In Arnhem, a demonstration by Pegida, the anti-Islamic movement of the mentally unstable leader Edwin Wagensveld, has gotten completely out of hand.
Wagensveld tried to burn a Quran, which led to a confrontation with the police. Wagensveld was then taken away but returned with a fire pit and a Koran. An angry crowd then attacked him, leaving him slightly injured.
After the police urged the crowd to camp, made several arrests and Arnhem mayor Ahmed Marcouch personally asked the counter-demonstrators to leave Jansplein for safety reasons, peace returned.
The tension surrounding planned Koran burnings returns every so often because mayors think this is about freedom of expression and do not seem to know how to counter these types of demonstrations.
However, a so-called ‘toolkit’ was recently developed by the lobby organization MPO (an initiative of the cooperating regional mosque umbrella organizations), in collaboration with Professor Zwart, which municipalities can use to quell this disorder prematurely.
