– When I opened the letter I got powder on my hands, says Najibullah Lutfi.
He is imam at the Eyüp Sultan mosque in Stavanger. On Monday, they received a hate letter with an unidentified powder in the mail.
The imam took a picture of the letter with the powder and sent it to the chairman of the mosque. He advised the imam not to touch the powder.
– I thought I was going to die. I was very scared, says Lutfi.
The package was in this mailbox. Lutfi opened it inside the mosque.
Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / NRK
Since he had cut his face after being in contact with the powder, he had to shave off his beard.
Turned out to be harmless
One of the hypotheses of the police was for a long time whether it could be anthrax powder which was sent along with a hate letter to the mosque.
It was because of the text of the letter that was sent:
“ANTHRAX. Anthrax. LEAVE THE OFFICE IMMEDIATELY. NOTIFY THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 112. DEADLY POISON.”
After investigations, however, it turned out that the powder was not dangerous. The campaign ended, and the people who had been inside the mosque could be discharged from hospital.
– We are very happy that it was harmless, but it is still the case that this has given us a new fear, says leader of the Muslim community council in Stavanger, Summer Ejaz.
Summer Ejaz, leader of the Muslim joint council in Stavanger.
Photo: Erik Waage
Stavanger University Hospital implemented yellow alert due to the incident.
Around 30 employees were called in to deal with the incident. Both nurses, doctors, health secretaries and porters had to go to work.
14 people were transported to the hospital for remediation and control.
14 people were taken to Stavanger University Hospital on Monday after it was suspected that they had been in contact with a dangerous powder.
Photo: Erik Waage / NRK
It is still unknown what the white powder was.
Islamic Council: – Muslims have reason to be concerned
Mohammed Abdullahi is project manager at the Islamic Council of Norway. He says there has been an increase in the number of threats against mosques in Norway in recent years.
– This is linked to the growing Islamophobia which has become more prominent both in Europe and other parts of the world, he says.
He says nnegative attitudes towards Norwegian Muslims are often expressed through threats and sometimes in the form of more serious incidents.
Such as the terrorist attack against the Al-Noor mosque in 2019.
– Muslims certainly have a reason to be worried. It is a frightening development that must be combated in several places, he says.
Nevertheless, he emphasizes that the majority of the Norwegian population has positive attitudes towards Islam and Muslims.
This letter was in the mailbox of the mosque.
Photo: Private
The police say the aim was probably to create fear
Ingvild Bjørheim is a police attorney in the Sør-Vest police district. She says on Tuesday afternoon that there is still no reason to believe that the powder is dangerous.
– There are no suspects yet. This is a serious criminal case that we want to investigate further. We have a goal of tracking the sender, she says.
She says it is reasonable to believe that the aim of the package has been to create fear.
– Now the package will be handed over and examined by Kripos, says the police attorney.
Image of burnt Koran
Imam Lutfi says there was also a picture of a burnt Koran inside the package.
– I hope that those who have done this will be caught. This has created fear in the mosque, he says.
Lutfi says they will discuss internally how they can prevent something similar from happening again.
