Berlin: Mosque was known as hotbed of Isis sympathisers

From the Times

Fussilet 33 is a mosque and community centre complex in the downmarket district of Moabit in western Berlin. It is opposite a police station, just a few hundred metres from where Anis Amri hijacked the lorry used for the Christmas market attack. It is also near the Nordhafen canal port where he filmed himself proclaiming support for Isis. Amaq, the Isis news agency, released the self-filmed video yesterday in which Amri swears allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group’s leader, and declares that he wants to become a martyr.

The mosque, raided on Thursday and again yesterday, was among locations searched because Amri is believed to have spent time there. It is known as a hotbed of Isis sympathisers. A 2015 regional intelligence service report describes Fussilet 33 as a meeting place for Salafists where Turks and Muslims from the Caucasus are radicalised for jihad in Syria.

The Mosque was raided by Berlin police last year as members were feared to be collecting funds for terror attacks. The authorities had difficulty closing this mosque and another which concerned them, the al-Nur as they only had one official working on the matter.

Berlin’s intelligence authority is responsible for watching about 150 of the 549 people listed by German authorities as being potential terrorists. But the cash-strapped city does not have the resources to do so. RBB, a local broadcaster, reported that it only had enough specialists for round-the-clock surveillance of two to three people.