Parool, 28th October, 2009.

Marcouch has been playing a very important role in the Dutch Islam debate, ever since the murder of Theo van Gogh took place in 2004. Abroad, he is also well known for initiating this debate. Shortly, he will appear in The New Yorker.

On 2nd November, 2004, Theo van Gogh was killed. Ahmed Marcouch, who at present is Mayor of the Amsterdam-Slotervaart District, back then was the spokesman of the Moroccan Mosques.

The moment Ahmed Marcouch represented the Union of Moroccan Mosques in Amsterdam, the days after the murder of Theo van Gogh, hardly anyone had ever heard of him. All of a sudden, he became a famous Muslim Dutchman. He organized meetings, he talked with journalists from The Netherlands and from abroad, and he appeared in talk shows a lot. Ever since, Ahmed Marcouch has played the main part in the debate about Islam in The Netherlands, and even outside The Netherlands.

No one could have imagined this in 2004. "It wasn't my intention to become a spokesperson for the Union of Moroccan Mosques. My goal, as a chairman, was to work behind the scenes. However, this murder made it impossible for me to be exclusively pre-occupied with internal affairs".

''Actually, I never took offense to anything Theo van Gogh said. I wasn't particularly interested in him. I even think the main part of the Muslim community had never heard of him prior to the murder. We had to explain who he was, to the Muslim community. Those people didn't realize he referred to Muslims as "geitenneukers" (offensive term for Muslims, which actually refers to someone who has intercourse with goats - Freddy Konstantinou).

At the time of the murder, Marcouch was a civil servant at the District of Amsterdam-Zeeburg. ''A co-worker told me: 'Theo van Gogh has been murdered'. At first, I thought it was a bad joke. We continued working as usual, as if nothing had happened". Soon, that would change. "Driss el Boujoufi, of the Union of Moroccan Muslim Organizations in The Netherlands, called and he said: 'the press is driving us crazy. Will you be our spokesman?' After that, my telephone kept ringing. Before I even was aware of it, I appeared in "Rondom Tien" (Dutch discussion program - Freddy Konstantinou). The murder was - after all - a turning point. This will, undoubtedly, have played a main part in my career, in hind side. Even if it only meant that my face became familiar in the media".

His press statement on the day of the murder was: ''the murder of Theo van Gogh cannot ever be a religious action". Now, Marcouch says: ''We wanted to emphasize that this murder couldn't ever be legitimate from the Muslim point of view. We chose not to say that his murderer, Mohamed B., is not a Muslim. To him, it definitely must have been a religious act. We, however, wanted to emphasize that this is not considered a religious assignment - or vocation if you will - to mainstream Muslims".

''We agreed on condemning this murder, and, on absolutely taking our distance from it. In the mosque, we heard people say that Theo asked for it. Some of them also questioned our taking distance from it".

Ahmed Marcouch seriously doubts the effect of the way they reacted back then: "although we were very clear in our statement, people often said that Muslims had kept silent in the process. The community is not very well organized. The average mosque chairman doesn't speak Dutch, doesn't read any papers, and he lives in his own Muslim reality".

Five years after the murder, this hasn't significantly changed. "the mosque boards don't allow the new generation to take part. They, on their turn, don't want to challenge the established mosque boards. Discussion is considered 'fitna (chaos)'. It is very hard, and even a taboo, to say that the mosque board isn't doing its job properly. Of course, there are other alternatives: the "Polder" mosque, student unions, and just discussions and debate at home. Women are only allowed in the backroom of the mosque. They should strongly protest against that. Youngsters and intellectuals should expose the malfunctioning of the mosque boards".

After five years, there is still a lack of intellectuals taking the stand. "Intellectual poverty is widely spread in the Muslim community. The level of education of the imams is very low. In many Arab cities, they would even be unemployed. I still miss the discussion about the role of Islam in Dutch society. Where is the debate among the imams?"

After the municipal elections of 2006, Ahmed Marcouch became the leading man for the Labor Party in Amsterdam-Slotervaart. ''I hadn't realized that Mohamed B. (Theo van Gogh's assassin - Freddy Konstantinou) was from Slotervaart, until I met his father, on the street. I tried to talk with him, which was difficult. The man is completely introverted. Later on, I tried again, but his family doesn't co-operate at all. They are very introverted towards others as well, so I've heard".

The anti-radicalization policy of Slotervaart was copied by many municipalities, but by the national government as well. "There were a lot of radical Muslim youngsters, but no one had thought about the role the District City Council could play in all of this".

How is the situation now? ''There are a lot of youngsters which worry us. However, we have more knowledge than we used to have. We have more contacts within the different neighborhoods. I hope that, in case someone is heading towards a breakdown, we are able to intervene. We can't guarantee anything, obviously. Attention is already fading. I'm worried about us being stuck in incidents and repressive actions. The main question, however, remains: how do Muslims integrate in our society?"

Still, there are some positive changes. "Dutch society has become more Muslim-minded than before. Journalists and civil servants used to be ignorant on this subject. Knowledge has increased. The debate in society has had a healing effect, an emancipating effect even. Everybody talks bad about Ayaan Hirschi Ali. OK, maybe she wasn't particularly inspiring, but she stimulated discussion and debate. If you say: 'the Koran is wrong', discussion will be tough. However, if you say that Muslims use the Koran as a justification for domestic violence, the discussion will have more impact. Imams, who randomly said all kinds of things, were being confronted with their anti-semitic, misogynistic, and anti-Western statements".

It will take time. "It's a process, which you can't expect to be ever completed. I often hear: 'stop this Islam debate'. But if we look away now, the integration process could stop. We are not finished yet. If we take for granted the things we have accomplished so far, we will, eventually, be confronted with yet another tragedy".

(ADDIE SCHULTE)

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