Vandals have defaced a Spanish mosque with racist graffiti amid a spate of anti-Islamic assaults following the Barcelona terror attack.
The Seville Mosque Foundation’s centre was targeted with anti-Muslim slogans including one which read: ‘Killers, you’re going to pay’ and another that used a derogatory term for North Africans.
The graffiti, which also included threats to behead Muslims with a machete, was discovered on Saturday morning.
Meanwhile a mosque in Granada was attacked with flares by a gang of around 12 people in what has also been described as a ‘racist’ attack.
The targeting of the Seville mosque happened just hours before right-wing radicals attacked a mosque in the Andalucian city of Granada two hours drive east. Around 12 people let off flares after appearing at the door to the mosque
A witness, who captured the attack in Granada on camera, said children and families were fleeing as orange smoke filled the area.
Right-wing organisation Hogar Social has been accused of carrying out the raid and were driven off by police, according to the witness, who asked not to be named.
She said: ‘I was about to enter the mosque when suddenly a big racket sounded and a lot of red and orange smoke covered the place.
‘People started to hear xenophobic chants and these ‘beings’ appeared. Tourists in the mosque’s yard and entrance started running away.
‘Kids, families. The people of faith there closed the doors from inside as this neos [Neo-Nazis] were doing their chants.
The incident in Granada was blamed on a right-wing organisation called Hogar Social Granada
‘They then tried to enter, or so it seemed. To insult or to attack I couldn’t tell. But these people are not nice at all.
‘When the believers that were praying started to run away, the local police appeared and talked to the mosque’s iman and the community.
‘Tourists then came back, but the mosque was closed then for security.’
Spokesman Jalid Nieto, who has reported it to police, accused the unidentified vandals of a ‘hate crime.’
He added: ‘They are taking advantage of Thursday’s terror attack, which pains us and has left us devastated, to try to make ideological capital.
‘People should understand that Muslims, just like any other person, can be victims of the injustice of the individuals behind Thursday’s attacks.
‘No-one should take advantage of the horrible incidents in Catalonia, which we have publicly condemned, as humans, Spaniards, and Muslims, to oppress or threaten another group.’
The targeting of the Seville mosque happened just hours before right-wing radicals attacked a mosque in the Andalucian city of Granada two hours drive east.
Around 12 people let off flares after appearing at the door to the mosque with a banner saying, ‘Whoever finances this mosque, finances terrorism,’ as they chanted racist insults.
Police were called to the scene, but the youngsters targeting the mosque – some of whom wore black T-shirts bearing the slogan – ‘F*** ISIS’ had already fled the area.
None of the group were able to be identified.
The incident, in an area known as the Albaicin in Granada which is extremely popular with tourists, was blamed on a right-wing organisation called Hogar Social Granada.
Muslims joined fellow residents of Barcelona to mourn the victims from Thursday’s terror attack. But some fear the bloodshed has sown the seeds of islamophobia
The organisation demanded the closure of the mosque over what the group claimed were its connections with Islamic radicalism.
Granada was the official headquarters of the Moors that ruled Spain for more than eight centuries until it became the last Muslim city to fall to the Christians in 1492.
Islamic centres in the UK, including one in Sutton, south London, were spray painted with graffiti in the wake of the London Bridge and Borough Market attacks in June.