The Dutch city of Rotterdam is getting a Muslim as mayor.It has been announced that Social Affairs State Secretary Ahmed Aboutaleb will succeed Ivo Opstelten in the Netherlands' second-largest city.
Aboutaleb is a member of Labour (PvdA). The PvdA-dominated local council of Rotterdam nominated him yesterday.
Home Affairs Minister Guusje ter Horst has yet to appoint him but her approval is a mere formality.
Aboutaleb, like all Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands. has both Dutch and Moroccan nationality.
Observers say he combines his Muslim faith with a political style that is typically Dutch: consensus and dialogue are paramount.
Some Muslims consider him too 'white,' some 'whites' find him too soft. In reality, Aboutaleb is in the Labour (PvdA) tradition of anti-polarisation.
Aboutaleb, whose father was an Imam, was born in Beni Sidel, Morocco on August 29, 1961. He came to the Netherlands aged 16. In 1987, he graduated from a college (HBO) in electrical engineering and telecommunication.
But he pursued a career as a journalist for a variety of TV broadcasters and news programmes.
In 1998, he became a member of the Institute for Multicultural Development (FORUM).
Two yeas later, he joined the Education Council and in 2002, he became Amsterdam local council's director of Social, Economic and Cultural Development.
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(Source: RI)