Following Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan have also summoned the Dutch ambassador to their country because of a Koran tearing in The Hague. This is confirmed by a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after reporting NOS. The countries are responding to an action by Pegida leader Edwin Wagensveld, who tore up and trampled a copy of the Quran in The Hague last Sunday.
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Turkey called the Dutch ambassador to account last Tuesday and demanded that the Netherlands not allow such “provocative actions”. According to the country, the “hate crime” is proof that “Islamophobia, discrimination and xenophobia know no borders in Europe”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also saw disapproving reactions from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco and Qatar. These countries have not sought diplomatic contact about the matter, the spokesperson reports.
On Monday, the ministry announced that it would temporarily close the Dutch consulate in Istanbul due to an increased threat. The Dutch embassy in Ankara will remain open. The same applies to the embassies in Jakarta and Islamabad. According to the travel advice, anyone traveling to Turkey should take into account anti-Western sentiments and possible demonstrations.
The Koran tearing in the Netherlands followed a day after a Koran burning in front of the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital Stockholm. The action by far-right activist Rasmus Paludan led Turkey to distance itself further from agreeing to Sweden joining NATO. Last Friday, Paludan repeated his action in front of a mosque in Copenhagen, after which, according to news agency Reuters, he proposed weekly to the Turkish embassy to burn a Koran until Turkey agrees to NATO accession.