Hague Muslim protest features menacing calls about Jews

Cnaan Liphshiz

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — Dozens of demonstrators shouted menacing slogans about Jews at a rally at one of the largest immigrant neighborhoods in The Netherlands.

The demonstrators gathered Friday in the Schilderswijk, a neighborhood of approximately 33,000 residents in The Hague where half the population was born either in Turkey or Morocco, or to parents who were born in those countries.

The rally was a show of support for ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a radical Sunni militia group fighting Shiites and others in both countries.

Holding up the black ISIS flag, the crowd chanted in Arabic, “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.” The cry relates to an event in the seventh century when Muslims massacred and expelled Jews from the town of Khaybar, in modern-day Saudi Arabia.

They also chanted “Down, down, Israel” and “Down, Down, U.S.A.,” a video of the demonstration aired by the local broadcaster Omroep West showed.

The demonstrators — all men and many of them wearing masks and hoods that concealed their faces — also chanted “Allah is the greatest” and protested efforts by Dutch police to track down Muslims jihadists who fought or are planning to fight in Syria.

“Our Muslim youngsters have to deal with terror and intimidation of the police in The Hague,” one of the speakers was filmed saying. “We are fed up; this has to end now.”