Netherlands school hit by bomb

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands -- A bomb damaged an Islamic primary school in this southern Dutch town yesterday, the latest in a series of attacks on Muslim buildings since last week's murder of a filmmaker critical of Islam.

Police said they were investigating the cause of the blast early yesterday, which followed a chain of attacks against Dutch mosques since film director Theo Van Gogh was killed last Tuesday by a suspected Islamist militant.

Eindhoven Mayor Alexander Sakkers said nobody was hurt in the blast, which damaged the school's entrance and shattered windows in the building and in nearby houses.

''Residents of the area are really shocked and many have to contend with damage," Sakkers said in a statement. ''We have to do everything possible to keep the community united."

Sakkers said he had ordered extra police protection for all public Muslim buildings in Eindhoven, including five mosques used by immigrants working for electronics group Philips and truckmaker Daf.

''It is essential that we stick together," Sakkers said. ''One single person who carried out such an idiotic act should not be allowed to affect Dutch society."

Dutch news agency ANP reported that police had arrested a 21-year-old man in the central town of IJsselstein on suspicion of throwing a firebomb at a local mosque.

There was also a failed arson attack on a mosque in the northeastern town of Groningen, while another mosque there was daubed with slogans referring to the killing of Van Gogh, who will be cremated in a public ceremony in Amsterdam today.

Several demonstrations are planned to coincide with Van Gogh's funeral.

Over the weekend, mosques in the city of Rotterdam and the towns of Breda and Huizen were attacked but not badly damaged, while fires also broke out at a mosque in Utrecht on Friday.

Posters insulting Islam, showing pictures of pigs' heads, were plastered on a mosque in Rotterdam, while an immigrants' center in Amsterdam was daubed with red paint.

Far-right protesters have marched in Amsterdam and Rotterdam to express anger at Van Gogh's killing. The government has urged calm amid fears of retaliation in a country where hostility toward foreigners is on the rise.

The Netherlands is home to almost 1 million Muslims, almost 6 percent of its population of 16 million.

A poll by RTL Nieuws showed 47 percent said they felt less tolerant of Muslims since Van Gogh's murder.

Geert Wilders, seen as an heir to murdered anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn, has received death threats for his criticism of Islam. He said last week he wanted to launch a new right-wing party to clamp down on Muslim militants.

Police are holding seven people in the Van Gogh probe, including the main suspect, a 26-year-old with dual Dutch-Moroccan citizenship, who was charged Friday with the killing and membership of a group with ''terrorist intentions."

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that investigators believed the murder suspect had contacts with Islamic militants in Spain and that the order to kill Van Gogh may even have come from a fugitive militant in Spain.