Posted on January 26, 2016

Riot Police Break Up Huge Brawl Between ‘Hundreds’ of Muslims After One Group Saw Others Drinking Alcohol

Imogen Calderwood, Daily Mail, January 26, 2016

Riot police were called in to break-up a mass brawl involving ‘hundreds’ of asylum-seekers in Germany, in a dispute over alcohol.

More than 200 Muslim refugees came to blows in the early hours of Sunday morning, after one group reportedly spotted another group drinking alcohol and branded them ‘bad Muslims’.

Some 32 police cars were sent to the Leiman centre in the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg to quash the outbreak of violence.

The brawl is thought to have broken out as a result of friction between different factions of Islam at the centre, which is home to some 500 asylum-seekers.

A group of Pakistani men at the centre condemned a group of Afghan refugees after they were allegedly spotted drinking alcohol, before the two groups clashed and sparked the all-out brawl.

Five people had to be taken to hospital, while 10 Afghan refugees were taken to a police station to sober up–although no arrests were made.

Just two police cars were originally sent to the centre after reports of violence, according to German media Focus, but they quickly had to call for back up after being faced with the more than 200-strong crowd.

It is the latest report among many of violence breaking out at migrant and refugee centres.

In October, German official Rainer Wendt, the leader of Germany’s police union, claimed refugees were taking part in so-called ‘organised mass brawls’.

He claimed refugee and migrant centres were experiencing ‘proper power struggles between different groups who have different ethnic and religious backgrounds’.

The official further insisted the magnitude of the crisis is being hidden from the public to avoid panic.

In November, a mass brawl broke out at Germany’ Tempelhof migrant centre in Berlin that resulted in 500 people being evacuated.

It came just hours after another mass fight saw migrants attack each other with fire extinguishers at a refugee shelter in the Berlin suburb of Spandau.

Tensions escalate quickly in the centres, where often traumatised people from different cultures are forced to live side-by-side in often over-capacity accommodation.

Germany’s police union has previously called for refugees to be separated by religion and by country of origin to minimise the potential for conflict.