The European Muslim League (EML) has expressed concern over anti-Muslim incidents in Lithuania, BNS reports. EML pointed to the possible public burning of a Quran in Vilnius and the disruption of Muslim prayer near a mosque in Kaunas. Mufti Aleksandras Beganskas, head of the Council of Muslim Religious Communities of Lithuania (LRMBT), cited threats to burn the mosque in Kaunas and harm him and his family, LRT reported. EML urged Lithuanian authorities and society to stand against hatred and intimidation. EML chairman Alfredo Maiolese noted that defending religious freedom protected the “fundamental values of society as a whole.”
Earlier, Lithuania’s State Security Department (VSD) warned about increased incitement to hatred against Muslims, while President Gitanas Nauseda suggested that the recent anti-Muslim incidents could have been orchestrated, BNS reported. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian parliament’s national security and defence committee examined LRMBT’s activities, including its alleged links with Islamist organisations, BNS reported. However, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius and Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas assured that VSD had no information suggesting that members of the country’s Muslim community posed a threat to Lithuania’s national security.