My Dad is an amateur photographer who loves to take pictures of all kinds of architecture.
He’s pushing 70 and is a very small, peaceful, mellow sort of fellow. He’s easy-going, jovial, apolitical and non-religious.
He happens to be in Amsterdam right now. He came across a mosque in the Southeast section of the city and decided that he liked the look of it and started taking pictures.
About a dozen male youths came outside and started threatening him. They threatened to beat the shit out of him and threatened to smash his camera if he didn’t delete the photos of the mosque. So, he did so.
That is odd. I have taken photos of mosques all over the world including more doggy places like Yemen and Iran. I am sure they were concerned about him “casing” the place as there are a lot of high tensions in Europe with the Muslim populations (partially related to the cartoon quagmire)
“Hey! That guy has a camera! He’s trying to steal our mosque’s soul!”
He should have just drawn a cartoon of the mosque instead. Something tasteful and respectful, with Rocky and Bullwinkle depicted as imams or something.
I have an uncle who lives in Amsterdam and owns a B&B type of place there. His wife claims that there is significant tension in the area regarding Muslims, and that many Dutch see them as fundamentalist jerks.
I have never been, so I took this with a grain of salt.
Politics between (some) Muslims and (some) non-Muslims in Netherlands and Belgium have been very complicated for a few years, a bit icky on both sides and in both directions-- Theo van Gogh’s assassination, the rise of white nationalist groups, anti-Turkey-in-EU rhetoric, etc, hicks on both sides kicking other peoples’ asses in alleyways. That part of Amsterdam has had a large Muslim population for some time, but with the way things are right now a guy taking a picture of a Mosque could very well seem threatening-- there have been some nasty vandalism cases, at least.