The political Islamist National View (Milli Görüş) organization has taken dozens of Turkish-Dutch youngsters to Turkey in recent years to have them taught by radical imam Nureddin Yıldız, who supports jihad in Syria and legitimizes violence against women, according to the NRC newspaper in the Netherlands.
NRC reported that various trips have been organized to Yıldız’s education center, according to flyers, photos, and reports published online since 2013. NRC also wrote that Dutch parliamentarians expressed concern about a Turkish government plan to establish weekend schools in the Netherlands focused on Turkish language, history and religion.
“The Dutch parliament fears that Turkey is trying to keep ahold of Turkish-Dutch people. But the opposite also happens, and Dutch Turks go to Turkey for education in radical Islamic schools,” wrote NRC.
Stating that Milli Görüş has 50 organizations and some 15,000 supporters in the Netherlands, NRC said that “the movement is strongly anti-Western.” Stating that a number of radical preachers are affiliated with Milli Görüs, including Nureddin Yıldız, NRC wrote that Yıldız has his own Sosyal Doku Foundation, an educational institute in İstanbul.
“In his statements, Yıldız said Abdullah Al-Muhaysini, a notorious al-Qaeda leader in Syria, deserves support from Muslims. Yıldız has also ties with the armed jihadist group Ahrar al-Sham,” according to NRC
“Youth Associations of Milli Görüs in the Netherlands, including in The Hague, Schiedam, Rotterdam and Deventer, translate lectures given by Yildiz in order to spread his ideology. Also ‘training camps’ are organized by his institute.”
According to NRC, Yıldız long maintained a warm relationship with the Turkish establishment. He was a regular speaker in a foundation led by Bilal Erdoğan, a son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“But at the beginning of this year, Yıldız overplayed his hand. He said in a video that you can marry a 6-year-old child and that God ‘allowed men to beat women.’ A Turkish prosecutor launched an investigation for hate speech, and President Erdoğan was forced to distance himself from Yıldız,” wrote the newspaper.
