Ahmed Aboutaleb, the Muslim mayor of Rotterdam,not everyone is a coward
Muslim Mayor: ‘I Cannot Accept that Poverty Leads to Terrorism,’ ‘If You Do Not Like’ Western Values, ‘F*** Off,’ Leave!
By Barbara Boland | 5 hours ago
“I cannot accept that poverty leads to terrorism,” Ahmed Aboutaleb, the Muslim mayor of Rotterdam, told CNN Wednesday, taking issue with the Obama administration’s claims. “I know how it is to live in poverty. I spent 15 years in Morocco on one meal a day, walking without shoes… I know how it is to be a product of poverty.”
The mayor made headlines in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks when he said on a Dutch television program:
“It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom. But if you do not like freedom, in Heaven’s name pack your bag and leave. There may be a place in the world where you can be yourself. Be honest with yourself and do not go and kill innocent journalists.
And if you do not like it here because humorists you do not like make a newspaper, may I then say you can f*** off.
This is stupid, this so incomprehensible. Vanish from the Netherlands if you cannot find your place here.”
He told Michael Holmes on CNN that what he’s received thousands of emails praising his courageous words.