---

---

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 23394 • Posted: Tuesday April 7, 2009  

---

ReligionNewsBlog.com — Moroccan-Dutch comedian Salahedinne had an unusual request for his performance in the Zuidplein theater in Rotterdam last February.

He asked that a number of chairs would be set aside for Muslim women who did not want to sit next to men.

The theater promptly reserved 50 chairs in the front rows of its balcony, viewing it as an experiment to get more Maroccan-Dutch Women to visit the theater.

This led council member Anita Fahmel to ask Rotterdam’s city council whether the theater acted appropiately.

Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb — a practicing Muslim, and The Netherlands’ first mayor with a dual nationality (Dutch-Moroccan) — and his council members decided there was no problem.

“According to our Western values the freedom of people to live their lives according to their own views is a prime value,” says the council, which beliefs the initiative helps encourage the emancipation of Muslim women.

Their decision ignores the views of Eberhand van der Laan, Minister of Housing and Integration. He consider the theater’s ‘women only’ section unacceptable. According to him, the move is in conflict with the Equal Treatment Act.

Van der Laan has said he will not considers pursueing the matter as he understands it was a one-time event.

“Since this conflicts with the law on equal treatment I firmly believe it should not be repeated,” he said.

Though three-quart of the audience for the performance consisted on young, Muslim women, none of them used the chairs in the reserved section.

---

What You Can Do From Here

---

Read More Articles On These Topics Categories: Islam Tags: Islam, islamic extremism, Islamification, islamisation, Netherlands, Rotterdam Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article Subscribe Religion News Blog RSS feed [What is this?] RSS by topic: Islam Read Another Article Previous entry: Cultic Exclusive Brethren sect pursues critic in court Next entry: LDS leaders insist Mormon church follows Jesus RNB Homepage with latest headlines Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults Find Related Books Islam Most Popular Today Scientology’s feet held to the fire in Australia: Struggle between a church and the state

---

Share This Article

---

To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:

• Post a link on your blog or website:
  
• Send in an email or IM:
  
• Post on a forum:
  

Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- CounterCultSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.

Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- ApologeticsSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.