The Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) has followed politicians, left-wing and right-wing activists, and religious leaders for years using fake accounts, reports the national newspaper NRC on Friday. nltimes.nl/2021/04/10/onl…
Note that the NCTV is not an intelligence or law enforcement agency: it does not have the mandate to monitor and gather info on individuals. Its reports are important and only rarely contested in media and politics.
The newspaper article also shows clear anti-Muslim bias, a stronger focus on Salafism than on far right (although that may be changing). The latter often seen as a matter of violation of laws and polarization and the former as a more existential threat. nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/04…
This is not new however. In the volume I edited with Nadia Fadil and Francesco Ragazzi, several authors have already outlined and discussed the underpinnings of the counter-radicalization and its consequences for terrorism trials, surveillance and trust. bloomsbury.com/uk/radicalizat…
In the book with Carmen Becker and Ineke Roex we show political pressures and a stronger anti-Muslim bias in debates and policies co-emerge in reaction to the Sharia4 militants and the war volunteers travelling to Syria palgrave.com/gp/book/978303…
Like in the Dutch tax scandal where the state secretly targeted Dutch citizens, often with a migration background, the counter-radicalization is yet another instance of institutionalization of Islamophobia, governmental distrust and excessive risk thinking.
We should, therefore, not only focus on the Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security, but have a debate on what kind of state we want. What should be the ideal face and workings of the state? And how can we hold the state accountable?
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