An Investigation into What Some Would Call ‘Dutch State Islamophobia’
Stefan Paas, the J.H. Bavinck Professor of Missiology and Public Theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Theological University Utrecht, recently posted a notable message on X (formerly Twitter) (this article is also available in Dutch). As a theologian and academic focused on mission, church, and society, he often addresses the position of Christianity in a secular world (a complex issue that includes the challenges faced by minority groups like Coptic Christians in Europe). In his post, he suggests that Christians who believe they are being persecuted in the Netherlands should instead look at the real victims of discrimination: Muslims.
He writes (freely translated): “Christians who think they are being persecuted in the Netherlands should read this article carefully. If there are believers being persecuted in this country, it is primarily Muslims. They are confronted every day with distrust, tough talk from politicians, discriminatory proposals in right-wing party platforms (often amplified by divisive media narratives), and a government that deliberately violates fundamental constitutional rights. The good news is that the rule of law has corrected itself here.”
Paas links to a NOS article about a total fine of €250,000 imposed by the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) on ten Dutch municipalities: Delft, Ede, Eindhoven, Gooise Meren, Haarlemmermeer, Hilversum, Huizen, Tilburg, Veenendaal, and Zoetermeer.
What Exactly Happened?
Between approximately 2015 and 2021, these municipalities, on the advice of the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV), commissioned external agencies to conduct covert investigations into local Muslim communities. This was a response to concerns about radicalization following events such as the Syria fighters, the Paris attacks (2015), and the Brussels attacks (2016) (fears often rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of concepts like jihad). The agencies compiled dossiers containing sensitive information: religious beliefs, political views, family ties, mosque structures, photographs of visitors, internal tensions, and even suspicions of Salafist influences.
This data was sometimes shared with the police, the NCTV, and ministries, without the knowledge of those involved and without any legal basis. The AP ruled that this constituted a serious privacy violation, was discriminatory (targeting only Muslims), and violated the GDPR. AP chairman Aleid Wolfsen emphasized that public trust in the government had been severely damaged. The municipalities acknowledge the error, have offered apologies, and are working to restore relations with the communities.
Did This Investigation Yield Anything Useful for State Security?
This is a crucial question if we want to assess whether the monitoring was justified. From all available sources AP reports, news articles (NOS, NU.nl, NL Times), and analyses there is no evidence whatsoever that these investigations produced any concrete security benefits.
- There are no reports of prevented attacks, arrested radicals, or actionable intelligence that directly came from these dossiers.
- It involved broad “mapping” without specific suspicions → more profiling than targeted intelligence.
- Critics, including the AP, point out that such practices are counterproductive: they erode trust, make cooperation with Muslim communities more difficult, and can actually promote radicalization.
- The investigations were ultimately deemed unlawful, which suggests they did not meet the strict requirements for privacy infringement in the interest of security.
In short: the intention was understandable in a time of heightened threat, but the execution was unlawful and apparently produced no measurable security gains. That makes the fines justified, but the distrust that Paas describes also has a background in real security concerns something that should not be ignored in the debate.
(Continuation follows: from here we can delve deeper into broader context, statistics, and why ‘fear’ is not always ‘phobia.’)
Analysis of Stefan Paas’s Core Statement
Let us take Paas’s words literally and dissect them:
“Christians who believe they are being persecuted in the Netherlands should read this article carefully. If there are believers being persecuted in this country, it is primarily Muslims. They wake up every morning knowing that they are distrusted, that every day some politician talks tough about them, that party platforms on the right are routinely filled with discriminatory proposals, and that the government has knowingly violated their fundamental constitutional rights. The good news is that the rule of law has corrected itself here, even if it took a while.”
Paas flips the victim narrative here: not Christians, but Muslims are supposedly the truly persecuted believers in the Netherlands. He specifically mentions:
- Daily distrust,
- Political ‘tough talk’,
- Discriminatory proposals in right-wing party platforms,
- And deliberate violation of fundamental constitutional rights by the government.
