Junior defence minister Jack de Vries is heading for a clash with parliament over his determination to name controversial Muslim cleric Ali Eddaoudi as imam to the armed forces, the Volkskrant reports on Monday.

The right-wing Liberal party VVD has submitted a motion to parliament calling for the appointment to be overturned. The motion has the backing of the Christian Democrats, anti-immigration party PVV and the fundamentalist Christian grouping SGP – a total of 74 out of 150 MPs. The vote is on Tuesday.
Eddaoudi, who is also a columnist, is under fire for statements in which he criticised prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende and the Nato mission to Afghanistan.
But De Vries says the imam has now explained that his remarks were directed at former US president George Bush’s ‘war on terror’ which had made him extremely angry.
De Vries said he is convinced Eddaoudi will do his work as a military cleric ‘with integrity’.