(NL Times) Mayor Marja van Bijsterveldt is under fire for commissioning a covert investigation into the Islamic community of Delft in 2017, a move she admitted on a secretly recorded tape was made without specific cause. The recording, obtained by the Algemeen Dagblad (AD), is now central to a lawsuit brought against the municipality by the Stichting Al Ansaar, the organization behind the Al Ansaar Mosque.
Van Bijsterveldt’s comments on the tape contradict her previous public statements about the controversial investigation. “I am sometimes still flabbergasted by the enormous impact,” she is heard saying on the recording. “I think, how is it possible? What began as something like, ‘Oh, many municipalities do this, so let’s go ahead.’ And it had to be discreet? Fine, we’ll do it discreetly.”
