THE HAGUE, 9 November 2004 — The Muslim community in the Netherlands has been targeted in several attacks following the murder of controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh whose suspected killer has ties with Islamic extremists. The latest attack took place yesterday at an Islamic school in the southeastern city of Eindhoven where a bomb blast caused heavy damage but no injuries, authorities said. Five mosques were also targeted by arsonists at the weekend and a sixth was daubed with offensive slogans and pig heads.

Authorities have linked the attacks to the brutal murder last Tuesday of van Gogh by a suspected radical Muslim of Moroccan origin who is in police custody. Van Gogh was widely known for his criticism of Islam and recently caused an uproar with a short film linking domestic abuse with the perceived subservient position of women in the Islamic faith. Five other suspects, all of North African origin, have also been arrested in relation to his murder.

Eindhoven Mayor Alexander Sakkers lamented the escalation in violence yesterday and appealed to calm while Amsterdam’s Council of Churches expressed its solidarity with the Muslim community in an advertisement in the local daily Het Parool.

“Why must such a horrible act (as the killing of van Gogh) lead to such consequences?” Sakkers was quoted as saying by the Dutch news agency ANP. “This blast must not destabilize our society,” he added. “We must prevent people from blaming one another. “This act committed by an imbecile must be condemned by all.”

Sakkers said the costs of the damage to the Tarieq Ibnoe Ziyad school were large and he ordered extra police protection for all public Muslim buildings in Eindhoven, which counts five mosques built for the many immigrants who moved to the town to work for consumer electronics group Philips and truck-maker Daf. Dutch news agency ANP reported that police had arrested a 21-year-old man in the central town of IJsselstein on suspicion of throwing a firebomb at a local mosque. There was also a failed arson attack on a mosque in the northeastern town of Groningen while another mosque there was daubed with slogans referring to the Van Gogh killing.

At the weekend, mosques in the city of Rotterdam and the towns of Breda and Huizen were attacked but not badly damaged, while fires also broke out at a mosque in Utrecht on Friday. Pamphlets insulting Islam and showing pictures of pigs heads were plastered on a mosque in Rotterdam, while an Amsterdam immigrants’ centre was daubed with red paint.

Muslim houses of worship and Islamic schools have been under surveillance since van Gogh’s murder but police patrols would be stepped up, Sakkers said. Eindhoven has some 20,000 Muslims inhabitants in a total population of 210,000 people.

Driss el Boujoufi, deputy head of Ummon association, which oversees some 90 Moroccan mosques in the country, also said that security had been boosted at places of worship and schools. “We have asked our followers to be on the lookout around mosques and schools,” he told ANP. “But most mosques don’t have the means to ensure security round-the-clock.” Interior Minister Johan Remkes on Sunday described the attacks as “isolated incidents”.

Meanwhile, an Internet site set up for condolences following van Gogh’s murder was forced to shut down because of a flood of racist messages. But several far-right marches in Amsterdam failed to attract a large crowd.

Far-right protesters have marched in Amsterdam and Rotterdam to express their anger at Van Gogh’s killing, while the government has urged calm amid fears of retaliation in a country where hostility towards foreigners is on the rise.

Meanwhile, a Dutch court ruled yesterday that a senior member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party could not be extradited to Turkey because there were not enough guarantees that she would be fairly treated.

Announcing its verdict in the case of Nuriye Kesbir, the court in The Hague said the Dutch government should not have taken Turkish diplomatic assurances of fair treatment at face value.

Turkey accuses Kesbir of being behind at least 25 attacks between 1993 and 1995 on military targets in eastern Turkey, where the PKK party is fighting for Kurdish self-rule.

In September, Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said he had agreed to a Turkish request to extradite Kesbir after a Dutch Supreme Court decision in May that she could be sent to Turkey to stand trial.