German police raided a Moroccan mosque in the western city of Frankfurt on suspicion that children were being shown violent extremist propaganda, prosecutors said Monday. Some 200 police officers seized 19 computers and several video cassettes, CD-Roms, diskettes and written documents at the Taqwa mosque Sunday after a teacher told authorities that a nine-year-old student reported seeing brutal films in Islam classes at the institution. Officials at the mosque allegedly showed the children "films with violent battle scenes" and sold a video calling for "holy war" against unbelievers, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office told a news conference. Authorities said it would take several weeks to analyze the material confiscated because it would have to be translated from Arabic. The vice president of the mosque's steering committee, Ahmed Ayaou, denied the charges. "We do not preach violence here," he said. "We expect an official apology in a few days."
Ayaou said that some 500 people regularly took part in public services at the mosque and some 350 families belonged to the institution. Frankfurt city authorities said that the mosque's steering committee had a reputation for integrating its members well into German society. City integration ombudsman Albrecht Magen said the mosque had organized an anti-violence demonstration after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid blamed on al-Qaeda and sent a consolation note to the Spanish consul general. |