The Westermosque organisation tied up by verdict

The Milli Görüs mosque in Amsterdam known as the Westermosque has received a setback in its legal struggles against Building Corporation "Stadgenoot" (Formerly "Het Oosten"). A court judged that it will not be allowed to buy out Building Corporation "Stadgenoot" as intended, but that it will have to co-operate with the Building Corporation if it wishes to continue with its ambitious mosque building project.

Milli Görüs, a Islamist Turkish movement, wants to build a showpiece mosque in Amsterdam-West. In addition to a large mosque the complex will contain a shopping mall and residential housing. The Mosque is supposed to be build by Milli Görüs (Dutch), while the Building Corporation "Stadgenoot" is supposed to develop the mall and the residential housing. The participation of Building Corporation "Stadgenoot" is supposed to be a moderating influence on Milli Görüs. Milli Görüs wanted to dissolve the co-operation with Building Corporation "Stadgenoot", but this was forestalled by the Dutch Court, today.

Earlier posts on Snouck concerning the Westermosque are:

Westermosque: leader arrested
Westermosque: organisation's funds confisquated
Westermosque: the saga continues
Westermosque: Pride comes for the fall

Amsterdam Ghost Mosque Saga

The Westermosque, which is to be built in Amsterdam-West by the radical Turkish Milli Gorüs (national vision) is on the rails again. Or so it would seem. The local city council "De Baarsjes" has given the Islamisation project permission to go ahead again after concerns about the size of the mosque, corrupt financing and finally the hostile character of the Mill Gorüs Islamic movement, which is outlawed in Germany and seen as the threat to the state by the German and Turkish governments.

In Amsterdam however the authorities regard everything pertaining to the mosque cosher again. Perhaps. For the time being.

Amsterdam Mosque organisation's accounts are confiscated

I have blogged before about the building of the monumental Westermosque in Amsterdam-West. The leader of the project, a Turk by the name of Üzeyir Kabaktepe was arrested on August the 23rd. Effendi Kabaktepe was the director of Manderen BV, the company that had been awarded the contract to build the mosque by Mill Görüs, a powerful Turkish Islamic organisation. Mr. Kabaktepe had been accused of embezzling Manderen BV's money. Yesterday his arrest has been suspended.

Building organisation "Het Oosten" who was owed money by Manderen BV in the course of the mosque building project (Dutch) has confiscated the possessions and bank accounts of Manderen BV.

Former Amsterdam mosque leader arrested

The saga of the project to built a huge mosque in Amsterdam-West continues. This project is an effort by Milli Gorüs, a Islamist Turkish organisation which is rather powerfull in the Turkish community in Western Europe.

Two months ago I wrote about the fact that the Amsterdam municipality had subsidized the mosque building project fraudulently, supporting the project with more than two million Euros. When you read the linked article pay special attention to the comment made by a Dutch liberal reader.

One of the leaders of the project, Üzeyir Kabaktepe was arrested yesterday:

"Amsterdam police have arrested the former director of the city's still-to-be-built Western mosque in connection with an investigation into embezzlement and money laundering.

Earlier this year, the mosque's new leadership made a formal complaint against Üzeyir Kabaktepe, alleging he had syphoned off €1.5m in mosque funds into his own investment company Manderen.

Manderen had been awared the contract to build the mosque by Turkish organisation Milli Görüs."

Strangely there has been no action against the municipality.

The unused building grounds for the Westermosque are going to be temporarily converted into a playground. The municipality still has not shelved the plans to built a mosque on this terrain. Arco Verburg (Labour), a spokesman of the local council (stadsdeelraad) said that the municipality still wants a mosque (Dutch) to be built there.