Five weeks following the arson of a synagogue in Wuppertal, Germany, Germany police placed two German nationals under arrest for the crime. At the height of Israel's Operation Protective Edge, amid a major surge in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe, Molotov cocktails were thrown at the synagogue, seriously damaging the building's facade. Security cameras managed to film three suspects. One of the suspects was arrested at the scene , and the police launched a search for the remaining two. All three suspects were described as "Palestinians", according to Germany's Die Welt . The day before the attack, a masked thug was caught on camera spraying anti-Semitic graffiti on the walls of the synagogue. Police are still investigating whether there was any connection between the two incidents. Wuppertal hit the news recently when it was revealed that extremist Muslim vigilantes were mounting " Sharia patrols " to enforce Islamic law (Sharia) on local residents. The men were allegedly members of Germany's growing Salafi movement, a puritanical version of Sunni Islam adhered to by radicals from Al Qaeda to the Saudi Arabian government. Police reportedly stopped 11 men aged between 19 and 33, and launched a criminal investigation to see if charges of illegal assembly could be brought against the perpetrators. Muslim extremists played a key role in both stoking anti-Semitic sentiment and carrying out attacks against Jews in Europe over the summer.
