Johannes JG Jansen

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Johannes J.G. Jansen (born Amsterdam 1942 - ) was an academic and later an MEP with Geert Wilders PVV party. In Dutch he wrote as ‘Hans Jansen'[1]

Jansen died in May 2015 at the age of 72.[2]

Background

Education

Jansen studied in Amsterdam (1960-1964), Cairo (1966-1967) and Leiden (1964-1968). He received degrees from the Theological Faculty of Amsterdam University (Biblical Hebrew and the History of Philosophy, 1961), the Amsterdam University Faculty of Arts (BA, Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic, 1964) and the Leiden Faculty of Arts (MA, Arabic, Turkish, and History of the Middle East). He received a doctorate at Leiden in 1974.[1]

Academic career

Jansen first taught at Groningen University (1975-1979) and then at Amsterdam University (1982). From early 1979 till the summer of 1982 he was director of the Dutch research center in Cairo, the Nederlands Instituut voor Arabische Studiën en Egyptische Archeologie. He later taught Arabic and Islamic Studies at Leiden University from 1982 till May 2005 and was Houtsma professor for Contemporary Islamic Thought in the Department of Arabic, Persian and Turkish at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands) from 2003 till his retirement in 2008.[1]

Political career

In July 2014 Jansen became a member of the parliament of the European Union for anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders' party, the Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV).

Activities

Counterjihad connections

Theo van Gogh

Jansen was employed by Theo van Gogh as his tutor on Islam.[3]

Geert Wilders

In 2010-2011 Jansen was witness for the defense in the trial against Geert Wilders.

He was elected as an MEP with Wilders Partij voor de Vrijheid in July 2014.

International Free Press Society

In 2011, Jansen spoke at an event organised by the International Free Press Society (IFPS) in Copenhagen. His talk was entitled 'The historicity of Mohammed, Aisha and who knows who else'.[1]

International Civil Liberties Alliance

In 2012, he spoke at an event in Brussels organised by the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA). His talk was entitled 'What is sharia, where does it come from, and why does it matter so much?'.[1]

Bat Ye'or

In 2012 or 2013, Jansen co-founded the International Center for Western Values with Bat Ye'or, a key ideologue of the [[counterjihad movement] whose books popularised the Eurabia conspiracy theory.

Views

Headscarves as 'Islamist propaganda'

In August 2008, Jansen accused the SNS Bank of engaging in Islamist propaganda because of its advertising featured a picture of women in Muslim headscarves.[4]

'Defending peace' through violence

Jansen has described the Netherlands as "a peaceful enclave" whose people have "forgotten that peace sometimes needs to be defended through violence." Writing in the magazine Opinio, he argued that "We do not realise that the threat of violence, and violence itself, can only be stopped through the controlled and cunning use of violence". He called for the Dutch secret service to create a department "that gets its hands dirty, if need be".[5]

Jansen was an important source of inspiration for the Dutch politician Geert Wilders and appeared on several TV programmes to explain the content of Wilders' anti-Muslim film Fitna.[6]Jansen said of the film, "Wilders has caused the whole of the Leftwing Church to look foolish".[7]He also criticised the response of the Dutch Christian Democrats to Fitna's release, saying "Don't they even have an intern in the party who could look up what happened with the church under Islam?"[8]

Criticisms

Other Dutch scholars, including Professor Martin van Bruinessen and Professor Dick Douwes, have accused Jansen of engaging in unscientific polemic.[9]

Affiliations

Publications

  • Johannes JG Jansen, The Neglected Duty: The Creed of Sadat's Assassins, RVP Press, New York, April 2013. 'Supported' by the International Center for Western Values which describes the book as a 'new edition of a groundbreaking study [first published in 1986] on the ideological roots of the Muslim Brotherhood'.

Website

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Short CV in English, Arabist Jansen, accessed 12 December 2008 (Word document). Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Arabist" defined multiple times with different content
  2. Arabist en PVV'er Hans Jansen overleden, Nos.nl, 5 May 2015
  3. Islam Expert: Netherlands Tolerates Muslim Excesses NIS News Bulletin, 24 March 2007.
  4. 'SNS Bank bedrijft islamitische propaganda', by Robbert de Witt, Elsevier.nl, 6 August 2008 (Dutch).
  5. Islam Expert: Netherlands Tolerates Muslim Excesses NIS News Bulletin, 24 March 2007.
  6. [Dutch Arabist causes irritation among his peers],by Michel Hoebink, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 24 April 2008.
  7. Media divided on Wilders film, NIS News Bulletin, 29 March 2008.
  8. Churches, Muslims in Joint Statement against MP Wilders, NIS News Bulletin, 19 March 2008.
  9. [Dutch Arabist causes irritation among his peers],by Michel Hoebink, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 24 April 2008.