He concludes on a positive note: the rule of law has restored itself.
We give Paas honest credit where it is deserved: the covert investigations were indeed an infringement on the fundamental rights of a specific group. The right to privacy (Article 8 ECHR and Article 10 of the Dutch Constitution) and the prohibition of discrimination (Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution) were violated. The Dutch Data Protection Authority ruled unequivocally: no legal basis, disproportionate data processing, and exclusive focus on Muslim communities that makes it discriminatory. The fines are legally justified.
Was This an Illegal Action, and What Does That Say About the Execution?
Yes, it was undeniably illegal. There was no basis in the Police Data Act or the GDPR. The investigations did not meet the requirements of necessity, proportionality, and subsidiarity. Municipalities and the NCTV exceeded their authority.
But precisely for that reason, it was also a stupid move. Bureaucrats and security services chose an approach that was not only unlawful but also ineffective and counterproductive. All reports and sources show no concrete security results whatsoever: no prevented attacks, no arrests of radicals, no actionable intelligence. It was broad-based profiling without targeted focus a blunt instrument against a complex threat.
This reveals a deeper problem: a lack of understanding of how the Islamic world and its internal dynamics work (Salafism, political Islam, radicalization processes). Instead of smart, lawful methods such as cooperation with communities or targeted intelligence they resorted to covert practices that destroy trust and can actually fuel radicalization.
Paas is right that constitutional rights were violated and that the rule of law corrected itself. But his leap to ‘persecution’ of Muslims goes too far: it was a policy blunder, not systematic oppression. The distrust he describes has real roots that we should not whitewash.
Does This Error Demonstrate Systemic Racism? Is the Dutch State a Racist State?
No, this policy error however unlawful and stupid does not prove systemic racism, a racist state, or a racist people. That would be a gross exaggeration that does violence to reality.
Muslims in the Netherlands enjoy full rights and freedoms, often more than in the countries where they or their parents came from. They hold prominent positions in politics and government, which would be impossible in a ‘racist’ or ‘Islamophobic’ society:
- Ahmed Aboutaleb has been the mayor of Rotterdam since 2009, the second-largest city in the Netherlands a Moroccan-Dutch Muslim who is one of the most respected administrators.
- Ahmed Marcouch is the mayor of Arnhem and was previously a member of parliament for the PvdA (Labour Party).
- In 2007, Ahmed Aboutaleb and Nebahat Albayrak became the first Muslims to join a Dutch cabinet (as state secretaries).
This pattern is visible across all of Europe:
- Sadiq Khan has been the mayor of London since 2016.
- Humza Yousaf was First Minister of Scotland from 2023 to 2024.
- In Germany, Cem Özdemir has been Minister of Agriculture (since 2021) and former party leader of the Greens.
If the Netherlands or Europe were systematically racist, Muslims would never reach such high positions. Democracy works here: voters elect them, parties nominate them.
Freedoms That Are Unthinkable Elsewhere
Muslims in the Netherlands have freedoms that do not exist in 90% of Islamic countries. Take a simple example: a Muslim can openly criticize, insult, or even sue King Willem-Alexander here, and nothing serious happens (lèse-majesté exists but is rarely prosecuted and at most results in a fine). In Morocco, by contrast, you risk up to five years in prison for ‘insulting the king’ (Article 179 of the Penal Code), the Amir al-Mouminine (‘Commander of the Faithful’). There are countless cases of activists and journalists who spent years in prison for a Facebook post or a critical remark.
Here there are no blasphemy laws, no apostasy penalties, no mandatory sharia. Muslims freely build mosques (more than 450 in the Netherlands), receive subsidies for schools, receive welfare benefits, and can file discrimination complaints with the courts. They pray freely, fast freely, wear what they want just like all other Dutch citizens.
Persecution? A Gross Exaggeration
To call Muslims in the Netherlands ‘persecuted’ is a gross exaggeration and a nonsensical generalization. An illegal investigation into a specific group (driven by concerns about radicalization) is a blunder, not proof of state racism. Mosques are open, Friday prayers go on, nobody is arrested for praying. On the contrary: the rule of law protects Muslims just as it does everyone else.
