Abdul-Jabbar Aburas / Anatolia
The leader of the extremist anti-Islam PEGIDA group in the Netherlands, Edwin Wagensfeld, burned the copy of the Noble Qur’an after it was torn and desecrated, in The Hague, the country’s administrative capital.
On Monday, the extremist shared a video clip of his provocative act, which took place in front of the parliament building in The Hague, on Twitter.
According to what was reported by the media, the local police granted him permission to do so, provided that he does not burn the Holy Book of Muslims.
However, he later, as shown in the video, burned the torn pages of the Qur’an in a frying pan.
The video showed members of the Dutch police standing behind the right-wing extremist without moving a finger, as he was tearing the pages of the Qur’an and stepping on them.
And last October, the Dutch police arrested the extremist leader while he was about to burn a copy of the Qur’an, during a rally attended by a group of supporters of his group in Rotterdam.
The incident comes after the far-right Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish “hard line” party, burned a copy of the Qur’an near the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, amid tight police protection that prevented anyone from approaching him while he was committing his act.
The incident sparked anger among Muslims and condemnation from Arab and Islamic countries, which considered it “a provocative act against the feelings of a billion and a half Muslims.”
The justification behind giving the green light to such behavior in a European country (Sweden) inhabited by more than 600,000 Muslims was the right to freedom of expression, while Islamic countries refuse to include it in the so-called freedom of expression and say that it is an act that clearly amounts to hate crimes.
Commenting on the widespread reactions, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bilstrom expressed his rejection of the provocative action, and said on Twitter, “The anti-Islamic provocations are appalling.”
The European Commission also said that the Swedish authorities should take steps regarding the incident, stressing that “racism, xenophobia and ethnic and religious hatred have no place in the European Union”, an acknowledgment that the incident is a racist and xenophobic act for which the law must be held accountable.
Yesterday, Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a message to Sweden not to wait for Ankara’s support regarding its membership in NATO, as long as it does not respect Islamic beliefs.
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