University of Amsterdam cancels radical meeting....

If people hadn't protested, the meeting would have gone on...

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) has cancelled a meeting of radical Muslims about the war in Gaza at the last minute after an intervention by website Geenstijl.nl.

The meeting was to be held on 17 January in a room at the UVA and was arranged by the Al Furqan organisation, which also runs a mosque in Eindhoven. The main speaker was to be Okay Pala, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir. This movement is banned in many countries as a terrorist organisation, but not in the Netherlands.

Geenstijl.nl on its website showed the promotional poster displayed on the site Islamleer.nl this week. The poster states that "The only solution for the Palestinian conflict is the reestablishment of the Islamic state Al Khalifa" because "merely donating money and expressing sympathy is not enough". The poster also showed a Jihadist action figure and stated that men and women would sit separately at the meeting.

The Party for Freedom (PVV) requested an explanation from Education Minister Ronald Plasterk on Thursday. "What should be a bastion of learning has sunk to become an institution where mediaeval practices take place," MP Martin Bosma said of the UvA. "A terrorist organisation is being allowed to promote the caliphate there".