Local residents in Amsterdam Noord prevent rioting: ‘Talking to them as a brother works’
28 January 2021
A group of approximately twenty local residents managed to dissuade young people from rioting in shopping centre Boven ’t Y in Amsterdam Noord. When messages were spotted on social media inciting people to riot, the Muslim community immediately sprang into action to prevent any riots from taking place, as had been done in Zuidoost.
Some sixty young people had congregated on the square and there were also quite a few cars cruising around the area. The residents, dressed in orange vests, would approach any groups as soon as they formed. The residents group consisted of senior figures from local mosques, local residents and parents.
‘As older brothers we take them by the hand and tell them: “please go home. This is not the solution”,’ says Abdullah Özütürk, from the Moslimperspectief foundation, who helped to organise the group.
The discussions could get quite heated at times, as journalist Tariq Kasem observed. He filmed the events and broadcast them live on his Instagram channel. ‘The lads were just waiting for something to kick off. But nothing happened in the end because they were moved on before they could form any large groups,’ he says.
‘We want to prevent them doing anything that they will later regret. They want to riot and destroy things. But what they are really doing is destroying their own future’, says board member of Denk, Numan Yılmaz, who lives in Noord. ‘We are really pleased that we managed to avoid a riot and that nothing happened in the end’, adds Ibrahim Yılmaz from the Emir Sultan Mosque.
by NH Nieuws
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