The distrust Paas mentions has causes but it does not make the Netherlands a racist hell. It makes us a country with common sense, one that corrects its mistakes without condemning the entire society.
The Distrust Why Does It Actually Exist?
Yes, Stefan Paas has a point: there is distrust toward Muslims in the Netherlands. To deny that would be foolish. But the question is: where does that distrust come from? Is it because the Dutch are inherently ugly, racist people who should be ashamed of their colonial past? No, cut it out with that leftist guilt talk. That is a cheap distraction.
The Netherlands is not a racist country, and the Dutch are not ‘rednecks’ or con artists. Every society has its problems and oddities, but this people is absolutely not inherently evil or xenophobic. I speak from experience: as an African-American Copt living here, who has learned Dutch and runs multiple businesses (no shawarma shops, for the record), I can freely go to the Coptic church, pray, and go home without anyone giving me a second glance. My Hindustani friends and employees celebrate Diwali without some official coming to ‘investigate’ whether it might be radicalization. Nobody makes a problem out of it.
Even Christians sometimes get strange treatment: a pastor was arrested because someone felt he held anti-gay views or prayed that gays would be ‘healed.’ As a Christian, that made me angry, but I’m not going to shout that the Netherlands is Christophobic or racist. It is bureaucracy that sometimes goes too far, not a system that oppresses believers.
The distrust is not primarily directed at Muslims as people people are people, in every culture and religion. There are always individuals who spew online hate against Dutch culture or call for everyone to convert to Islam, and yes, that sometimes feeds a personal resentment. But let’s be honest: the real distrust is directed at Islam as an ideology, as a dogma.
Why? Because Islam is not simply a private faith that stays neatly at home. In its classical texts and historical application, it contains elements that are difficult to reconcile with an open, secular society: verses that call for struggle against unbelievers (the Sword Verse from Surah 9:5 is not a metaphor), a prophet whose biography includes wars, conquests, and executions (such as the 900 men of Banu Qurayza), and a long history of expansion that has wiped out entire Christian regions.
That is not a ‘phobia’; it is a rational response to an ideology that, in its pure form, cannot always coexist peacefully alongside other convictions. People distrust Islam because they know the texts, know the history, and see the news reports not because they are ‘racist.’ The distrust is not blind hatred; it is common sense that says: “We have seen this before, and we don’t want it here.”
Muslims as people deserve respect and freedom, just like everyone else. But Islam as a system? You can distrust that without being a bad person.
The Distrust Deepened Why the Entire West Feels It
The distrust toward Islam as an ideology is not a Dutch phenomenon. It exists across the entire Western world: Europe, America, Australia, Canada. And no, it does not come from ‘colonial guilt’ or because we are all secretly racists. It comes from facts hard, bloody facts that nobody can whitewash.
Since 1979, nearly 70,000 Islamist terrorist attacks have been carried out worldwide (according to the latest Fondapol figures from 2025, based on 45 years of data). This resulted in at least 250,000 deaths. Most victims fall in Muslim countries themselves (more than 90%), but the attacks spread across the entire planet: India (thousands dead in Kashmir, Mumbai 2008 with 166 victims), Africa (Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab), Asia, and yes, also the West and Australia.
In India alone, tens of thousands dead from fundamentalist violence think train bombings, market explosions, attacks on temples. Wherever literal, fundamentalist interpretations of Islam dominate, mass slaughter follows.
Filtering for the West (Europe, US, Australia, Canada): hundreds of attacks since 2000, with thousands dead. Examples etched in our memory:
- 9/11 (US, 2001): nearly 3,000 dead.
- Madrid trains (2004): 191 dead.
- London 7/7 (2005): 52 dead.
- Paris Bataclan and terraces (2015): 130 dead.
- Nice truck attack (2016): 86 dead.
