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Hofstad Network
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==History== In 2002, the Hofstad group was discovered by the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD). The intelligence gathered in the first years after the group was discovered was limited, revealing that the group had only been meeting together. These were informal living-room meetings held by a [[Syria]]n asylum-seeker. By the end of 2002, the AIVD began to suspect that the organization was developing extremist views and discussing mass casualty events.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} On 14 October 2003, Samir Azzouz, Ismail Akhnikh, [[Jason Walters]] and Redouan al-Issar were put under arrest for planning a (according to the AIVD) "terrorist attack in the Netherlands", but were released soon after. Azzouz was eventually tried in this case, but acquitted for lack of evidence in 2005: he did possess what he thought to be a home-made bomb, but having used the wrong type of [[fertilizer]], the device would never have exploded.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} At the beginning of 2003, a Hofstad member and his friend tried to join an Islamic rebel group in [[Chechnya]], but were discovered by authorities and arrested. During the summer, two Hofstad group members traveled to [[Pakistan]] where they received paramilitary training. In September, the two men returned and it was discovered by authorities{{which|date=November 2019}} that these same men could be traced to having talked to a man having ties to the Casablanca bombings earlier that year.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} On 14 October of that year, the Spanish authorities arrested a Moroccan man who was suspected to be involved in suspicious activity. Police in the Netherlands arrested five Hofstad associates, including three who had traveled abroad and were in contact with extremists in Morocco and Syria.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} In 2003, [[Mohammed Bouyeri]], the man who murdered Dutch filmmaker [[Theo van Gogh (film director)|Theo van Gogh]], was radicalized. He withdrew from mainstream Dutch society by quitting his job and distancing himself from all friends and family who were non-religious.<ref name=":0" /> During this time, he became known as the "[[Taliban]]" by many in his neighborhood.<ref name=":0"/> In 2004, the group was under heavy surveillance by the AIVD, which dampened the group's activities.<ref name=":0"/> On 18 May 2004, authorities received a tip that a grocery store worker had been involved in preparing for a terror attack. A couple weeks later, the Dutch secret service had arrested this man after capturing him on security cameras taking measurements of the Dutch secret service headquarters. Upon his arrest, police found maps as well as weapons that could be used to carry out the terror attacks.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} On 29 August 2004, Van Gogh and [[Ayaan Hirsi Ali]] created a short film, [[Submission (2004 film)|Submission]], that contained scenes of Quranic verses being painted onto semi-naked women.<ref name="Conquest 1985 56β75">{{Citation|last=Conquest|first=Robert|chapter=January 1938βAugust 1938: Terror Renewed|date=1985|pages=56β75|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=9781349079889|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-07986-5_5|title=Inside Stalin's Secret Police|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 }}</ref> This was the catalyst for the group's radicalization and Bouyeri's justification to kill Van Gogh for the blasphemy of Islam.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}
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