Dutch took to the streets of Amsterdam to protest rising racism against Muslims.

THE HAGUE, March 30, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Dutch police have arrested a 17-year-old man suspected of trying to burn down an Islamic school earlier in the week against a backdrop of a mass rally in Amsterdam protesting rising racism in the country.

The youth was arrested following the attack after he was heard saying he wished the school had burned to the ground, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Wednesday, March 30.

During questioning, it became clear that he could be connected to the incident, police said.

Arsonists attacked the Badr Islamic school Sunday, March 27, with Molotov cocktails.

In November last year, the same school had come under an arson attack by three Dutch teenagers. The attack left the building of the Islamic school totally destroyed.

The vandals also daubed swastikas on across the school’s walls.

On Saturday, March 26, another attempted attack was made on a mosque in Oldenzaal in the east of the country.

The swift police action coincided with a mass rally in the capital Amsterdam against the spiraling racist attacks, particularly against Muslims.

The march was organized Monday, March 28, by the “All Different All Equal” forum and brought together MPs and rights activists.

The marchers carried banners reading “Islam is not an enemy,” and “Hatred is not the solution.”

Prominent Dutch-Moroccan politician Mohammad Al-Rabaa seized the rally to hit out at the “racist and double-standard policy” of the right-wing government.

“It is high time we took an action against the repugnant racist acts and hatred among the Dutch,” Abdo Al-Munbhi, the director of the Euro Mediterranean Center for Immigration and Development and one of the rally’s organizers, told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, March 29.

Munbhi, of Moroccan origin, urged the immigrants to stand up and be counted.

“Silence will be interpreted as an opportunity to the xenophobes to press ahead with their policies. Our silence means we are supportive of [Minister of Immigrants Rita] Verdonk’s racist policies.”

The Muslim activist also thanked the Dutch for their solidarity with their fellow Muslim citizens.

“We have drummed up so far the support of some 80 NGOs and political societies over this week,” he said.

“We can’t place all people in one basket and treat all as enemies. There are impartial and moderate Christians and Jews, who rally behind us and reject injustice done to Muslims.”

The murder last November of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who had recently made a derogatory film about Islam, triggered a wave of reprisals against the Muslim minority in the Netherlands.

Up to 20 Islamic schools and centers have come under arson and racist attacks since then.

The Netherlands has about 900,000 Muslims out of a population of 16 million.