Netherlands: Anti-Muslim group not to be put on trial

Abdullah Asiran

THE HAGUE: An Islamophobic hate group that planted crosses on a construction site for a mosque in the eastern Netherlands will not be prosecuted, Dutch prosecutors announced on Tuesday.

Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEDIGA), a far-right anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant movement, made the construction site for a mosque look like a graveyard by planting twenty-three crosses in the city of Enschede earlier this month.

The group had also posted anti-Muslim hate messages on its social media account.

The prosecutors said PEDIGA will not be prosecuted as “the words and the actions they used were shocking but did not contain any insult or discrimination against any group.” (AA)