Far-right protester tears up Quran in front of Turkish embassy in Netherlands

The Dutch government had condemned the holding of the demonstration, but said it had no legal powers to prevent it

A Dutch far-right activist tore up a copy of the Islam holy book of Quran at a demonstration outside the Turkish embassy in The Hague on August 18, i24news reports.

Edwin Wagensveld, who leads the Dutch branch of the far-right anti-Islam group Pegida, was accompanied by two other people, according to AFP. He faces trial for comments he made during a similar demonstration in January, when he tore up a copy of the Quran outside parliament while likening the book to Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf."

Prior to the August 18 event, the Dutch government had condemned the holding of the demonstration, but said it had no legal powers to prevent it. Police had sealed off access to the street where the Turkish embassy is located and there were around fifty counter-protesters also present.

Some of them began throwing stones at Wagensveld when he tore up pages from the Quran. Around 20 police equipped with shields and batons intervened when some of the crowd tried to chase after the activist as he left.

On August 18 morning Dilan Yesilgoz, the Netherlands' Turkish-born justice minister, described the plan to destroy the holy book as "fairly primitive and pathetic." However, she added that the country's laws authorized such a demonstration.

Similar attacks on the holy book have taken place in Sweden and Denmark recently. They have provoked anger and even unrest in several Muslim countries.

On August 17, Sweden's intelligence agency heightened its terror alert level to four on a scale of five in response to the backlash in the Muslim world over the Quran burnings.