AMSTERDAM — In an effort to combat a persistent and troubling gap in crime reporting, the national Muslim liaison organisation CMO has officially established a dedicated hotline for reporting attacks, vandalism, and discrimination directed at Dutch mosques. The online portal, which is scheduled to go live on September 20, comes in response to growing concerns from community leaders that a significant majority of hostile incidents against Islamic institutions across the Netherlands are currently flying under the official radar.
The initiative highlights a broader, ongoing challenge within Dutch society regarding the tracking of hate crimes and discriminatory acts. While law enforcement agencies have long acknowledged that discrimination of all kinds is severely underreported, community advocates believe that specialized, culturally accessible platforms are vital to capturing the true scale of the problem. By bridging the gap between victims and official channels, the new portal aims to restore faith in the reporting process and ensure that incidents targeting religious spaces are properly documented and addressed.
Muhsin Köktas, the chair of the CMO, emphasized the psychological and procedural barriers that have historically prevented mosque boards, congregants, and community members from coming forward. According to Köktas, the introduction of the new online portal, known as meldvin.nl, is specifically designed to alleviate these hurdles.
"We believe that this will lower the threshold for our community to report incidents here," Köktas stated, pointing out that many victims feel disillusioned by the traditional reporting mechanisms. He explained that numerous crimes go unrecorded simply because victims feel that "often nothing happens or if someone reports an incident, they don’t know what happens with it afterwards." This persistent feeling of futility has created a culture of silence, leaving many acts of vandalism, harassment, and intimidation unpunished and unacknowledged in national crime statistics.
Official figures from the previous year underscore the stark contrast between public perception and recorded data. Last year, police statistics recorded a total of 414 cases of discrimination against Muslims across the Netherlands. Out of that broader national figure, only 20 cases originated specifically from incidents at mosques. Community leaders and civil rights advocates have long argued that these numbers represent only a fraction of the actual hostility faced by religious minorities on a day-to-day basis, with many minor and moderate incidents—such as threatening letters, graffiti, verbal harassment, and property damage—never making it into police files.
The launch of the CMO hotline has garnered a constructive, albeit cautious, response from Dutch law enforcement officials. A police spokesman acknowledged the long-standing issue of underreporting within various segments of society, noting that the problem extends beyond the Muslim community alone, yet disproportionately affects marginalized groups.
"In broad terms, discrimination is rarely reported, including discrimination against Muslims or incidents at mosques," the police spokesman said, recognizing the institutional hurdles that prevent complete transparency in crime data.
At the same time, law enforcement authorities have emphasized that while independent community hotlines can play a crucial supportive role, they cannot fully replace formal police reports. The police spokesman encouraged victims and witnesses to utilize the new platform to share their experiences, but strongly urged them to bring those accounts directly to law enforcement as well.
"The hotline can help people who experience discrimination to give their account, but we encourage these people to come to us as well," the spokesman added. "We can only take action, get a picture of problems in society, and respond to them if we know what is going on."
For the CMO and other community organizations, the ultimate goal of the September 20 launch is twofold: to provide immediate, accessible support and documentation for victims who might otherwise suffer in silence, and to build an undeniable evidentiary record that compels broader societal and governmental action. As the portal opens its digital doors, leaders hope it will mark a turning point in how hate incidents against religious institutions are recognized, tracked, and countered throughout the country.
