Soner Atasoy, the director of the Amsterdam Cornelius Haga Lyceum who was fired in 2020, has not disappeared from Islamic education. Atasoy, for whom intelligence service AIVD warned about radical connections in 2019, has found his way back after a series of unsuccessful lawsuits. Not to his old Haga Lyceum, but by founding a private school.
The school in The Hague has been in use – out of sight of the government – since 2021, says Atasoy to NRC, and now has a first and a second class, 7 teachers and about 45 Muslim students. The name? The Secret Annex Lyceum.
Indeed, named after Anne Frank’s hiding place. Because Muslims who are “not on a government leash” are hunted “like the Jews in World War II,” says Atasoy, referring to his years of, often legal battle against the government for their own school. “We are not yet gassed, but we are smeared and splashed. Our rights expire.”
The Achterhuis Lyceum marks the return of the orthodox Albanian Dutchman Atasoy, who wanted to keep former minister Arie Slob (ChristenUnie) out of education at all costs. In 2019, after AIVD warnings about terrorist ties and a highly critical inspection report, Slob ordered Atasoy and his fellow Haga directors to leave. But the judge overturned Slobs’ designation and on Wednesday the Council of State also brushed aside the latest criticism (about mismanagement). In the meantime, the chairman of the Haga Lyceum had already fired Atasoy.
cleverness
And now the much-discussed driver is back, with a little cleverness. Until recently, the Achterhuis Lyceum only taught a small group of ‘home school pupils’: children who were exempted from the registration requirement by appealing to the lack of Islamic education in The Hague. The Secret Annex organized this ‘home education’ in such a way that the children took lessons together – in a classroom, with a teacher, NRC. But Atasoy wants to grow quickly and so the school has also been welcoming students without exemption since this year. To make that next step official, Atasoy told the Education Inspectorate about his hidden lyceum.
The Inspectorate will soon visit the Secret Annex, a spokesperson confirms, and checks whether it meets the minimum requirements (think: safety, authorized teachers). If so, it will be recognized as a private school and supervised, but more limited than at mainstream schools. For example, financial inspections are not possible; After all, a private school does not run on government money. When asked how he finances the school, Atasoy replies that the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) “must figure that out” and refers – “with a wink” – to the government’s list of unfree countries, drawn up to prevent foreign interference in mosques. to go. “They can go all those countries.”
Also read:Education inspectorate wanted to get rid of Haga top
If the Inspectorate recognizes the Secret Annex, the Netherlands will have about 65 private secondary schools – together accounting for 0.01 percent of all students – and three Islamic secondary schools. Atasoy and its Rotterdam competitor the Avicenna College, which is seen as more progressive and mainly has good contact with the government, have been trying for years to claim the place for regular Islamic education in The Hague, legally thwarting each other.
In the most recent lawsuit filed by Atasoy, the Council of State will decide next month whether the ministry correctly approved the Avicenna plans. Fearing government interference, Atasoy . refused repeatedly give the judge the intended address of the Secret Annex during the hearing. According to Atasoy, a ministry official frustrated an agreement in principle with the owner of the property. The ministry denies this and says it will treat the Secret Annex the same as other schools – as well as the inspectorate, which assesses the initiative “on the basis of legal requirements”.
trainers
Atasoy’s struggle for an Islamic school started in 2011. Amsterdam and the Ministry of Education spent six years training his plans for the Haga Lyceum, partly because they feared poor quality and wanted a say in the composition of the board. After the intervention of the Council of State, the school was still able to open, but Atasoy did not enjoy his victory for long. In early 2019, Mayor Femke Halsema revealed AIVD warnings that Atasoy had contact with Chechen terrorists between 2009 and 2012 and wanted to steer the Haga Lyceum in a Salafist direction. It led to an extensive investigation by the Education Inspectorate, which found no undemocratic tendencies, but did critically assess citizenship education and financial management – after which former minister Slob Atasoy’s administration unlawfully summed up.
In the meantime, other government institutions also appeared to have colored outside the lines to curb Atasoy. For example, the NCTV repeatedly unsuccessfully urged the Public Prosecution Service to prosecute the school administrator and the intelligence supervisor CTIVD expressed strong criticism of the AIVD at the end of 2019.
The AIVD had insufficiently substantiated the fact that Atasoy and his brother – also involved in the Haga Lyceum and Het Achterhuis Lyceum – maintained contacts with terrorists, and the CTIVD judged that they are ‘associated with financing’ as ‘too over-simplified’. That the AIVD had warned was nevertheless justified and a few passages about the Atasoy brothers remained intact, including that they have been ‘since 2000 in a Salafist and radical environment’.