"The general suspicion against the Muslims is exactly what the extremists want. They want discord and violence between religions," Mazyek said.
The fingerprints of a man suspected of having links to the deadly Berlin attack were confirmed to belong to Anis Amri, a 24-year-old Tunisian asylum seeker who is currently at large, according to German media reports earlier on Thursday.
"The origin of extremism does not lie with the refugees," Mazyek added. "Unfortunately, I am afraid, the separation between religion and extremism has not been respected [already] in the past."
A manhunt for Amri began on Wednesday. The man has been the only suspect since German police released a Pakistani refugee, detained at the scene, for lack of evidence.
On Monday, a truck rammed into the crowd at the Berlin Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz, killing 12 people and injuring 49.
Earlier this year, on July 18, a 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker launched an ax-and-knife attack on passengers of a commuter train in Bavaria, wounding five tourists. Four days later, a German of Iranian origin shot nine people in Munich and committed suicide. On July 24, a Syrian refugee exploded a bomb outside a music festival in Bavaria’s Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 bystanders, while another Syrian killed a woman with a machete in Reutlingen near Stuttgart.
