The residents of the Belgian city of Liège woke up to quite a surprise over the weekend, hardly left by the Easter bunny: hundreds of pocket-sized, French-language Qurans had been distributed throughout multiple neighborhoods by unknown activists.
Concerned locals believe the stunt to be more of a provocation than friendly religious outreach, prompting the Belgian police to actively investigate the incident to find the perpetrators.
According to the Belgian public broadcaster RTBF, the miniature copies of the Islamic holy book were placed on windshields and in mailboxes across at least five districts, and even at the door of the local synagogue on the night of Good Friday, discovered on Saturday morning.
Eventually, the officers removed around 800 copies from around the town, but are still puzzled about their origin.
Although no criminal offense had taken place, the Liège police launched an official inquiry to calm the upset residents. They began by reviewing CCTV footage from the affected areas and spotted two individuals distributing the books, but the suspects haven’t been publicly identified yet.
The police were also able to track a vehicle they believe was involved in the incident, which left the country for Germany later the same day.
A local imam interviewed by the RTBF said the stunt must have been a “clumsy attempt at proselytism,” but not one that the community would endorse. “It is not in our habit to impose like this … it may well harm us.”
On the other hand, the local Jewish community regarded the Quran that was placed at the synagogue as a provocation or an outright threat, urging the police to find out the true intent of the perpetrators.
Due to the suspicion that the suspects might be residing in Germany, the ongoing investigation now involves the Belgian State Security Service as well.
It’s somewhat ironic that this happened in Belgium, as we recently wrote about Brussels funding an EU-wide ‘scientific research project’ titled “The European Quran” with a whopping €10 million, with the aim of highlighting the historical contribution of the Quran and Islam in general to European civilization.
The massive grant that pays for travelling exhibitions, conferences, and book publications across multiple European countries is one of the largest subsidies ever awarded through its respective EU program—reserved for “cutting-edge scientific production and excellence”— and is on par, for instance, with what the EU spends on quantum computing research.
