Mosque leader, 80, attacked by Amsterdam imam wannabe: report

The Amsterdam police are looking for a man in his 40's who recently attacked and knocked to the ground the 80-year-old muaddin in the Al Ummah Mosque on August Allebeplein in Amsterdam, Het Parool reports.

Security camera footage, dated November 10th, shows the younger man enter and start climbing the stairs. The elderly muaddin - caller to prayer in - says something to the younger man, who walks back down the stairs and attacks the elderly man. The muaddin is knocked to the ground and there is a short struggle. The elderly man gets up and disppears from view, with his attacker following him.

According to Het Parool, the attacker is the brother of the mosque's imam. A spokesperson for district Nieuw-West confirmed the attack and told the newspaper that the attacker is on the run and is believed to be in Marocco.

Ahmed Marcouch, former district chairman and former spokesperson for the Union of Moroccan Mosques in the Netherlands, told Het Parool that there's been tension between old believers and a group of Salafist activists in the mosque for some time.