Dutch imams 'leaving in droves'

BBC News jan 2007

Issues including the wearing of the burqa have sparked fierce debate

Moderate Muslim preachers are leaving the Netherlands and being replaced by more extreme clerics, senior Dutch Muslim officials have warned.

Nasr Joemann of the Netherlands' Muslim Contact Group (CMO) said imams felt discriminated against and were leaving for France and Spain.

Of 450 Dutch mosques, 180 had no imam, leaving a vacuum that uncertified clerics were filling, he told BBC News.