Report by Khaled Shawkat, IOL Holland correspondent

Another group of Muslim students also gathered three thousand euros while students in Dutch universities have organized charity events throughout the previous months to gather donations for the children of Palestinian martyrs within the framework of a support box called “The Palestinian Orphans’ Box.”

The activists in the women’s committee which is affiliated to the Islamic Tawheed Association in Rotterdam said that they have organized an exhibition for products imported from Islamic countries, including Palestinian traditional products. All the revenue was devoted for the Palestinian intifada.

The exhibition has yielded unexpected profit, as Muslim women were eager to buy the products, sometimes paying much more than the product’s worth.

An activist, who preferred to remain anonymous, told IslamOnline that some of the women donated a large part of their household money to the Palestinian charity organizations especially those that support the families of the Intifada martyrs and other women donated some of their gold jewelry as well.

Alongside the charity events organized by the women’s committees of Islamic associations, many cultural and social associations have organized demonstrations supporting the Palestinian people and their legitimate resistance of the Israeli occupation.

In Rotterdam on Sunday, June 2, there was a speech conference organized by Islamic organizations in the Beir Takhtakh hall which lies in the Dalves Haven suburb in which more than 30,000 Muslims live.

The carnival emphasized the importance of the continuation of the Al-Aqsa intifada and the refusal of all unjust solutions which will deprive the Palestinian people of their legitimate rights in the land and Jerusalem and the return of the refugees and establishing an independent country.

Khaled Al-Sufiani, the former head of the Moroccan Association for defending Palestinians said in a speech during the carnival: “The terrorism excuse which the U.S. is using to fight the Muslim world and which Israeli is using to breach Palestinian Human Rights is a lie, because the real terrorism is the United States and its ally in the Middle East, the Zionist state.”

Al-Sufiani called on all Arabs and Muslims to not belittle the solidarity movements with the Intifada which are organized inside and outside the Muslims world.

“These movements may be unable to change political decisions but it is very important to support the Palestinians and to prevent any unjust solutions that may be passed on the expense of the martyrs’ blood,” he said.

Ahmad Aql, responsible for the Palestinian Liberation Organization in Tunis, said that a comprehensive and just solution is the only way out for the Palestinians and that any other solution will not be applied regardless of external pressures.

He said that the PLO will not agree to any solution unless it is agreed upon by the Palestinian people and that American strength will not succeed, no mater how biased it is towards the Israeli enemy, in breaking down the Palestinian backbone which has proven its ability to resist and strength.

There are more than 750,000 Muslims living in Holland, most of them from Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese, Arab and African origins. Muslims are the third religious group in Holland constituting nearly 5 per cent of the population, after Catholics who constitute nearly 34 per cent of the population and Protestants who constitute 25 per cent.

The Muslim population is distributed mainly in Rotterdam, the Hague, Ottoricht, and the capital Amsterdam. Statistics indicate that in 1989 there were nearly 400,000 thousand Muslims in Holland but have increased dramatically to reach 750,000 towards the beginning of the third millennium.

There are more than 400 mosques and prayer areas for Muslims in Holland and among the most famous are Aya Sofia mosque, Al-Nasr mosque, Nouri mosque, Mawlana mosque and Al-Rahma mosque.