THE HAGUE (AFP)
Police in Amsterdam will get half the purchase price back if they buy the Quran to deepen their knowledge of Islam, spokesman said Monday.
A new translation has just appeared in Dutch and officers on the beat are being encouraged to read this and a biography of the Prophet Mohammed, Ebe van der Land said.
"These two books will make for a better understanding and knowledge of the Quran and the life of the prophet," van der Land said.
"Police bosses have decided that staff who buy these books will be refunded half the price."
The integration of minority communities has become a contentious issue in the Netherlands, specially after film maker Theo van Gogh's murder by a radical Muslim in 2004.
Translations of the Quran and the Prophet's biography by Iranian author Kader Abdolah, called "The Message," were published last month arousing wide interest in the Netherlands.
This month a Dutch cartoonist was arrested for alleged incitement to hatred in his drawings.
Prosecutors said eight cartoons by Gregorius Nekschott considered reprehensible had been pulled from his website for "exceeding the limits" of freedom of expression.
Following a complaint by a Muslim imam laid in 2005, Nekschott was taken into custody and his house searched by Amsterdam police. He was later released.
Far-right Dutch parliamentary deputy Geert Wilders fanned the flames of controversy this year by making a film, 'Fitna', which features violent imagery of terrorist attacks in New York and Madrid intertwined with Quranic texts, aimed at provoking Muslims worldwide. |
