Turkey condemns vandalism in German mosque

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

An Islamophobic incident in which a pig’s head was mounted onto the door of mosque in southern Germany drew condemnation from Turkey on May 18.

"Even during the holy month of Ramadan and the epidemic, racism and hostility against Islam continues in Europe. The ugly attack on our mosque in Germany is the latest example of this," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu tweeted on May 18.

Denouncing the perpetrators’ “sick mentality,” he urged that they be caught immediately.

The incident took place on May 16 at the Fatih Mosque in the city of Vaihingen, run by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs.

The incident took place around midnight and was recorded by surveillance cameras. Two people are said to be involved in the act.

Germany has witnessed growing Islamophobia and hatred toward migrants in recent years triggered by far-right parties exploiting fears over refugees and terrorism.

Last year similarly a pig's head and blood were placed on the grounds of a mosque in Monchengladbach, and a pig's head and hooves were left at the site of a planned mosque in Rostock.

A country of over 80 million people, Germany has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. Among the country’s nearly 4.7 million Muslims, 3 million are of Turkish origin.