Türkiye condemns Dutch politician tearing apart Quran

ANKARA

Türkiye summoned the Dutch ambassador in Ankara Joep Wijnands over “a vile attack” on the Quran in The Hague and conveyed Ankara’s condemnation, the Foreign Ministry said on Jan. 24.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack of an anti-Islamic person in The Hague, Netherlands, on Jan. 22, targeting our holy book, the Holy Quran,” said the statement.

“This despicable act that insults our sacred values and includes a hate crime, this time in the Netherlands after Sweden, is a clear declaration that ‘Islamophobia, discrimination and xenophobia know no bounds in Europe,’” it added.

Ankara summoned the Dutch envoy, said the ministry explaining that it expressed condemnation and protested this “heinous and despicable act and demanded that the Netherlands not allow such provocative acts,” said the ministry.

A video posted on social media showed the leader of the far-right group, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) Edwin Wagensveld tearing apart pages of the Quran in The Hague.