Coptic Orthodox Church in Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany, damaged in arson fire, bishop says

A fire was set at the Coptic Orthodox Church in Berlin-Lichtenberg on Roedeliusplatz 2 on Monday evening. It is the second arson attack on the church after one in 2014. No one was injured. Bishop Anba Damian announced the incident on Thursday at his service seat in Höxter-Brekhausen.

According to the report, a plastic toilet at the church was destroyed by fire. The flames also reached a building network attached to a structure on the church and destroyed a considerable area of it. Workers on the scaffolding immediately alerted the police, who quickly extinguished the fire.

Bishop Damian described the incident as arson. Police said it was not a politically motivated act, so the case is not being handled by the state protection unit. Instead, the possible causes are to be examined by a fire investigator. The report does not give any further findings on who set the fire.

The 2014 attack involved unknown perpetrators who set a garbage can on fire at a side door, and the flames spread to the wooden door. The fire department extinguished it. At that time, the state protection unit at the state criminal office investigated on suspicion of “particularly serious arson.”

The Berlin Coptic Orthodox Community took over the former Protestant “Faith Church” in Berlin-Lichtenberg in 1996. Bishop Damian heads the diocese of North Germany from Höxter and is the spokesman for the Copts in Germany, where an estimated 12,000 Copts live. The Copts are mainly based in Egypt, where membership estimates vary between eight and eleven million among about 94.5 million inhabitants.

In Egypt, the government has legalized a further 125 church buildings and attached service buildings. According to the Coptic portal “Watani,” as reported on Tuesday evening, 2,526 Christian churches have been approved after the fact without official license since the legalization campaign began in 2017.

Source: Read the original report (translated from German)