UK counter-terror police launch investigation after five mosques vandalised in sledgehammer attacks

Counter-terror police in the UK's West midlands region are investigating a series of attacks on mosques in the city reportedly carried out by an assailant with a sledgehammer.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

21 March, 2019

Counter-terrorism police have launched an investigation into the mosque attacks [AFP]

British counter-terrorism police are investigating attacks on five mosques in the West Midlands city of Birmingham on Wednesday night.

Police were called to the Jame Masjid on Birchfield Road at around 2:30am (GMT) after reports of a man attacking the building with a sledgehammer. On arrival, police found that the attack had taken place much earlier.

Around 45 minutes later, a similar attack was reported in Erdington, followed by others in Aston and Perry Barr reported.

A spokesperson for the Witton Islamic Centre said CCTV footage of a man smashing the mosque's windows was captured at around 1:30am.

"The whole of the front windows, about six, were smashed," the spokesman was quoted by the BBC as saying.

"Because of the force he used it's gone through the windows and into the mosque itself."

The last of the attacks appears to have taken place at a mosque on Albert Road, which was attacked at 10:00am.

Police believe the attacks were linked.

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Images of the damage spread on social media on Thursday morning, with many raising concerns about far-right extremists being emboldened by the massacre of 50 Muslims at two New Zealand mosques last week.

"I said last week that Muslims were afraid after the terrorist attacks in #ChristChurch We need support in Brum," tweeted local councillor Majid Mahmood.

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The attacks on the Birmingham mosques come amid heightened fears about the threat of Islamophobia in Britain, where politicians, thinktanks and media outlets have been slammed for allegedly stirring anti-Muslim sentiment.

On Wednesday, the leader of Britain's newly-formed Brexit Party stepped down after being questioned by reporters about old tweets which called Islam a threat to society.

Catherine Blaiklock, who had formed the Brexit Party with former UKIP leader Nigel Farage in January, had tweeted that Islam was "incompatible with liberal democracy" and a submission "mostly to raping men".