The anonymous letter – printed out and full of spelling mistakes – said that “no mosque and none of your businesses will be safe” and threatened that “brothers [Muslims] will be slaughtered like pigs and crucified as our Lord converts their souls.”
The document was found in the mosque’s mailbox by Jamal Habbachich, one of the local Muslim leaders and the president of Molenbeek’s mosque association, and he is set to address the government about the issue.
“We will turn to the authorities of our country and complain to the police, naturally. Because there are two situations when you receive this kind of letter: it is a document written by someone wacky unbalanced, or it’s a very serious threat,” Habbachich told the local media outlet RTBF.
“What also concerns me is the name of the author of the letter which we do not know, and who uses similar terminology to that of the Islamic state,” he added.
Given the context, Jamal Habbachich is also worried about a possible increase in Islamophobic acts, be it verbal or physical abuse. “This letter is one of the elements,” he said. “In the current climate, with fear in everyone’s minds, it is disturbing,” he also told Le Parisien.
Two other mosques in the region also got threats like this, getting similar letters.
The Attadamoune mosque is considered a key Muslim institution in the Molenbeek district, an area near the Belgian capital that is connected with the attacks in Paris on November 13 that left 130 people dead.
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Last week, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that the government may close “certain radical mosques” in the Molenbeek district over fears that it was the place where the Paris attacks were orchestrated.
Belgian capital Brussels was on a lockdown for four days last week, too, over concerns that Paris-like attacks would occur there.
