They are our allies, however they too must go a step further. Their home countries have replaced the originally Western Universal Human Rights with the “Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam”. This document is based on Sharia law, the rejection of freedom of expression and of gender equality. Our mosques and associations must unequivocally distance themselves from this declaration and allow controls to be carried out. They must refuse money and influence from those countries, and those who refuse to do so must be treated as part of the problem and countered by all legal means. Religious freedom and freedom of association must not be allowed to be excuses to undermine freedom. A democratic society has the right and the duty to defend itself against hatred.