Press Release
Cowardly Attack on the as-Soennah Foundation by Pegida

Last weekend the little anti-Islam club Pegida struck yet again at one of the mosques in the Netherlands. They placed banners in front of the mosque during the morning prayer containing horrible slurs about our beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) and the Noble Quran. Slurs we definitely will not repeat here. They also displayed half-naked mannequin with a baby doll around its private region, this mannequin was meant to “represent” the Prophet. And as chairman of the board Abdelhamid Taheri of the as-Soennah Foundation said; “An attack on the Prophet is not only an attack on our mosque; it’s an attack on the whole Muslim community in the Netherlands.”

We should, as the Muslim community, take a clear and unified stand against this act. We therefore support the initiative of local Islamic organizations to condemn this cowardly act of Pegida “in the most strongest of terms”. We also want to point out to the Muslim community that not only Pegida is to blame for this act, but especially the anti-Islam policy that is being pushed for years in the Netherlands. Pegida is but a bitter result of it.

It’s the anti-Islam policy that resulted in the very negative atmosphere where everyone can and may say whatever they want about Islam and Muslims under the guise of freedom of speech and the so-called Islam-debate. So much so, that for example the minor public broadcasting airtime to which the Muslim community is entitled in the form of “De Nieuwe Maan” is being used to combat Islam. Not to mention the secular or Christian media like Tijs van den Brink who recently posed the question if the Prophet (peace be upon him) was a “pedophile”.

Therefore the almost deafening silence of the politicians doesn’t come as a surprise. The few who did say something about this, like Dilan Yesilgoz (VVD) and Jasper van Dijk (SP), have before spoken negatively about Islam and about mosques in particular. That is why they didn’t go further than their hollow phrases stating that is was a “cowardly” and “repulsive” act.

One of the manifestations of the anti-Islam policy is that mosques and preachers are being counteracted by labeling them as being breeding grounds for undesirable Islamic ideas that could lead to “radicalization”. They claim that by taking away these breeding grounds, the “harmony” and “security” of society can be preserved.

However the opposite is true; the anti-Islam policy creates the biggest breeding ground for radicalization of the large majority against the Muslim minority.

It is therefore almost contradictory to request government institutions to secure Islamic institutions, while they are more or less part of the policy that contributed to the current atmosphere.

As long as the Dutch government is suspicious against its Muslim community and views it as the undesired one, who should be assimilated whatever the cost may be, it will set a dangerous example to the rest of the society. This way it will be fear instead of reason and intolerance instead of understanding that will dominate, with all of its implications.

Okay Pala
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in The Netherlands