A Dutch far-right activist tore up a copy of the Qur’an and stomped on it during a demonstration in front of the Turkish embassy in The Hague on Friday, angering participants in a counter-demonstration.
The Dutch government has condemned the organization of this demonstration, but said that it does not have legal powers to prevent it.
AFP reporters saw Edwin Wagensfeld, who leads the Dutch branch of the far-right Pegida movement, tearing up a copy of the Koran, along with two other people.
Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, is a racist movement that began in the German city of Dresden in 2014 as a result of the influx of immigrants. It warns of the “Islamization of the West” and calls for the expulsion of Muslims from Europe.
The Dutch police closed the road leading to the street in which the Turkish embassy is located, where a counter-demonstration was organized, in which about fifty people participated, some of whom threw stones at Wagensfeld when he began tearing pages from the Qur’an.
About 20 policemen with shields and batons intervened, with some trying to chase Wagensfeld off as he left.
Dutch Justice Minister Dylan Yeshelgos-Zygerius, who was born in Turkey, described the tearing of the Qur’an as “pathetic”, but added that the country’s laws allow such a demonstration.
However, Wagensfeld faces trial over comments he made during a similar demonstration in January, when he tore up a copy of the Koran in front of Parliament and likened it to Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf.
“The Koran is a fascist book,” he said at the time. “It is as bad as Mein Kampf. Its followers have the same ideology as Hitler.”
During Friday’s demonstration, Wagensfeld wore a shirt bearing phrases repeating this claim.
