Two firebombs thrown at Tel Aviv mosque

Two Molotov cocktails were thrown early yesterday morning at the Hassan Bek mosque south of the Tel Aviv beach promenade. The mosque serves Jaffa's Muslim population

At 5 A.M., three people including the muezzin, were in the mosque when they said they heard the sound of two bottles breaking against the southern windows. One exploded against the window bars from the outside, causing a fire to break out, which the three managed to extinguish by themselves. There were no injuries.

"If this had happened at a synagogue, half of Jaffa would be under arrest," city councilman Rifaat Tourk said. He warned the residents of Jaffa against taking the law into their own hands.

In June 2001, immediately after the suicide bombing that claimed 21 lives at the Dolphinarium, located across the street from the mosque, an angry crowd threw stones and empty bottles at the mosque for several hours, necessitating the evacuation of several worshipers. Since that time, worshipers occasionally have been insulted and stones were thrown on two occasions, breaking windows and causing light damage to the building.

"As long as a mosque is there, there will be people with an urge to hate that will try and burn it and those inside," Sheikh Ahmed Abu-Ajwa, the mosque's spiritual leader and a member of the Jaffa branch of the Northern Islamic Movement, said. The movement has called for a mass protest prayer to be held at the mosque on Friday.