Masked Men Occupy Roof of Islamic High School in Amsterdam

In Amsterdam Nieuw-West, where an Islamic high school was opened recently, two men with balaclava masks have climbed its roof and hung an anti-Islam banner. The men were eventually talked off the roof by the police and arrested for alleged disrupting public order.

The two men of 29 and 32 years old, were identified as members of the campaign group ‘Identitarian Resistance’ (Identitair Verzet). The group tries to ban immigration and ‘islamization’ and promotes the preservation of the ‘Dutch identity’. The extremist right group was founded in 2012 and have since then threatened to physically demonstrate at the ‘Refugee Church’ (Vluchtkerk) in Amsterdam for refugees whose asylum applications have been refused. The municipality of Amsterdam decided that the group was not allowed to do that because of the potential disturbance risk, but the group managed to catch the media’s eye. While on the roof, the men first hung a banner at the front of the school with the text “Salafism not welcome” (Salafisme niet welkom). After this banner was removed by one of the school’s employees, the men hung another banner which said: “Who sows Islam, will harvest Sharia” (wie Islam zaait, zal Sharia oogsten). They were also heard shouting: “Salafism, terrorism.”

While lessons at the school would start the next week, there were students present in the building for an introductory day. While Identitarian Resistance also ‘protested’ the installment of a new mosque in the city of Venlo recently, Pegida members in Leiden prevented children from an Islamic primary school from entering their school at the beginning of the new schoolyear. They hung a padlock around the fence, accompanied by a note and a picture of a skull that said: “The Islam is causing terrible attacks in Europe. You have to tackle the roots of the problem. That would also be closing Islamic schools.”

Sources:
http://www.hartvannederland.nl/nieuws/2017/politie-beeindigt-demonstratie-op-dak-islamitische-school/ https://www.metronieuws.nl/nieuws/buitenland/2017/09/mannen-protesteren-op-dak-islamitische-school https://www.metronieuws.nl/nieuws/binnenland/2017/08/islamitische-basisschool-leiden-doelwit-van-pediga https://kafka.nl/identitair-verzet-ontmaskerd/

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