A copy of the Koran was trampled on and torn on Friday August 18 in the Netherlands during a far-right demonstration outside the Turkish embassy in The Hague, angering dozens of counter-protesters. The Dutch authorities had condemned this action beforehand, while ensuring that they did not have the legal means to prohibit it.
Edwin Wagensveld, head of the Dutch branch of the far-right Pegida movement, jumped on the book considered the holiest in Islam, which he then tore up, Agence France-Presse correspondents have found. (AFP). Accompanied by two people, the man was decked out in a T-shirt on which appeared the phrase “Islam is no better than Nazism”.
The police had blocked access to the street in the center of The Hague where the Turkish embassy is located to about fifty counter-protesters, who fell back on the other side of the canal alongside the representation of Ankara in the -Down.
When Mr. Wagensveld tore up the pages, a party of these counter-protesters threw rocks in his direction. As Mr. Wagensveld left, the counter-protesters chanted “Allah akbar” and tried to catch up to him, only to be stopped by about 20 policemen with sticks and shields.
Korans burned in Sweden and Denmark
Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgöz, quoted by the Dutch news agency ANP on Friday morning, had called it “quite primitive and pathetic” to destroy or burn a book. “It’s allowed in our country, you have that freedom,” she added, however. According to Ms. Yesilgöz, a possible terrorist attack in retaliation for the destruction of a Quran is a threat that must be taken into account.
“The Hague City Council is responsible for a respectful and inclusive city and distances itself from behavior that does not contribute to this,” Mayor of The Hague Jan van Zanen said in a statement sent to AFP on Friday morning. , stating that Dutch law did not allow him to ban the event.
The leader of the far-right PVV party, Geert Wilders, has given his support to the action of Pegida on X (formerly Twitter). At the end of January, Mr. Wagensveld was filmed leading the same type of demonstration, in front of the Dutch Parliament.
At the end of July, two men set fire to a copy of the Koran in front of the Parliament in Stockholm. Similar actions also took place this year in Denmark. These incidents have caused condemnation and unrest in several Muslim countries. In response, Sweden decided on Thursday to raise its level of terrorist alert.