HAARLEM, 30/05/07 - A Moroccan man who was opposing the Moroccan state intervention with the names given to children born in the Netherlands has halted his campaign. The many threats he received were too much for him, newspaper De Volkskrant reported yesterday.

In registering a newly-born baby, Moroccan parents have a list stuck under their nose by Dutch municipalities out of which they have to choose a name. This official list distributed by the Moroccan government contains only Arabic names. This is discriminatory and violates freedom of choice, according to Moussa Aynan. Dutch municipalities are thereby an outpost of the Moroccan government, De Volkskrant quoted him as saying.

The 34 year old Aynan, who has just become a father himself, is a Labour (PvdA) council member in Haarlem. Hundreds of angry and threatening reactions have reportedly come in on his website in the past weeks from the Netherlands and abroad. So many that he has now decided to remove his weblog from the air. "It became too much, my wife particularly became afraid," said Aynan in the newspaper.

Aynan: "Islamic names do not exist. Muslims from Indonesia or India also have names that are not on the list. This list is Arab-nationalistic." He regrets that his initiative has been "hijacked by both Christian fundamentalists as Islamic fanatics."