THE HAGUE, July 3 (IslamOnline.net) - Five Dutch people, ageing between 16 and 23, were arrested Tuesday, July 1, on charges of setting an Islamic school on fire in Eindhoven, south east of the Netherlands, police announced.

They have attempted five times to set the school, which features over 500 students of both sexes, mostly of Muslim immigrants, afire.

This assault, one of numerous attacks against Islamic institutions in Holland since the 9-11 attacks, coincides with spiraling fears among Dutch officials of possible terrorist attacks involving Muslims.

According to a police statement published in local newspapers on Wednesday, July 2, the five people, four men and a woman, do not belong to any extremist group.

The five were driven by Xenophobia and hatred of Arabs and Muslims in particular, said the police statement.

Police were unable to confirm if the same group was also responsible for the recent attack against Al-Farouq mosque, near the school, days before the attempt to set the school ablaze.

The buildings of Ibn Khaldoun Islamic school, south of Rotterdam, had come under similar attacks weeks ago.

The attacks were largely blamed on extremist Dutch groups, particularly that several major Dutch towns, which host Muslim and foreign communities, have been theater for anti-Arab and Muslim propaganda since the 9-11 attacks.

In a related development, a memorandum recently sent to parliament by Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner triggered an uproar among Arabs and Muslims who said it was tantamount to a declaration of war against them.

The memo, as published by the Daqblad daily on June 30, pressed for a new legislation facilitating detention over the so-called secret evidence - a reference to intelligence reports.

Such detentions were rarely applied, mostly in cases that involved Muslim defendants.

In his memo, Donner warned the parliament of unprecedented "Islamic terrorist danger", media sources told IslamOnline.net.

The minister also claimed "Muslim terrorists" were in possession of biological, chemical and even nuclear weapons, an allegation ridiculed by many observers and experts.

"The Arab and Muslim communities (in Holland) have never proven an ability to defend themselves when wronged unlike the Dutch people who demonstrate in defense of their right, even when the government increases train tickets by only 5 percent," said Saeb Khalil, an editor of Holland-related news on the Internet.

He exhorted Arab and Islamic institutions in Holland to debate Donner's memo and take immediate actions against it before it turns into law.