THE HAGUE, Nov 14 (AFP) - Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende visited a mosque at Eindhoven on Sunday for the feast marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Balkenende stressed the importance of dialogue between the various communities in the Netherlands, and the rector of the mosque presented him with a bunch of tulips, which he said were "a flower of Turkish origin that has become a symbol of the Netherlands" as a symbol that "we feel at home here."
Tensions have been running high in the Netherlands since the November 2 murder of controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh, allegedly by a suspected Islamic radical.
There have been a wave of attacks on mosques and Islamis schools since the murder. The most serious attack was on an Islamic school in Eindhoven in the southeast of the country, where a bomb exploded at dawn Monday.
Police said fire that destroyed a wooden mosque at Helden early on Saturday was probably criminal.
There have also been several retaliatory attacks on Christian churches.
A school at Heerlen in the south of the country was fire-bombed overnight Saturday without causing any damage, police said. The school was not an Islamic school, and it was unclear whether the incident was connected to other such attacks.
11/14/2004 18:16 GMT - AFP