The Turkish Selimiya Mosque in Haarlem will be guarded by volunteers 24 hours a day, according to mosque spokesperson Oktay Özcan.
Two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the mosque Sunday evening. The mosque, which is under construction, was also a target of vandals on July 12th. The Selimiya mosque and a Moroccan mosque were covered with racist slogans, and stones where thrown in through the windows.
Özcan expects the guarding to continue until the building is occupied, unless those responsible will be arrested earlier. The mosque is expected to be ready in mid-October.
The aim of the surveillance is to quickly intervene if something happens. "We want to improve the reaction speed and so to prevent great damage being caused. We also hope that it would deliver a discouraging signal."
The police agreed with the mosque administration on extra patrols and said they support the move for volunteer surveillance.
Source: Volkskrant 1 , 2(Dutch)
No comments:
Post a Comment