- Manchester Arena (2017): 22 dead.
- And more recently: the ISIS-inspired attack on Bondi Beach in Sydney (December 2025), where a terrorist shot 15 people dead during a Hanukkah celebration the deadliest attack in Australia in decades.
These are not ‘incidents.’ This is a pattern. And it continues, to this very day (early 2026). It is impossible to act as if 70,000 attacks are ‘nothing,’ or ‘a small problem.’ Every attack leaves scars: families without a father, children without a mother, cities in mourning. Anyone who trivializes that is living in denial.
The Big Problem of Ignorance The Numbers Don’t Lie
Here comes the biggest source of concern: the scale. There are over 2 billion Muslims in the world. Hypothetically assume and this is a rough, commonly used estimate in debates that ‘only’ 10% are fundamentalist (meaning they follow the texts strictly literally, including the violent verses). That is 200 million people.
Now assume that of that 10%, again ‘only’ 10% are willing to take action (not all terrorists, but supporters, financiers, or potentially violent). That is still 20 million people.
20 million. Let that sink in.
How large was Hitler’s army at its peak? The Wehrmacht counted a maximum of around 13 million soldiers. And how many allies did Hitler have among certain groups in the Arab world? Think of figures who openly collaborated with him.
20 million potential adversaries shouting ‘death to America,’ ‘death to Israel,’ ‘death to the West’ that is not a ‘small group of extremists.’ That is an army larger than what set the world ablaze in the 1940s.
Of course, not nearly all Muslims are like that. Most just want to live their lives. But the potential, the ideology that fuels it, and the attacks that keep coming that makes distrust understandable. It is not a phobia. It is realism.
Vigilance Works Prevented Attacks and Why Intelligence Work Is Crucial
The distrust is not blind fear, but a response to a real threat that is fortunately often stopped thanks to excellent intelligence work by NATO countries and their security services. Yes, attacks have gotten through Bataclan, Nice, Manchester but many more have been prevented. That proves how important proactive defense is.
In the EU alone, according to Europol reports (TE-SAT), dozens of jihadist plots were thwarted in recent years:
- Between 2019 and 2021: at least 29 jihadist or far-right plots stopped.
- In 2024: 19 thwarted attacks in total (out of 58 reported).
- In the UK: between 2017 and recent years, more than 30 ‘late-stage’ plots prevented, mostly jihadist.
Examples of successful operations:
- Multiple thwarted attacks on Christmas markets in Germany (inspired by ISIS).
- Plots against concert halls and airports in the UK and France.
- In the US: numerous lone-wolf plans stopped by the FBI, such as subway bombings in New York.
Every thwarted plot potentially saves hundreds of lives think of the scale of Bataclan (130 dead) or Nice (86 dead). Thousands of lives have been saved thanks to tips, surveillance, infiltration, and international cooperation. Without that work, the West would look much bloodier.
Of course, far-right and neo-Nazi plots are also stopped and rightly so. In the UK, of the 32 thwarted plots since 2017, 12 were far-right. In the EU, that number is rising. But here lies the difference: those are domestic problems. Neo-Nazis do not attack in Morocco, Egypt, or Indonesia. Saudi Arabia does not have a ‘white Nazi terror problem.’ Dubai does not monitor churches or Hindu temples because no threat comes from there Christians and Hindus do not carry out attacks there.
Conversely: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain (not Qatar) strictly monitor mosques and have banned the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, with severe criminal consequences. Why? Because the Brotherhood promotes a political Islam that threatens regimes and feeds radicalization. And ironically: the same Muslim Brotherhood, through affiliated networks, has influence on many mosques in the West (through financing, imams, and organizations like the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe). Countries like France and Austria have therefore taken action against Brotherhood-linked groups, and there are proposals in the US to designate them as a terrorist organization.
That is the asymmetry: the West must be vigilant against an international, ideological threat that can emanate from mosques and networks just as Muslim countries do for internal Islamist groups. Vigilance is not racism; it is realism that saves lives.
