THE HAGUE, 13/01/04 - Following years of preparation, the Muslims and Government Consultative Body (CMO) has become a reality. The articles of association of the central Islamic body will be approved by a notary tomorrow.

The CMO represents seven Sunni umbrella organisations for mosques. It will function as consultative partner of the government and a body providing Islamic spiritual carers in healthcare institutions, prisoners and the army. Earlier Islamic councils collapsed on ethnic and religious content disputes or failed to make agreements on representation.

Integration Minister Rita Verdonk considers the CMO sufficiently representative of the over 900,000 Muslims in the Netherlands, stating that the body speaks for 80 percent of them. Non-Sunni organisations may be able to join following its formal establishment, according to the minister.

But the Ahmadiyya Muslims' organisation Ulamon is unconvinced of this. Many Surinam Sunnis in particular do not recognise Ahmadis as Muslims. Chairman H. Mahawat Khan is accusing the seven founding CMO organisations of drawing up membership criteria to exclude the approximately 15,000 Ahmadis.

According to Mahawat Khan, the CMO will be a bulwark of conservative Sunnis, which exclude other Islamic movements. He plans if necessary to take the CMO and Verdonk to court to force through membership of his organisation. "I shall not rest until we have either joined the CMO, or have a separate seat at the table with the minister," he said.

Khan considers Verdonk is co-responsible for the exclusion of his organisation, because she has approved the CMO's articles of association. Earlier, the umbrella organisation for liberal Alevetic Muslems (Hak.Der) decided not to join the CMO. It has since joined the Humanist Alliance.