Earlier in February, German authorities arrested 12 men who were planning to target several mosques in the country. Inspired by the Christchurch terror attack, the group has been sowing seeds of fear among the Muslim and Moroccan communities in Germany. Last week, the German authorities arrested twelve members of a rightwing extremist group that is believed to have been plotting attacks on mosques in the country. The group was planning to use semi-automatic weapons to attack Muslim worshipers in 10 German states, and are said to have been inspired by the Christchurch attacks that killed 51 people in New Zealand, The Guardian reports. Dismantling the group and foiling its «far-right terror plot» have shocked the Muslim community and Moroccans living in Germany. «The German authorities have to launch a thorough investigation», Mohammed Assila, a member of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany and Moroccan settled in the country, told Yabiladi on Wednesday. «We do not want to only hear reactions and statements about what happened, we expect bold actions to protect our mosques», the Moroccan expert in education and the teaching of Islam in Germany said. «Fighting extremism and Islamophobia» Aware of the threat of rightwing extremist crime, Assila recalled that «a large number of Germany's 3000 mosques is attended by Moroccans». «These are places of worship visited daily by our families, our brothers, sisters and children», he argued. «It scares us to see that there is hatred and sentiments of hostility towards us. We thought that these were just feelings. Now feelings are being translated into action, including the creation of terror cells». Mohammed Assila Assila believes that the creation of this hate group is linked to the rise of far-right parties in Germany, stressing that providing more police protection near mosques in «not enough». «We must think of the ones that produce extremist and Islamophobic ideas in Germany», he pointed out. «We try to fight against hatred and Islamophobia by meeting politicians but we don't have voices and lobbyists to defend us when it comes to the political scene», Assila argued. Furthermore, the activist, who also heads a Moroccan association in Germany, criticized «those who do not understand to what extent all communities, including the Muslim one, contribute to the German society». «Some people use Islam to scare others, as if it is a scary thing that we should all be scared of, which is not true», he added. A government commissioner against Islamophobia By the same token, the secretary-general of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany Abdessamad El Yazidi told Yabiladi, Wednesday, that the German authorities must «secure and protect» mosques because the «danger is real». «We thank the authorities for their great efforts which led to the dismantling of this terrorist cell which planned attacks against Muslim citizens in Germany», he said. El Yazidi believes that the terror group and its plots are «inevitable consequences of hate speech and discrimination that Muslims have been dealing with recently in Germany». The Moroccan-German said that «terrorism and physical violence are preceded by verbal messages». «If society does not deny and denounce them, words can turn into attacks and hostility, as we have seen», he insisted. «German parliaments are filled with fascist parties who spread hatred. The fact that politicians belonging to long-standing democratic parties repeat the speech of these far-right groups in one form or another, worries all Muslims in Germany». Abdessamad El Yazidi El Yazidi stressed the need of «appointing a government commissioner for Islam in Germany and against Islamophobia, because there is concern and a feeling of lack of security especially for Muslims and their institutions».
