Bomb blast revenge attack targets Muslim school

A BOMB blast blew the front door off a Muslim elementary school in the Netherlands yesterday and extensively damaged the building in what police suspect was a revenge attack for the killing of a Dutch filmmaker last week.

No one was injured in the pre-dawn attack, which came days after the arrest of a Muslim radical accused of killing filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

There were no reports of injuries. Television news footage showed the burnt-out entrance of the school, which was empty at the time of the attack at around 3.30am (2.30 Irish time).

Police suspected it was related to the murder last week of Mr van Gogh by a suspected Islamic radical, said spokesman Cees Dekkers in Eindhoven, about 75 miles south of the Dutch capital Amsterdam.

There was substantial damage inside, he said. The Tarieq Ibnu Zyad Islamic school, reported to have links with a mosque that is said to have been a gathering place for radicals, also suffered a minor attacked a year ago.

Dekkers said police had visited Islamic schools in the city, but had not decided on additional security measures.

Eindhoven Mayor Alexander Sakkers is meeting later with parents of students.

“It is essential that we stick together,” he said.

“One single person who pulls off such an idiot act ... should not have the result that our society goes to pot in this way.”

Van Gogh’s killing sparked a series of attacks over the weekend, including two attempts to burn down mosques.

Dutch Interior Minister Johan Remkes said Van Gogh’s death should not be blamed on the Muslim community as a whole.

Eight suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested in connection with last Tuesday’s slaying of van Gogh, who earlier this year released a film critical of how women are treated under Islam.

Among those arrested was a 26-year-old accused of killing the filmmaker. The suspect was identified only as Mohammed Bouyeri.

On Saturday night vandals threw red paint on a centre in Amsterdam that aids immigrants, many of them Muslim.

The agency, called the Emcemo centre, is located several blocks from the spot where van Gogh was killed, and its director, Abdou Menebhi, told local television station AT5 he believed the vandals were racists.

In the town of Huizen, police arrested two men they say were caught preparing to ignite a fire at the An-Nasr mosque on Friday night. A mosque in the city of Breda sustained minor fire damage in another reported arson attempt.

Earlier this week, a small fire was set at a mosque in Utrecht, police said, and a pig’s head was left in a plastic bag outside a mosque in Amsterdam. Van Gogh, a distant relative of the famous painter Vincent van Gogh, released “Submission” in August. The film was criticised as insensitive by some Muslim groups.

On Tuesday, van Gogh was shot while riding his bicycle and then stabbed and had his throat cut.