Five people are wanted for "attempted murder" after a mosque fire in southern Germany, justice and police said. The fire broke out Thursday night through the Laufen Mosque, north of Stuttgart, according to a joint statement from the Stuttgart Prosecutor's Office and Heilbronn Police.
"Strangers threw Molotov cocktails from the window" of the building where the imam was sleeping, according to the same source. The imam, who was not injured, was able to extinguish the fire on his own, which caused only material damage.
Investigators investigating the "attempted homicide" estimate that "at least five people" took part in the attack, according to the announcement of the prosecutor's office and the police. Researchers are also considering whether the motive was racist or Islamophobic.
Yesterday, Saturday, the Turkish community in Germany condemned an "inhumane crime" and a "terrorist act that not only threatens people directly but also shakes the foundations of our community." "We want a lot of light to be shed on this case," Gokai Sofouoglu, president of the German News Agency (DPA), told AFP.
In 2017, 950 attacks on Muslims and places related to the Muslim community took place in Germany and 32 people were injured, according to the Interior Ministry.
According to the Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung, the newspaper, about 60 Muslim places of worship were attacked in 2017, most of them by far-right elements.