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 sentence “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 around fifty counter-demonstrators, who fell back on the other side of the canal along the Ankara representation in the -Down.
When Mr. Wagensveld tore up the pages, some of these counter-protesters threw stones in his direction. As Mr Wagensveld left, the counter-protesters chanted ” God is great “ and tried to catch up with him, before being stopped by about twenty policemen with sticks and shields.
Korans burned in Sweden and Denmark
The Minister of Justice, Dilan Yesilgöz, quoted Friday morning by the Dutch press agency ANP, had qualified as“pretty primitive and pathetic” destroying or burning a book. “It’s allowed in our country, you have that freedom”, she added, however. According to Mme Yesilgöz, a possible terrorist attack in retaliation for the destruction of a Koran is a threat that must be taken into account.
“The City Council of The Hague is responsible for a respectful and inclusive city and distances itself from behavior that does not contribute to it”said the mayor of The Hague, Jan van Zanen in a press release sent to AFP on Friday morning, specifying that Dutch legislation 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.