Hamburg Police Close Mosque Used by 9/11 Attackers

Authorities in Hamburg Germany closed a mosque Monday they say served as a main meeting place for jihadists.
Hamburg Police Close Mosque Used by 9/11 Attackers
8/9/2010
Updated:
8/9/2010
Authorities in Hamburg Germany closed a mosque Monday they say served as a main meeting place for jihadists, including some of the perpetrators of 9/11.

At a press conference, Monday the deputy head of Hamburg’s regional intelligence agency, Manfred Muck, said that the Masjid Taiba mosque served “again and again as a center for radicalization,” according to Der Spiegel.

Suicide hijacker Mohamed Atta, a pilot in the attacks, was a visitor at the Taiba.

The Arab-German cultural association, affiliated with the mosque is accused of preaching sermons, offering training courses and using the Internet to propagate an “anti-democratic ideology,” said Hamburg’s Internal Sen. Christopher Alhaus at the press conference.

Last year security forces monitored a group of 10 Hamburger jihadists who traveled to the Pakistani-Afghan border—apparently bound for an extremist training camp. One of group members made a video encouraging German Muslims to take up arms.

The closure of the mosque has raised an outcry by German Islamic groups who say that the government should target people not places of worship, according to BBC.