A copy of the Koran was trampled on and torn in the Netherlands on Friday 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 movement Pegida, jumped on the book considered the most sacred of Islam which he then tore up, found AFP correspondents. Accompanied by two people, the man was decked out in a t-shirt on which appeared the phrase “Islam is not 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 50 counter-protesters, who fell back on the other side of the canal alongside the representation of Ankara in the Nederlands. When Wagensveld tore up the pages, some of these counter-protesters threw stones in his direction. Leaving Wagensveld, the counter-demonstrators chanted “Allah Akbar” and tried to catch up with him, before being stopped by about twenty police officers armed with sticks and shields.
“Primitive and pathetic”
The Minister of Justice, Dilan Yezilgöz, quoted Friday morning by the Dutch press agency ANP, had described as “quite primitive and pathetic” the act of destroying or burning a book. But “it is allowed in our country, you have this freedom”, she however added. According to Yezilgöz, a possible terrorist attack in retaliation for the destruction of the 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 Mayor of The Hague Jan van Zanen in a statement sent Friday morning to the ‘AFP, stating that Dutch law does not allow it 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, 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.