Without intelligence work and healthy skepticism, those 70,000 attacks worldwide would come much closer to home. The distrust is earned but it should be channeled toward prevention, not hatred.
Blaming the West White Guilt, Historical Revisionism, and Cultural Suicide
One of the biggest problems in this debate is the reflex to explain every Islamist act as ‘our fault.’ The West supposedly provoked it itself through colonialism, through the Crusades, through Israel, through ‘oppression.’ That is not only nonsense; it is toxic white guilt that leads to cultural suicide. We are mutilating our own society by turning the crimes of an ideological fringe group into a ‘Western problem.’ As if we are responsible for what others do in the name of their dogma.
The favorite excuse: “Muslims are angry because of the Crusades, that’s why they still hate us.” Bullshit. Pure historical revisionism. The Crusades (1095–1291) were not unprovoked aggression but a late, defensive response to nearly 500 years of Islamic expansion and conquest. From the 7th century onward, Islamic armies conquered the entire Middle East, North Africa, and large parts of Europe: Egypt, Syria, the Levant, Spain all originally Christian regions. Tens of thousands of churches were destroyed or converted into mosques. Christian pilgrims were robbed, murdered, or enslaved. Only when Jerusalem fell and the Seljuks threatened the Byzantine Empire did a counter-reaction come.
We do not owe that. We did not ‘provoke’ it. And we are not going to discuss the real chronology in sufficient detail here there are articles elsewhere for that. But one thing is clear: Muslim hatred of the West (and of Jews) has existed for centuries before the Crusades and before the modern era.
Take Israel as an excuse: “They do it because of the occupation.” More nonsense. Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was already best friends with Hitler in 1941. He met him personally in Berlin, called for the expansion of the Holocaust to the Middle East, recruited Muslims for SS units, and spread Nazi propaganda via radio. This was years before the establishment of Israel in 1948. There was no ‘occupation,’ no ‘Nakba’ only pure, ideological hatred of Jews that seamlessly aligned with verses in the Quran and hadith that designate Jews (and Christians) as enemies.
All of this proves once again how often ‘doormat Christians’ Christians who, out of misplaced empathy, explain everything away are wrong. By placing the blame on ourselves, we deny the reality of an ideology that is inherently expansionist and intolerant. We are committing cultural suicide: borders open, criticism taboo, defense labeled ‘racism.’ Toxic empathy turns love into capitulation.
We did not cause this. It is not a ‘reaction’ to our behavior. It is an ideological problem that we must name without guilt. Only then can we protect ourselves without hatred, but with clarity.
The Damage of Paas’s Narrative Guilt-Tripping Christians into a Utopian Worldview
People like Stefan Paas guilt-trip Christians into a completely unreal worldview: a virtual utopia where existing reality lives in Narnia, not in the world as it is. Islamist attacks happen period. Since 1979, nearly 70,000 Islamist terrorist attacks worldwide, with more than 250,000 deaths, and that pattern continues in 2025–2026 with groups like ISIS active in 22 countries and hundreds of thwarted plots in the West. In Europe and the US alone: dozens of thwarted jihadist plots in 2024–2025, such as the attack on Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna, thwarted by intelligence work that saved thousands of lives. The perpetrators come from mosques, so if some idiot thought he could save lives by covertly monitoring mosques, call him what he is: a stupid idiot. Not a racist idiot. Racism plays absolutely no role here; it was a bureaucratic blunder, not a hate campaign, and it produced zero security results.
