The Al-Fourqaan mosque is a Salafi Islamic mosque in which is part of Al-fourqaan Islamic Center in Eindhoven, Netherlands, established in the 1990s.[1]
Notable events
The mosque was established by the Moroccan community.[2]
From late 2001 or early 2002, the mosque was under observation by AIVD, the Dutch intelligence service,[2] after links were reported with the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks, including Mohammed Atta.[3]
In 2003, a school connected to it, the Tarieq Ibnu Zyad Islamic primary school, was attacked,[5] and then in 2004 bombed as part of a wave of attacks on Dutch mosques in the wake of the murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh.[3][7][5]
The mosque received media attention since 2005 for its jihadist imam Eisha Bersham from Bosnia. AIVD classified him as a threat to national security, and minister for integration and immigration Rita Verdonk responded by banning him from the country as an 'unwanted foreigner'[8] one of three imams at the mosque so designated.[2] Initially, an Amsterdam court ruled that the imam could stay,[9] but on 27 April 2007 the Council of State finally ruled Bersham would be banned from the Netherlands for the next ten years.[9][10]
In 2015, seven imams due to speak at a conference the mosque was hosting were banned by Eindhoven mayor Rob van Gijzel after consulting the counter terrorism watchdog NCTV.[11]
In 2019, the anti-Islam organisation Pegida demonstrated outside the mosque during Ramadan, leading to violence and the arrest of ten counter-protestors including three under-age teenagers, of whom two were released for lack of evidence and one charged with insulting the police. Pegida vowed to return repeatedly.[12] A year later eleven men were sentenced to several hours of community service, and two were acquitted.[13]
