A mosque in the Dutch city of Rotterdam was damaged by arson and daubed with racist graffiti early on Wednesday, the latest of several such attacks since the murder last year of a filmmaker critical of Islam.

The Shaan-e-Islam mosque, frequented by Rotterdam's Surinamese community, was extensively damaged by fire and racist slogans were painted on its walls, a spokesman for Rotterdam police said. No one was hurt in the attack.

Dutch mosques have been hit by a string of arson attacks since outspoken filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed in Amsterdam last November. A Dutch-Moroccan man was charged with the murder, which raised racial and religious tensions in a country that was once a byword for tolerance.

Dutch television showed pictures of the fire-damaged mosque in Rotterdam's Old West district, its walls covered with phrases such as "Theo R.I.P.".

On Monday a Dutch court sentenced a man to a year in jail, six months of which were suspended, for starting a fire near another Rotterdam mosque in apparent revenge for Van Gogh's murder.

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