Posted on 06/15/2005 3:13:35 AM PDT by Cornpone
AMSTERDAM — A mosque has been gutted by an arson attack in the west of Rotterdam in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Police have said the inside of the Shaan-e-Islam prayer room in a warehouse on the Aleidisstraat has been destroyed. The mosque is linked to the Dutch Muslim association NMA and is mainly frequented by members of the Surinamese community.
The cause of the fire has yet to be established. It was discovered at about 4am after local residents heard a loud bang.
A police spokesperson said the blaze caught hold quickly in the building and the ground floor which houses the mosque was totally burnt out. There were no injuries.
Several slogans were clearly visible on the outside walls of the building in news footage of the building on Wednesday morning.
Locals claim the messages were also written in the early hours of Wednesday morning and the police are investigating if there is an actual link between the slogans and the fire.
The message in one of the slogans read: "geen moskee in Zuid" (no mosque in south). Another was the word "Lonsdale" along with a cross in a circle, a far-right symbol.
Some Dutch right-wingers, particularly teenagers with fascist sympathises, have a preference for clothing made by the Lonsdale clothing company in the UK because the middle letters of the brand name — nsda — call to mind Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, NSDAP.
Another slogan "Theo R.I.P." which was daubed on the wall of the mosque is a reference to filmmaker and Muslim critic Theo van Gogh.
Van Gogh was murdered in Amsterdam on 2 November and a Muslim man who was arrested moments later following a gun battle with police has admitted killing Van Gogh.
Mosque chairman Abdoelhak Billar expressed shock at the arson attack on the Shaan-e-Islam when the when he was interviewed by RTL Nieuws.
"Arson and racist slogans are an abnormal act… committed only by pathetic people," he said
The mosque has been based in its current location since 1982 and has never been attacked before. It is due to be move to the south of Rotterdam in 18 months time, but Billar said he did not see this as the motive for the attack.
Some media outlets reported on Wednesday that there had been a rally by right-wingers in the south of the city at the weekend in protest at the coming of the mosque.
Denying this was the case, Billar said "everything is arranged".
On Tuesday a court in Rotterdam sentenced a man, 25, to 12 months, with six suspended, for an arson attack on the Mevlana mosque on 7 November 2004 — five days after Van Gogh's murder.
Taking into account time he had already served in custody, the defendant walked free after the court handed down its ruling.
The Mevlana mosque is in the same part of Rotterdam as the Shaan-e-Islam mosque.
In April, another man received 12 months, with nine suspended for an arson attack on the Rahmann mosque in Breda a day after Van Gogh was killed.
Badir Islamic primary school in the Brabant town of Uden was totally destroyed by arson a week after the killing. Several native Dutch schoolboys have appeared in court in relation to this incident.
He could add beheadings and child suicide bombers to that list.
Looks like things are heating up
maybe the Muslims have hit somebody's gag reflex.
Free speech will out. It cannot be suppressed. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. One of the great strengths of American society is that we let our NAZIs rave on the streetcorners, thus demonstrating to everyone else what morons they are. However in Europe, they are silenced, and gain an "outlaw" counter-cultural chic.
To coin a phrase: "Europe is a tinderbox". High unemployment, a virtually baseless currency, the clash of cultures. The stage is being set for the resurrection of Mein Kampf.
"Arson and racist slogans are an abnormal act… committed only by pathetic people," he said
Really? That's the same thing I think about people who believe they should murder all infidels.
Thanks for the photo csvet. Does anyone know what GEEN MOSKIES OP ZUID means?
Got it. "No Muslims in the South"
Is anyone else surprised at the lack of secondary explosions?
Its wrong to blame the majority of peaceful arsonists... arson is being hijacked by a small minority of "extremists' to promote their own cause. They are really just "misunderstanders of arson."
Muslims must try and understand what "humiliation, oppression, and desperation" that lead to such acts and change their offensive policies towards non-Muslims, and perhaps maybe then we can all live in peace.
bookmark
I would not be surprised to find the muslims did this one themselves to gain sympathy.
In reaction to recent political assassinations by Muslim fanatics, Holland's "open society" (ref: George Soros Institute for definition) is rapidly closing to Arab Muslim/Islamics' arrogant exclusivity and resistance to assimilating. Rotterdam is a very troubled city with its nearly 50% Muslim population aggressively taking-over and making-over Rotterdam to conform to Muslim dictates.
Especially since they were moving anyway.
Yep. While all those enlightened people are busy calling President Bush a fascist they are not seeing the fire under their own feet. Europe has never gone this long without a big ol' war have they?
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