Mosques Increasing Targeted In Anti-Muslim Attacks In The Netherlands, Book Says
07 June 2019Islamophobia, Europe
A group of academics in the Netherlands has prepared and published a book to
point out the growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the country, which has caused
various attacks on Muslims and their properties as well as legal prohibitions
on Islamic communities' ways of life.
The book, "Mosques at Target," was written by a 12-person team comprising of
Muslim and non-Muslim academics, researchers and jurists with the initiation
and coordination of the Netherlands Diyanet Foundation. The project aims to
keep the growing anti-Muslim trends on the agenda and draw the public's and
politicians' attention to this phenomenon.
The director of the project, Ineke van der Valk, a researcher at Leiden
University and writer of the book "Islamophobia and Discrimination" published
in 2012, told Anadolu Agency that Muslims in the Netherlands are under growing
pressure.
"There is growing fear among the Muslim population because of these acts,
which are carried out 25 times in a year," she said.
Stressing that different aspects of anti-Islam mosque attacks were elaborated
on in the project, van der Valk said the detailed research on the legal
processes following these assaults is one of the most important topics in the
book.
"Twenty-seven legal transactions were launched for mosque attacks in the last
20 years, despite the number of assaults [in this period] having been two
times higher. Among them, very small numbers of people were found guilty for
discrimination. According to the laws, if the attack is prompted by
discriminatory motives, individuals should receive more severe punishment.
However, this decree has not been implemented in most cases," she said.
Islamic houses of worship have endured dozens of attacks in recent years in
the Netherlands. The extent of the attacks vary; while in some cases attackers
attempt arson on mosques with Molotov cocktails or some other explosives,
there are also many assaults which feature spray-painted terror symbols or
racist slurs on the walls of the mosques.
Frightened by the violent attacks on establishments run by the Muslim
community and mosques coming from mostly far-right individuals and members of
the PKK terrorist organization, Muslims in the country have demanded better
security measures from the government.
Van der Valk emphasized that Dutch politicians often fail to show strong
reactions or take action against mosque attacks, adding that the growing
far-right rhetoric on the eve of European Parliament elections is worrisome.
"Unfortunately, there is the anti-Muslim Party for Freedom (PVV) in the
Netherlands, which wants to close mosques. The Dutch government and
politicians, who think in a different way, should be more clear and decisive
against anti-Islamic acts," she indicated.
Coming second in the 2017 Dutch general elections and becoming the biggest
opposition party in the Dutch lower house of parliament, the PVV is chaired by
one of Europe's fiercest anti-Islam figures, Geert Wilders, who pioneered many
draft laws to limit Muslims' rights in the country.
During his election campaign in 2017, Wilders vowed to close mosques, ban
sales of the Quran and halt the immigration of Muslim refugees. Earlier this
year, he also presented a draft bill to the Dutch parliament to strip dual
citizens of their right to vote and stand for election.
Hate crimes against mosques and Muslims have been on the rise across Europe in
recent years, fueled in part by the success of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim
groups in gaining political power.
Dutch police officer kicks, punches Muslim woman in Utrecht
A Dutch police officer kicked and punched a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf
during a brawl in the city of Utrecht.
According to reports, the police officer kicked the woman after she warned him
as he was kicking another woman on the ground.
The incident was criticized after a video of the violence was recently
released on social media outlets.
Dutch police said they would investigate the video recordings and that they
are currently trying to reach the women seen in the video to shed light on the
details of the incident.
Worried about the increasing Islamophobic attacks in the country in recent
years, Muslims have urged Dutch officials to take security measures not only
in the capital Amsterdam but across the country.
According to the European Islamophobia Report 2017, prepared by the
Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), a
rising wave of Islamophobia has taken hold in Europe. The report revealed 908
crimes, ranging from verbal and physical attacks to murder attempts, targeting
Muslims in Germany, as well as 664 attacks in Poland, 364 in the Netherlands,
256 in Austria, 121 in France, 56 in Denmark, and 36 in Belgium.
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