A bomb damaged a Muslim elementary school here before dawn on Monday

Sunday, February 23, 2020

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A bomb damaged a Muslim elementary school here before dawn on Monday, in what the authorities say they believe was intended as an act of revenge for the killing of a Dutch filmmaker last week. No one was wounded in the attack, in which a medium-sized bomb exploded outside the Tarieq Ibnu Zyad Islamic school. The blast blew out windows and knocked the school's green doors ajar. Late in the day, police investigators in white protective suits continued to comb the wreckage for clues. The Dutch authorities have been bracing for reprisals against Muslims after the killing on Nov. 2 of Theo van Gogh, a filmmaker widely known for his mocking criticism of conservative Muslims. The main suspect in the killing is a young Muslim who sought to make contact with militant groups in the past, informs The NYTimes. According to the NEWS, twelve hours after the front windows and main door of his four-year-old son's school were blown out by a bomb, Khalid Abdelrahim peered past the police barrier to study the damage. In Eindhoven yesterday few doubted that the attack on an Islamic primary school in the early hours of Monday was an act of retribution after last week's murder of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch film-maker who had criticised abuses of women in Islamic marriages. The bombers struck the Tariq Ziyad Ibnoe school at around 3.30am local time. It was not an isolated incident; in recent days there have been arson attacks against mosques in Huizen, Breda, Rotterdam and Utrecht. Posters insulting Islam that showed pictures of pigs' heads were plastered on a mosque in Rotterdam, while an immigrants' centre in Amsterdam was daubed with red paint. Yesterday in racially mixed, middle-class Frankrijkstraat, the school's lawn was covered with glass shards as children's paintings fluttered in the smashed windows. No one was injured but the blast, which local Muslims say is the third incident in a year, seemed designed to send a message. The school is one of the first Islamic schools in the Netherlands and many fear that this is just the start of attacks against the Muslim community.

Bookmark A bomb damaged a Muslim elementary school here before dawn on Monday