Photo-DITIB
WEB DESK
A suspected arson attack on a Berlin mosque overnight to Sunday destroyed entire interior of the building. Police said a mosque in Berlin’s Reinickendorf district was probably set on fire by three teenagers. No one was injured in the blaze, but the group running the mosque said the entire interior of the building was destroyed.
As a result of the recent attack in Berlin, the mosque rooms are largely unusable. The only bright spot is that no people were harmed. Unfortunately, with the current rapid increase in attacks, that will only be a matter of time.
The Turkish-Islamic organization DITIB has called on German authorities to do more to protect Muslims and their places of worship. The appeal comes after several suspected attacks on mosques and Muslim centers.
It was the 24th time in some two months that a mosque in Germany had been deliberately targeted, DITIB said in a press statement.
In its statement, DITIB called on German authorities to ensure that Muslim places of worship were protected, to find out who was behind attacks as quickly as possible and to bring those responsible to justice.
It warned that it was “a question of time” before someone was injured and accused German politicians and society of remaining silent about the everyday discrimination and attacks directed against Muslims.
DITIB, which is close to the Turkish government, said such public silence was seen by far-right extremists and “branches of foreign terrorist groups” as a tacit toleration of their acts.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior recently published alarming numbers of attacks on Muslims and their facilities for 2017. The numbers registered separately for the first time are more than just cause for concern, as shown by the recent wave of attacks on Muslim religious institutions. They exhort us to rethink our way of dealing with each other.