Muslim women frequently targeted in Netherlands hate crimes

The hotline for reporting Islam-phobia recorded a total of 158 cases of violence against Muslims in the Netherlands last year. In 90 percent of these cases, women wearing headscarves were targeted. 29 percent of those incidents involved physical violence. In most cases the perpetrators were white men, according to the hotline's annual figures. The terrorist attacks in Paris last year had a definite effect on the number of violent incidents against Muslims in the Netherlands. The hotline noticed an increase in reports after both the attack on Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 and the attacks in November. More than a third of all reports, 54, were made in January after extremists caused a bloodbath at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. And in November, following the Paris Attacks, there were 32 reports - 20 percent of the total. The hotline also noticed an increase in incidents surrounding protests against the arrival of asylum seekers or the construction of asylum centers. More than half, 58 percent, of the violent incidents were never reported to the police.