Rabat – As Muslims woke up to the news of Israeli forces breaking into the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, two mosques in the German cities of Kassel and Bremen witnessed acts of wanton vandalism on Saturday and Sunday, June 8-9.
The perpetrators broke into the Bremen mosque and ripped up 50 copies of the Qur’an.
According to the Dutch news agency DutchTurks, the first witness on the scene following the incident found dozens of copies of the Qur’an thrown into the Bremen mosque’s toilets.
Another mosque in the city of Kassel also witnessed an attack, where the perpetrators broke windows, leaving the place in ruins. It remains unclear how many vandals were involved as the suspects have not yet been identified.
Seyfettin Eryörük, chairman of Kassel Central Mosque Foundation, said that the suspects had thrown rocks at the mosque, shattering two windows.
As investigations into the incident by the Kassel Prosecutor’s Office are underway, local authorities stated that the unidentified perpetrator stormed the mosque on Saturday at around 2 p.m-4 p.m. when the mosque is usually open to the public.
Likely driven by religious or political hatred, the attack speaks to the recent rise of Islamophobia in Germany, where dozens of mosques faced similar attacks every year.
Islam IQ, a German-speaking news outlet on issues pertaining to Islam, has reported an alarming number of mosques being vandalized in recent years.
It reported that between 2015 and 2019, there have been 139 cases of attacks on Islamic places of worship, which included vandalism, acts of defacing, graffiti, fire, and pig heads.
To document the incidents, Islam IQ marked every mosque attacked on a map, with descriptions of the individual incidents.
Muslims living in the cities have expressed indignation at the incidents, calling on authorities to take immediate action against anti-Islam rhetoric.
The attacks follow an incident that took place less than two weeks ago when a man stabbed a 16-year-old in Bremen city. The attack was religiously motivated as the perpetrator launched into anti-Islam slur before carrying out the stabbing.
