The Aqsa says it is only an independent charity for orphans and widows

By Khaled Shawkat, IOL Holland Correspondent

ROTERRDAM, June 5 (IslamOnline.net) – The Holland-based Al-Aqsa charity organization denounced on Thursday, June 5, a Hague-based court ruling freezing its assets that benefited many of orphans and widows in occupied Palestinian territories.

“It is strange and unjustified,” said the Aqsa director Ibrahim Al-Aqari of the ruling, delivered by the court of first instance on Wednesday, June 4.

Aqari told IslamOnline.net that his foundation fell a victim to the newly-applied secret evidence principle many citizens of Netherlands thought it was an American practice their country would never be infected with.

In the first hearing On May 13, the judges urged the intelligence service should submit “convincing and valuable” evidence to condemn the Aqsa and make the freeze on its assets as legal.

“But the court echoed in the next hearing the same unverified intelligence that the charity is linked to terrorist groups,” in reference to Palestinian resistance groups fighting for independence in Israeli-occupied territories.

The U.S. and Britain have simultaneously frozen the assets of the charity which they claim is funneling money to terrorist activities last week.

The timing came immediately before a trio of meetings between President George W. Bush and Middle Eastern leaders and another between him and the Palestinian and Israeli premiers.

The U.S. launched a campaign against charities in the wake of the September 11, 2001, hijack attacks, that is blamed on Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

The action takes to 264 the number of individuals and groups on the U.S. Treasury's list of asset freezes, and the amount frozen since September attacks to about $137m, the BBC News Online reported.

The Aqsa denied the accusations, saying the Hague court verdict planted the seeds of doubt over the independence and fairness of Netherlands’ judiciary.

“The foundation will appeal against this negative verdict,” it said in a statement.

“Since the beginning of the Palestinian Intifada in September 2001, the foundation faced many media campaign against its growing activities,” read the statement.

Some Muslim activists here told IOL that some Zionist parties are behind the campaign, especially that the activities of the Israeli information center in the Hague, the largest intelligence office outside the Jewish state, are continuously increasing.

Many Israeli leaders made nagging complaints with European countries that Palestinian groups get funds from active social organizations which exist within their borders under the guise of relief activities.

But heads of Islamic relief agencies reiterated their compliance with European laws and full independence of any political actions.

A population statistic in the Netherlands on June 2002 unveiled that Islam comes on top of the list of religions in the capital Amsterdam, including Christianity (Catholics and Protestants), Judaism and other registered religions come after Islam. 

But Muslims in this rigid secular country are fighting for more rights in the face of campaigns to ban Arabic from school and probe mosque Imams on allegations of inciting hatred and violence.