David’s star was freshly painted on the mosque’s walls

By Haneefah bint Stefan, Special to IOL

MALMO, Sweden, April 28 (IslamOnline.net) - Some 55 000 members of the Swedish Muslim community in this southern Swedish city of Malmo have become without a place for worship after their mosque was almost completely destroyed by a fire – apparently a hate crime- late Sunday night, April 27.

The fire was so wild that the Swedish police had to bring in more firemen from all over the south of Sweden to control it.

One of the mosques supervisors, Imam Bejzat Becirov – Bosnian – said “It’s extremely terrible,” when he saw his life work being shattered by the flames.

Swedish Police man Goran Olsson told Swedish daily Afton Bladet that it cannot be excluded that the fire was set on purpose. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, however many had suspicions about the mosque being set on fire due to a hate crime.

Trying to put out the fire, the firemen, along with crying Muslims, noticed a clear “David’s star” freshly painted on the wall of the mosque.

“We have received threats against us but I don’t want to speculate about the cause of the fire,” said Becirov.

The flames of hate eating up the mosque

The fire department was notified some minutes after 11pm (local time) after some persons had noticed smoke rising from the big building.

The fire spread quickly and wildly. Twenty minutes after the discovery, the central parts of the building were completely on fire, as well as the school building and the kitchen.

Becirov was very disappointed at the work of the firemen. “The fire has lasted for one hour now, and still they don’t have water in all the hoses,” he said at midnight , at the same time as the roof of the school building collapsed.

A lot of  Muslims soon gathered at the site of the fire and the police were forced to block the roads in the area. Some of them were crying bitterly.

One of the people who came to the site was the Imam Adly Abu Hajar, one of the Imams of the mosque, of Palestinian origins. He told the Swedish daily what happened, minutes before the tragedy started.

“We held evening prayer here at 10.15pm . We had had a children’s group earlier and we were around ten adults who stayed for the prayer. We left the mosque soon after 10.30pm , made sure it was locked good, and we didn’t hear or see anything unordinary," he said.

Thirty minutes later, the fire was discovered. The fire department sent staff and cars from six stations to fight the fire. The work was made difficult by the strong wind.

Many people were irritated because the firemen did not manage to stop the fire soon enough to save the building. People were also trying to get inside the mosque.

“We called in all people we have,” the police chief said, shortly before one o’clock after midnight . The site of the fire, however, was in chaos , and at two o’clock – some three hours after the fire was reported – the flames were still burning wildly.

Before the hate crime

“We have been able to save the minaret and the center building of the mosque to a certain degree,” said Per-Erik Ebbestal from the Malmo Fire department. The other buildings are completely destroyed.

The large prayer room is made of stone but was damaged severely by smoke and heat.

“Everything is turning into pieces,” devastated Becirov said. “We’re talking about values of up to $8.5 millions. 55 000 members of the Muslim community here will be without their mosque,” he added.

The mosque in Malmo was introduced in 1984 as the first one in Scandinavia .