An Islamic center was firebombed Thursday in Berlin — one of more than half a dozen arson attacks on firebombes in the city this year — prompting a Muslim official to demand police protection for all mosques in Germany.
An unidentified person threw a Molotov cocktail at the cultural center of the Iranian community in Berlin’s Tempelhof neighborhood early Thursday , police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf said.
The general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims, one of the country’s leading Muslim organizations, condemned the attacks.
“We demand police protection for all Muslim prayer houses in Germany and expect our politicians to react accordingly,” Nurhan Soykan said.
Neuendorf said the missile set the facade of the building alight, but the fire was out before authorities arrived. Nobody was injured, but state criminal police were investigating and a special unit has been set up to investigate the incident, as well as past attacks.
The Sehitlik Mosque, Berlin’s largest, has been attacked four times this year, and the al-Nur mosque in the city’s Neukoelln neighborhood once. Neither attack caused injury or serious damage.
Berlin police said in a statement later Thursday that the latest attack could be part of a series of more than ten attacks on Muslim institutions in the city. They said an unidentified person left evidence suggesting it was part of a series, but didn’t give more details.
Police also called on Muslim communities to come forward and report any arson attacks that hadn’t previously been reported.
A lawmaker with the opposition Green Party also condemned the arson attacks.
Volker Beck called the incidents the result of a “campaign” in recent months that “excludes Islam and equates immigrants with people who resist integration.”
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