Dutch Jews revile desecration of Muslim holy book in Hague

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AA) – Jews from Netherlands have decried the recent desecration of the Muslim holy book in the Hague by far-right leader Edwin Wagensveld of the Islamophobic group Pegida.

Rabbi Lody van de Kamp said Wagensveld’s act was an insult not only to Muslims in the country but also to anyone who held religious belief.

He underscored that insulting religious belief was no longer a crime according to the country’s penal code, adding that this encouraged those who would commit such vile acts.

“Whichever religious belief and philosophy of life (one adheres to), all are about respecting a supreme authority. If you can’t insult a person but can freely offend religious beliefs, then this means no progress has been made in understanding what belief and philosophy mean to human beings,” van de Kamp said.

He emphasized that the reprehensible incident was obviously a hate crime targeting Muslims and argued that not preventing such an attack risked more offenses toward all religious beliefs.

Insulting the Quran should be opposed by all religious communities together, van de Kamp added.

Liberal Rabbi Albert Ringer called the attack “a cowardly act.”

Pointing out that far-right tendencies were gathering pace in the Netherlands, he said they threatened Muslims, Jews and different ethnicities – and consequently peace in the country.

Jaap Hamburger, a Jewish community leader, stressed that the attack was clearly meant to provoke and that freedom of thought had its limits too.

The provocative hate-crime that has deeply offended Muslims and believers in human rights came on the heels of a similar incident last Saturday in which Rasmus Paludan, an extremist Swedish-Danish politician, committed a similar odious act near the Turkish Embassy in Sweden’s capital Stockholm, triggering outrage worldwide.