By Oliver Towfigh Nia
BERLIN (AA) - A Muslim leader in Germany lamented what he termed "a climate of fear" in the country since the start of the Oct. 7 war between Israel and Hamas.
“We have had so many attacks on mosque communities within weeks than ever before. We have attacks on Muslims and also those who are perceived to be Muslims at a rate like never before,” Aiman Mazyek, the chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, told media representatives in Berlin on Monday.
It makes me “very, very worried” when it comes to the sense of security of the Muslim community, he added.
Mazyek warned that Muslims could be the targets of assassination bids like the one in the US state of Vermont, where three Palestinians were recently wounded in a shooting attack for simply wearing the Palestinian scarf, or keffiyeh, and speaking in Arabic.
On Nov. 6, the German government also expressed concern over growing anti-Muslim attacks as a result of the Gaza war.
Any attacks on Muslims in Germany, for religious or other reasons, are “absolutely unacceptable,” government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said at a news conference in Berlin.
“The nearly 5 million Muslims in Germany have every right to be protected,” he added.