AMSTERDAM – An ‘interreligious dialogue march’ in Amsterdam has been marred by anti-Semitic shouting.
Prominent religious leaders walked from the Nour mosque in Amsterdam West to a church and a synagogue on Wednesday. Which synagogue this would be was not announced beforehand to avoid intimidation by Islamic youths.
Among the participants were Kursat Bal of the Muslims and Government Contact Body (CMO), Rabbi Raphael Evers and J. Plaisier of the Protestant Church Netherlands (PKN). In fact, they spoke more with the press than with each other.
Along the route, anti-Jewish slogans regularly sounded from the mouths of Islamic youths. Arriving at the synagogue, Kursat Bal excused himself for them. “These youngsters do not know Jews and they do not know their own Islam.”
The solution that Bal suggested was remarkable. “They would not have shouted these things if they had been going to Islamic schools.”
