Berlin outlaws Islamic State mosque after police raids

Germany has outlawed Berlin’s self-described “Islamic State Mosque”, visited by Tunisian man Anis Amri hours before he crashed a truck into a Christmas market in the capital last December.

A week after the Fussilet 33 mosque closed its doors for the last time, some 450 police carried out raids on organisers’ homes and businesses, and searched the cells of mosque organisers already in prison.

“This strike is about sending out a signal from Berlin, that people who act against the constitutional order and preach violence have no place in this city,” said Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s state interior minister.

The Fussilet mosque was a known gathering place for Islamic State supporters in Berlin and had been under observation since 2015. Its leaders and preachers are suspected of identifying and radicalising young men for violent Jihad, and of sending funds to support Islamic State in Syria.

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Berlin investigators said they hoped the raids, seizing documents and laptops, would lead to find further details about the mosque’s operations and its links to the Islamist terror organisation.

Successor organisation

As well as seizing mosque funds, investigators closed down its website and said they would move swiftly against any new successor organisation. They made no arrests on Tuesday, though three men linked to the mosque were arrested last week. Two other leaders in the mosque have been on trial in Berlin since January. Last year a Russian national was convicted for membership of a terrorist organisation, but entered a plea bargain with authorities and explained the mosque’s inner workings.

Mr Geisel defended the delay in moving against the mosque, pointing to a high burden of proof required to ban organisations in Germany, a response to Nazi-era bannings.

“The average duration of such a ban in Berlin is three to four years, we’ve done it in 10 weeks which, to be honest, I find quite fast.”

However, opposition politicians in Berlin pointed to how little had happened in the case against the mosque since last summer, because the investigator responsible was on sick-leave with no cover.

But last December’s Christmas market attack expedited efforts to close the mosque and the battle against radical Islamist organisations and preachers in Germany.

Last week Germany’s cabinet backed new measures to expel asylum seekers with extremists links.

Officials say that over 500 individuals in Germany classified as a potential security threat, half of whom are German nationals, were radicalised at mosques similar to the Fussilet.