BERLIN
Muslims have been unable to practice their faith at Sultan Ahmet Mosque in Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia region after the mosque suffered an arson attack on Tuesday morning.
According to video images from surveillance cameras in the Mosque, a man entered the Mosque on Monday night and spilled gasoline in the prayer rooms, the German daily, DerWesten reported Tuesday.
The leader of the Mosque association whose locale is in the same building as the Mosque said that the praying room was full with smoke when he woke up for prayer at 5:30 and he immediately called the fire department.
"At first we thought the tea burnt. But then we noticed the smoke in the prayer room," Arslan said.
There were no casualties according to the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs. Insurance company experts are currently at the scene to determine the amount of damage, according to The Anadolu Agency correspondent in Berlin.
The Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) in a statement condemned the arson attack on Sultan Ahmet Mosque and said that the prayer room and the youth section had suffered the most damage from the attack.
"We hope that the perpetrators of such a heinous act be brought as soon as possible before the law," the statement added.
Recently there have been a dramatic increase in the number of xenophobic attacks in Germany and it has raised concerns that a new wave of racism and xenophobia could sweep the country.
