The Turku Islamic Center, which has served the Muslim community of the southwestern city for over twenty years, was attacked over the weekend, according to YLE. Apart form destroying furniture, spreading salt and flour on the ground, a number of Korans were torn. Some 200 Muslims attend the Turku Islamic Center.
The police have been notified and are investigating the attack.
This is not the first time that a non-protestant church has been attacked in Turku. Three years ago, a Buddhist temple suffered an arson attack in September 2010.
The attacks against the Buddhist temple and now to the Turku Islamic Center reveals the ugly face of intolerance that has lifted its head in Finland. When politicians in parliament base their political support on spreading hatred and racism, only a naive person would believe that such attitudes have no consequences.
Another matter that surprises Migrant Tales is why was such a serious incident reported on Monday by Turun Sanomat? This act, which should outrage sensible people because it reveals that some will take the law into their own hands to make their point, appears to suffer from the silence of politicians and civic leaders.
Migrant Tales strongly condemns such attacks.
Read full story (in Finnish) here.
”On Saturday we brought our children here to study the Arabic language and religion,” said Yari Adbulkarim. ”This was in terrible shape. We were really surprised and shocked from what we saw. The children were shocked as were all of the parents.”
Abbdulkarim said that the center had been attacked on other occasions but nothing compares to what happened over the weekend.
”It is a deep insult when the Holy Book is torn,” said Abdulkarim, ”It’s really a big thing. The Holy Book is the Holy Book.”