THE HAGUE, 04/02/04 - Dissatisfied with the composition of the Contact Organ for Muslims and Government (CMO), four Islamic groups will set up their own organisation tomorrow: the Contact Group Islam. "The struggle which has taken place between the various Islamic movements during the past months has now officially ended in a split", its spokesperson Hikmat Mahawat Khan reported yesterday.

Then Integration Minister Roger van Boxtel decided to launch a contact group three years ago following anti-gay statements by Rotterdam imam El Moumni. It was intended that the group would come to represent the Islamic community in the Netherlands as the government's dialogue partner. Van Boxtel approached the umbrella organisation of mosques in the Netherlands and appointed the organisation Islam & Citizenship to guide this process.

A number of Islamic movements however, did not feel represented by the CMO. These included the Alevites, the Shiites and the Ahmaddiya movement, and since a number of weeks also the Dutch Muslim Council (NMR) which represents Sunnites. "We were knowingly being excluded. The CMO consists of six orthodox Muslims, who will soon be personally consulting with the government. They do not represent a rank and file and hold dubious ideas concerning for example the equality of men and women. They are not in fact all that different from El Moumni", according to Mahawat Khan on the radio programme 'De Ochtenden'.

The Contact Group Islam to be launched at a press conference in The Hague tomorrow will compel an equal position from present Integration Minister Verdonk as that of the CMO, Mahawat Khan stressed. "The minister is not doing anything and that is unacceptable". Christian Democrat (CDA) MP Mirjam Sterk's reaction during the radio broadcast was that the official split was "a great pity". She is not intending to oppose the new CMO but is assuming that it will remain open towards people with other opinions.