Muslims launch hotline to report attacks on Dutch mosques

Muslim liaison organisation CMO has set up a national hotline to report attacks on Dutch mosques amid concern that many incidents are going unreported.

Police have admitted that discrimination is underreported in the Netherlands, while community leaders hope the hotline will encourage victims to come forward.

Muhsin Köktas, chair of the CMO, said he believed the online portal, which will go live on September 20, “will lower the threshold for our community to report incidents here”.

Last year 414 cases of discrimination against Muslims were reported to police, 20 of which came from mosques, but Köktas said many crimes were not reported “because often nothing happens or if someone reports an incident, they don’t know what happens with it afterwards”.

A police spokesman said the force was aware of the low reporting rate, but urged victims to come forward.

“In broad terms discrimination is rarely reported, including discrimination against Muslims or incidents at mosques,” the spokesman said.

“[The hotline] can help people who experience discrimination to give their account, but we encourage these people to come to us as well. We can only take action, get a picture of problems in society and respond to them if we know what is going on.”