From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Dutch mosque severs ties with imam after he visits Israel
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleRossella Tercatin is The Times of Israel's archaeology and religions reporter.
A mosque in the Dutch city of Alkmaar severs ties with an imam after he joins a delegation visiting Israel.
Youssef Masbeh is currently visiting Israel on a tour for Europe-based Muslim community leaders organized by ELNET, an organization that promotes ties between the Jewish state and Europe.
On Monday, the group met with President Isaac Herzog at the President’s Residence.
When Masbeh introduced himself to Herzog, he took the opportunity to sing a special chant in Arabic, offering a reinterpretation of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah. Masbeh also invited his colleagues and the other participants to join him in singing and dancing.
“The mosque’s position is clear and unequivocal. Once again, there is no place for the imam within the mosque. The board bears no responsibility whatsoever for his statements or actions outside the mosque. There is no longer any formal or substantive relationship between him and Mosque Bilal Alkmaar,” reads a statement published on the mosque’s website in Dutch, Arabic, and English.
While the statement does not mention Masbeh by name, a spokesperson for ELNET confirmed to The Times of Israel that it refers to the imam.
A video of a lecture by Masbeh was also taken down from the mosque’s YouTube channel.
It is not immediately clear what Masbeh’s position within the mosque was.
According to the biography provided to the media by ELNET ahead of the meeting with Herzog, Masbeh pursued his studies at Al-Azhar University in Egypt and then at the Mohammed VI Institute for the training of Imams and Mourchidines in Rabat, Morocco. He has been serving as an imam in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway for nearly 20 years.
“The mosque and its community must be kept out of this matter,” the statement by the Bilal Mosque adds. “The imam acted in a personal capacity, and his actions are entirely separate from the vision of the mosque and its congregation. We therefore strongly urge everyone not to place pressure on or interfere with the board, the volunteers, or the members of the mosque. Tolerance and wisdom are our strength.”
On Monday, the imam delegation also held meetings at the Knesset, and visited Jerusalem’s Old City and Muslim, Jewish, and Christian holy sites, including the Temple Mount, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound stands.
Other highlights of the trip include a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, meetings with Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef and with IDF Arabic Spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee, and visits with family members of former Bedouin hostages in Gaza and Druze victims of the Majdal Shams massacre at the hands of Hezbollah.
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