But the only result of Paas’s thinking his portrayal of Muslims as ‘persecuted’ in the Netherlands is the creation of even more white guilt among people who did nothing except welcome Muslims into their communities. Only to wake up with some of them saying that Dutch girls are ‘whores’ who need to cover up, or who tell their children not to play with or date ‘filthy Dutch’ because they are not Muslims. And yes, the stereotypical line ‘not all Muslims are like that’ of course not, nobody ever said that! This article began by saying: people are people, Muslims are better than their dogma. The problem comes from a supposedly holy book that tells Muslims to hate the Dutch, to hate their culture. A book that says: do not take Jews and Christians as friends, because that is against the Quran (Surah 5:51). Muslims are good people, yes but many want to follow their book literally, and if the Dutch community or some of the Dutch do not trust that, it is completely understandable. The Quran is extremely hostile toward everything non-Muslim, and even more so toward Jews and Christians. FYI: Muslims view the entire West as ‘Christian’ and ‘Jewish.’ Remember the verse: “Lan tarda anka al-yahoud wal-nasara hata tatabia millatahum” (Surah 2:120) Jews and Christians will never be pleased with you until you follow their religion. And consider the doctrine of Al-Walaa wal-Baraa: loyalty to Muslims, hatred of and distance from all non-Muslims, in order to be a true worshipper of Allah!
So why does Mr. Paas act as if nothing is going on, as if the Dutch are just persecuting Muslims out of nowhere? As if that is a realistic assumption! Muslims here enjoy freedoms they do not have in 90% of Islamic countries: mayors like Ahmed Aboutaleb in Rotterdam since 2009, Ahmed Marcouch in Arnhem, Sadiq Khan in London since 2016. Criticize King Willem-Alexander without a death sentence, while in Morocco insulting the king (Amir al-Mouminine) means years in prison. Mosques open, praying freely no blasphemy laws. ‘Persecution’? A gross exaggeration.
Why is vigilance suddenly a sin and a source of guilt? Why falsely guilt-trip Christians with a false narrative and a wrong interpretation of the Bible? Yes, ‘love thy neighbor’ but what if my neighbor is a pedophile who wants to ‘date’ a 9-year-old girl? Am I supposed to hug him and love him? Should I not call the police to protect his 9-year-old ‘bride’? Should I betray 2,000 years of social development, emancipation, and civilization to turn a bunch of Christians into doormats? This guilt-tripping ignores the historical reality: the Crusades were a response to 475 years of Islamic aggression, murder of Christians, and slavery; Egypt, Syria, the Levant were Christian before 30,000 churches were burned. No revenge for the Hagia Sophia or Ottoman massacres we accept the flow of history. But we do not revise it to weaponize empathy against ourselves. Amin al-Husseini shook Hitler’s hand in 1941, before Israel pure hatred of Jews, no ‘reaction.’
Consider how disastrous that doormat behavior is, as we have discussed throughout this entire piece: it is not Christianity; it is self-destruction. Love thy neighbor stops exactly where the neighbor pulls the pin or pulls the trigger. God calls Christians to love, but also to defense of self, family, and flock. Jesus did not say we should let ourselves be slaughtered He drove out the money changers with a whip (John 2:15). Paul carried protection (Acts 23:12–24). The Bible is full of righteous defense: David against Goliath, Nehemiah who built walls with a sword in hand (Nehemiah 4:17–18). Love does not mean capitulation; it means protecting the innocent, setting boundaries, enforcing law and justice. Otherwise, you abolish everything: no borders, no police, no prisons because thieves, rapists, and bombers are also ‘enemies’ we must ‘love.’ Some Christians in America already preach this, but it is madness. Toxic empathy turns love into suicide; real love protects the flock.
Paas’s narrative feeds this doormat behavior: it guilts Christians into seeing vigilance as a sin, while it is common sense (gezond verstand). It ignores the ideological threat 200 million potential fundamentalists out of 2 billion Muslims, 20 million action-oriented, larger than Hitler’s army revises history (Crusades as ‘our fault,’ Amin al-Husseini with Hitler before Israel), and trivializes attacks. The result? Cultural suicide: open borders for hatred, no defense against dogmas that hate us. Christians, stand up defend without hatred, but with clarity. Otherwise, the river will sweep us away.
Sources and Citations
Below is a complete list of sources and citations used for the facts, statistics, and historical references in this article. They are numbered for easy reference and based on reliable, recent data (up to February 2026). Where relevant, inline citations in the text are linked to this list.
