Dutch Islamic primary school targeted by extremists

By Abdullah Asiran

LEIDEN, Netherlands

A Muslim children’s school in the Netherlands had its doors chained and locked by an anti-immigrant group on Sunday night, its principal told Anadolu Agency on Monday.

PEGIDA claimed responsibility for the incident at the Islamic primary school in Leiden on Sunday night.

Monday is the first day of the new academic term for primary schools in the Netherlands.

"After such an event, we do not feel safe," Gulsum Dogan, principal of Er Riseleh School said, adding that it was the first such incident in the school’s 24 years.

PEGIDA, a far-right anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant movement, shared images of the stunt on its social media accounts on Monday.

Leaflets left at the school’s entrance called on Dutch people to "oppose Islamic education”.

The group also carried out a stunt at an under-construction Dutch mosque last month. It hung threatening and anti-Muslim posters on a fence surrounding the construction site of the Selimiye Mosque, work on which began in December 2016.