Over 50 copies of the Qur’an were desecrated in and placed in toilets in Rahman mosque (Photo: Anadolu Agency)

Nadine Osman

Three mosques were targeted by anti-Muslim vandals in Germany in the space of a few days earlier this month.

At the Eyup Sultan Mosque in Kamen, North Rhine-Westphalia, a right-wing group desecrated the mosque walls with hateful graffiti such as ‘get out’ on June 11.

Fifty copies of the Qur’an were desecrated in a mosque in Bremen, northwest of the country on June 8 and the following day rocks were thrown at a mosque in the central German city of Kassel.

Seyfettin Eryörük, Chair of Kassel Central Mosque said that the suspects had thrown rocks at the mosque, shattering two windows. “The outer wall of the Eyüp Sultan Mosque in Kamen, North Rhine-Westphalia, was desecrated with hateful graffiti,” said Mustafa Köse, the top official in Kamen from the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs.

According to media reports, the vandals stormed the mosque at around 2 pm to 4 pm when the mosque is usually open to the public.

Meanwhile, 50 copies of the Qur’an in Rahman Mosque in Bremen were damaged by attackers who ripped the pages and threw some of the books into the toilet.

The attack came less than two weeks after a man shouted anti-Muslim slurs on a Bremen tram before stabbed a 16-year-old teen in the neck with a knife on May 31.

The 27-year old suspect confessed to the stabbing after he was arrested on June 5.

Bremen State Deputy of the Christian Democratic Union Party Oğuzhan Yazıcı told Anadolu Agency that they condemned the attacks and called for more measures to protect mosques in the country.

“Muslims from Bremen are very nervous and anxious. Like synagogues, mosques should be well protected by the state,” Yazıcı said.

Threatening letters including Nazi and nuclear weapons symbols were left in mailboxes of Germans of Turkish descent in Cologne. Written in the letters, which were found in some citizens’ mailboxes located in the city’s Keup Street, were hate messages, including, “You are just like Jews. Soon, attacks will start to target you.”

Anti-Muslim attacks have been on the rise in Germany in recent years, fuelled by propaganda from far-right parties, which have exploited fears over the refugee crisis and terrorism.

Police recorded 813 hate crimes against Muslims in 2018. At least 54 Muslims were injured in the attacks, carried out mostly by far-right extremists.