Far-right Dutch politician tears out pages from Quran

By Selman Aksunger

AMSTERDAM (AA) - A far-right Dutch politician, and leader of the Islamophobic group Pegida, on Sunday tore out pages from a Quran in The Hague, the administrative capital of the Netherlands.

On Twitter, Edwin Wagensveld shared a video of his provocative act which took place in front of the parliamentary building in The Hague.

Local police authorities reportedly gave him permission for the act on the condition he not burn the Muslim holy book.

However, Wagensveld’s video showed that he later burned the torn-out pages of the Quran in a pan.

Last October, Dutch police arrested him before he had a chance to burn a Quran during a rally attended by small group of Pegida supporters in Rotterdam.

The new provocation follows a similar Islamophobic protest on Saturday in Sweden, where a Danish extremist burned a copy of the Quran, in a police-approved protest.

Dozens of countries condemned the provocation in the Swedish capital Stockholm, including Türkiye.