The spread of Islam in Europe has been getting much more attention recently, after numerous terror attacks and thwarted plots; it’s a discussion that’s long overdue. But I think we can all agree that this may not be the best way to express one’s concern: Retired minister dies after setting himself on fire over Islam, church official says. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

BERLIN: A retired Protestant minister died Wednesday of burns after setting himself on fire, apparently to express his concern over the spread of Islam, a church official said.

The Rev. Roland Weisselberg, 73, climbed into a construction site next to the Augustinerkloser church in the city of Erfurt, poured gasoline over himself and set himself on fire Tuesday during Reformation Day church services, said church provost Elfried Begrich at a news conference.

Weisselberg said in a letter that Germany’s Protestant church should take the problem of the spread of Islam more seriously, said Begrich. He had spoken about the issue more and more over the past several years, according to Begrich.

Before dousing himself, she said Weisselberg shouted “Jesus and Oskar,” which was taken as an apparent reference to the Rev. Oskar Bruesewitz, who set himself on fire in 1976 as an apparent protest against the communist government then in power in East Germany.