The municipality of Arnhem has banned a demonstration of the extreme right-wing movement Pegida Nederland, planned for next Saturday. Mayor Ahmed Marcouch wrote this in a letter to the Arnhem council. The reason is Pegida leader Edwin Wagensveld's plan to burn a Koran during the demonstration on Jansplein in the center of the Gelderland city.
According to Marcouch, the police advised him to ban the demonstration, which the mayor complied because the “danger of serious disorder and a perceived terrorist threat in relation to the planned demonstration” would be great. Because the safety of the demonstrators and the residents of Arnhem could not be guaranteed, Marcouch put an end to Pegida's plans.
“Like a large majority of your council, I find the burning of a religious or philosophical book a reprehensible and provocative action. I therefore strongly reject this,” Marcouch writes further. “At the same time, I stand firmly for the right to demonstrate and I therefore regret that this democratic right is being made impossible in this case.”
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According to The Gelderlander Wagensveld has announced that it will not adhere to the ban and will come anyway. “We expected this statement as an argument for a ban. There will be a detailed statement later, but we will not let Muslim terror or violence stop us,” he says. According to Marcouch, Wagensveld will be arrested if he does come to Arnhem.
Previous Quran burnings
It is not the first time that Wagensveld has come to Arnhem to set fire to a Koran. In January he tried the same on Jansplein, but had to abandon his attempt because he was in danger of being attacked by bystanders. He said then that he would come back. A week and a half ago, Wagensveld set fire to a Quran in front of the parliament building in Oslo, Norway, an action that he said he was able to carry out without any problems due to police protection.
Quran burnings by far-right activists also took place regularly in other Scandinavian countries, such as Denmark and Sweden, last year. The actions caused riots among young people with a migration background and diplomatic tensions with Islamic countries. In addition, the Swedish embassy in Iraq was stormed in protest. In December, the Danish parliament passed a law banning Quran burnings.
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