Muslim community in Japan shaken by suspected arson attacks: ‘everyone is scared’

Muslims in a small town in northern Japan have been rattled by several suspected arson attacks, following months of online agitation targeting the community over purported construction violations.Three fires in just over two weeks have damaged Pakistani-owned businesses and the Ebetsu Masjid, a mosque in Ebetsu, central Hokkaido, prompting police investigations and deepening anxiety among the city’s roughly 700 Muslim residents.“We have women and children in the community, and I can tell you that everyone is scared,” said the mosque’s chairman Mohammed Imran, 48, who was originally from Pakistan’s Punjab province and has lived in Japan for more than two decades.“The situation has become very dangerous,” he said in an interview.Around 3am on February 15, a fire broke out at the office and accommodation of a vehicle repair business owned by a Pakistani man, destroying a two-storey prefabricated building. The blaze spread so quickly that a man sleeping upstairs broke a leg jumping from a window to escape.A fire also broke out at the mosque early on Saturday morning, badly burning the 138-square-metre (1,485 sq ft) building and an adjoining structure. Imran said the mosque was typically left unlocked so local Muslims could visit to pray at any time.