Germany closes mosque for promoting violence

The German Interior Minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg State, Reinhold Gall, said a mosque in southern Germany had been shut down for promoting violence.

He stated this in Stuttgart, Germany, on Thursday that the Islamic Educational and Cultural Centre’s (MSM) premises were raided after authorities found it had been promoting violence and raising money for terrorist organisations.

Gall said MSM attracted a number of known Salafists, an ultra-conservative reform movement within Sunni Islam.

He said no fewer than 10 Islamists who left Germany to join jihad organisations in Iraq and Syria, were known to have passed through it.

“We will not tolerate organisations that promote violence as a means of reaching religious goals and raise money for terrorist organisations,” he said.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister, Thomas de-Maiziere, has introduced a new police unit, saying that it would be better armed and trained to combat domestic terrorism.

He said 250 officers would be added to the national police force’s special arrests unit, known as BFE.

“The new unit will be stationed at five strategic locations across the country,” he said.

de-Maiziere said Sven Lau, one of Germany’s most prominent Islamist preachers has been arrested for recruiting fighters for a militant group in Syria, as well as buying and delivering military equipment to the region.

The minister has indicated that 670 people have left the country to join Islamic State and other terrorist organisations in Syria and Iraq since 2012.

(dpa/NAN)