Police gave the all clear on Thursday at Germany\u2019s largest mosque in the western city of Cologne, after it was evacuated due to a telephone bomb threat.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
Police gave the all clear on Thursday at Germany\u2019s largest mosque in the western city of Cologne, after it was evacuated due to a telephone bomb threat.<\/p>\n
Following a thorough search at Cologne Central Mosque complex with special teams and bomb-sniffing dogs, the police found no bomb and determined the threat was a hoax, Anadolu Agency reported.<\/p>\n
It was the mosque\u2019s second time in four months being threatened with a bomb attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In June, a bomb threat, apparently emailed by a far-right organization, had forced the evacuation of visitors and staff at the mosque complex. But later it turned out to be hoax.<\/p>\n
Germany has witnessed growing Islamophobia in recent years triggered by the propaganda of far-right parties, and more than 100 mosques and religious institutions were attacked by by far-right extremists in 2018.<\/p>\n
Police recorded 813 hate crimes against Muslims last year, including insults, threatening letters and physical assaults. At least 54 Muslims were injured in the attacks.<\/p>\n
Germany, a country of over 81 million people, has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police gave the all clear on Thursday at Germany\u2019s largest mosque in the western city of Cologne, after it was evacuated due to a telephone bomb threat. Police gave the all clear on Thursday at Germany\u2019s largest mosque in the western city of Cologne, after it was evacuated due to a telephone bomb threat. Following …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n