International

The SP wants a ban on foreign funding of religious institutes in the Netherlands. Member of Parliament for the SP Jasper van Dijk makes this proposal in response to the investigation into unwanted financing from foreign countries on which the House debates on Thursday. 
Earlier, it had already surfaced that at least thirty Islamic organisations in the Netherlands requested or received funding from Gulf states over the last years. It concerns millions of euros from countries like Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi-Arabia. The commission concludes that with this, anti-democratic ideas are being funded. 

Van Dijk: ‘We want to put a stop to unwanted influencing from foreign nations. It is reprehensible if foreign organisations poison our youth with reprehensible ideas, for example that women or homosexuals are inferior. On top of that, the Netherlands maintain a separation of church and state. Countries like Saudi-Arabia, Turkey or Qatar have no business in Dutch religious organisations.’

The SP proposes this because the government fail to address the situation, despite the promise made in their coalition agreement to regulate this ban, nothing of this intention has materialized.