'Resistance and opposition', stagnating growth of Salafi movement
The growth of the Salafi movement in our country is stagnating owing to increased resistance. This process is also reducing the breeding ground for radicalisation. These findings have emerged from the AIVD report Resistance and opposition. This report is a follow-up to the publication The radical dawa in transition, which came out in the autumn of 2007.
Because Salafism is movement that can have a polarising influence on society, however, monitoring developments carefully remains important. In making our assessment of the threat, we need to guard against either underestimating or overestimating problems.
The report states that resistance has increased due to publications about the risks posed by Salafism and due to initiatives on a local government level. These have contributed to an increases in resistance to the radical dawa with the Netherlands Muslim community. Increasingly, moderate Muslims are less afraid to express their disagreement with the anti-integrationist and intolerantly isolationist message of the Salafi preachers. In the past two years the AIVD has visited various mayors and dozens of regional councils to inform them about the non-violent dawa.