Police in the northern German state of Lower Saxony conducted a search of a suspected radical mosque in the city of Hildesheim, the state's Interior Ministry said Thursday.
The mosque, run by the city's German-speaking Islam Circle (DIK), and flats belonging to eight people who run the DIK were searched on Wednesday, the ministry said.
"The DIK in Hildesheim is a national hotbed of the radical Salafist scene," Lower Saxony Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement, referring to an ultra-conservative reform movement within Sunni Islam.
"After months of preparation, we took a major step today towards banning the organization with the searches we carried out," he said.
The security authorities had discovered that Muslims were being radicalized within the DIK and encouraged to go and fight in war zones, the minister said.
In sermons, seminars and lectures, people were urged to "hate infidels," Pistorius said.
A police spokesman said the searches were completed late Wednesday evening.