- Fondapol (2024). “Islamist terrorist attacks in the world 1979–2024.” Fondation pour l’innovation politique. Available at: https://www.fondapol.org/en/study/islamist-terrorist-attacks-in-the-world-1979-2024. (Used for statistics on 66,872 attacks and 249,941 deaths worldwide since 1979.)
- Institute for Economics and Peace (2025). “Global Terrorism Index 2025: Measuring the Impact of Terrorism.” Sydney: IEP. Available at: https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Global-Terrorism-Index-2025.pdf. (Used for terrorism trends, including the rise in the West and focus on ISIS activities in 2024–2025, with 24 thwarted attacks linked to ISIS.)
- Europol (2025). “European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2025 (EU TE-SAT).” The Hague: Europol. Available at: https://www.europol.europa.eu/publication-events/main-reports/european-union-terrorism-situation-and-trend-report-2025-eu-te-sat. (Used for statistics on 58 attacks in the EU in 2024, 449 arrests, and thwarted jihadist plots in Europe 2024–2025.)
- Cato Institute (2025). “Human Freedom Index 2025.” Washington, DC: Cato Institute. Available at: https://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index/2025. (Used for comparison of personal freedoms: Muslim-majority countries averaging 5.52 vs. nearly 9 in Europe; including women’s rights and regional differences.)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2026). “Hajj Amin al-Husayni: Key Dates.” Washington, DC: USHMM. Available at: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hajj-amin-al-husayni-key-dates. (Used for historical details about the meeting between al-Husseini and Hitler on November 28, 1941, and his role in Nazi propaganda and SS recruitment.)
- Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (2025). “The August 2024 Taylor Swift Vienna Concert Plot.” CTC Sentinel. Available at: https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-august-2024-taylor-swift-vienna-concert-plot. (Used for details on thwarted jihadist plots in Europe, including the Taylor Swift concert plot in 2024 and involvement of minors.)
- Wikipedia (2026). “2025 Bondi Beach shooting.” Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Bondi_Beach_shooting. (Used for details on the ISIS-inspired attack on December 14, 2025, in Sydney, with 16 deaths during a Hanukkah celebration.)
- Nesser, P. (2024). “Introducing the Jihadi Plots in Europe Dataset (JPED).” Perspectives on Terrorism, 18(1). Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00223433221123360. (Used for analysis of 273 jihadist plots in Western Europe 1994–2024, with 58% thwarted attacks and a focus on lone actors.)
- International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (2025). “The Islamic State in 2025: An Evolving Threat Facing a Waning Global Response.” The Hague: ICCT. Available at: https://icct.nl/publication/islamic-state-2025-evolving-threat-facing-waning-global-response. (Used for trends in ISIS threats, including the increase in minor involvement and thwarted attacks in Europe 2024–2025.)
- Danish Institute for International Studies (2025). “Europe’s Teenage Jihadists.” Copenhagen: DIIS. Available at: https://www.diis.dk/en/research/europes-teenage-jihadists. (Used for statistics on minors in jihadist plots, with 33% of European ISIS-related incidents since 2022.)
- Reuters (2024). “Fact Check: Viral post about number of Muslim mayors in UK is misleading.” Available at: https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/viral-post-about-number-muslim-mayors-uk-is-misleading-2024-06-12. (Used for verification of Muslim mayors in Europe, including Sadiq Khan and others.)
- The Quran (standard translation). Verses such as Surah 2:120, 5:51, 9:5, and doctrines such as Al-Walaa wal-Baraa. (Based on classical interpretations from Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Tafsir al-Tabari, and Tafsir al-Jalalayn; no specific web source, but academic consensus.)
These sources were selected based on their relevance and reliability. For historical facts about the Crusades, destroyed churches, and Ottoman history, general academic works were used (not specifically cited, but consistent with standard references such as “The Oxford History of the Crusades” by Jonathan Riley-Smith). For updates after 2026, consult current databases.
