In the latest Islamophobic attack to take place in Germany, 50 copies of the holy Quran were ripped apart in a local mosque, The New York Times reported.
Officials said the place of worship - which is located in the country's Northwestern city of Bremen - was attacked by one or more people on Saturday. The attacker(s) broke into the building and went about ripping and damaging the Qurans.
Some of the damaged holy books were found shoved in toilet seats, while Anadolu Agency reported a Quran was set on fire.
The German government immediately condemned the hate attack as police launched an investigation into the incident. Authorities have called on anyone who witnessed the attack to come forward.
In an official statement issued on Wednesday, Steffen Seibert, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, said "this is exactly the kind of aggression against the peaceful exercise of religion that we will not tolerate in this country."
Prominent German Muslim leader Aiman Mazyek commented on the shocking incident, explaining that the hateful act seems to be aimed at fueling "the spiral of hatred and violence against Muslims and their mosques."
People were left outraged by the incident
"This needs to stop"
Because similar incidents are on the rise in Germany
The latest hateful incident comes just days after two other mosques were attacked in the country.
Mustafa Köse, the top official in Kamen from the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), said that over the weekend, vandals belonging to a right-wing group painted hateful graffiti on the walls of the Eyup Sultan Mosque in Kamen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Phrases like "get out" were drawn all over the building.
In a separate incident, vandals threw rocks at the Kassel Central Mosque, located in Hessen.
