Muslim group raises €280K for new mosque after possible arson

The Association Islamic Community Culemborg so far raised over 280 thousand euros for a new mosque in the city. The site of the planned mosque, an empty swimming pool building, went up in flames last week. The building was not yet insured, RTV Utrecht reports.

According to the broadcaster, at least 15 mosques throughout the Netherlands teamed up and launched a fundraising action in an effort to "soften the material damage somewhat". According to NOS, the fundraiser involved broadcastin live from within a mosque for 29 hours. Fundraising actions were also held on Facebook.

Hassan Barzizaoua, president of the association, does not yet know how much will be needed to build the mosque in Culemborg. "We haven't talked about that yet. We assumed we would renovate the swimming pool. We did not take this scenario into account." he said to NOS.

The police currently believe that arson was invovled in the fire, though investigators are still awaiting the results of a Netherlands Forensic Institute investigation to find out for sure what happened.