Alwaght- A mosque still under-construction in southeastern Netherlands has come under attack by a group of far-right extremists.
The far-right ‘Identitair Verzet’ extremist movement hanged anti-Islam banners at the roof of Tuhid mosque which is under construction in Venlo city.
Ahmet Dursun, head of Tuhid Mosque, condemned the incident and said there were many far-right extremists in their neighborhood, but they were not expecting such an attack.
He added that the mayor of the city and other officials have expressed solidarity with Muslims.
The group, which claimed the responsibility for the incident, draped banners reading “Stay away. The Netherlands belongs to us. We don't want mosque and Muslims in our neighborhood" both in Turkish and Dutch. They also shared the photos of banners on social media, and claimed they “occupied” the mosque.
In the past two months, PEGIDA, another far-right anti-Muslim movement, carried out a stunt at under-construction Selimiye Mosque in Veghel and an Islamic primary school in Leiden.
Europe has over the years seen a rise in the number and size of explicitly anti-Muslim parties, as populist radical-right parties such as the Alternative für Deutschland, Geert Wilders’ Freedom party and Marine Le Pen’s Front National have brought anti-Muslim prejudice to the forefront of their political agendas in Germany, the Netherlands and France.
The radical-right parties have been defeated in recent elections in France and the Netherlands but this has not stopped attacks on Muslims.
