“The Central Council of Muslims can no longer be the Federal President’s guest of honor”
Aiman Mazyek, Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims. Institutions of the Muslim communities are criticized
Source: picture alliance/SZ Photo/Metodi Popow
The terrorist attacks on Israel and reactions from Muslims in Germany have led to calls for a change of course in dealing with Islamic organizations. There should be no “’Yes, but’” now, it is said across party lines. Particularly in focus: the Central Council of Muslims.
IIslamic organizations in Germany have called for calm after Hamas called on Muslims around the world to attack Israel and turn Friday of this week into a “day of anger.” Everywhere, even in Germany. The Turkish community in Germany, the Coordination Council of Muslims and the Council of Berlin Imams, for example, spoke out clearly against Hamas’ terror. Nevertheless, institutions of the Muslim communities are criticized.
Because not everyone distances themselves clearly and without any restrictions from Hamas and the atrocities of the terrorist organization – including, for example, the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD).
“They can’t keep their lips apart when women and children are massacred.”
After Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel, columnist Jan Fleischhauer finds clear words for the resounding silence of German Islamic associations. These were courted in Germany for years.
Source: WELT/Jan Fleischhauer
“For too long, Islamic associations that have questionable members, are sometimes influenced from abroad or represent radical views have been courted and supported,” said Jens Spahn, vice-chairman of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, to WELT AM SONNTAG. “If Israel’s right to exist is German raison d’être,” said Spahn, “an association like the Central Council of Muslims cannot continue to be the guest of honor of the Federal President or the Federal Government, especially since it represents a mini-minority of Muslims in Germany.” Spahn demands: “Who “If you don’t pass the anti-Semitism test, you’re not allowed to be a conversation partner.”
Last Sunday, the day after the first Hamas attacks, the Central Council of Muslims declared that it condemned these attacks and called for an immediate end to the violence. But the council also demands that “all sides” must “immediately stop hostilities.” At the same time, he said it was deeply disturbing “that settlers flanked by the Israeli army have been attacking Palestinian villages and the Al-Aqsa Mosque for two years without the international community intervening.”
SPD: “No ifs and buts” for Israel
This perpetrator-victim reversal provokes sharp criticism. SPD parliamentary group vice-president Dirk Wiese explained the ZMD’s statements: “A relativization of the brutal barbarity of the Hamas terrorists against innocent victims in Israel is completely unacceptable. There cannot be a ‘yes, but’ in view of the deeply inhumane and disgusting events,” said Wiese. “We stand by our Israeli friends – without any ifs or buts.” Members of the Green Party and the FDP also reacted indignantly.
The domestic policy spokeswoman for the Greens in parliament, the Islamic scholar Lamya Kaddor, extends the scope beyond the Central Council of Muslims: The four major Islamic associations have influence on a large proportion of organized Muslims in Germany, but they do not make enough use of it. “I appeal to you, also as a believing Muslim, as well as to mosque communities to clearly differentiate between violence and terror, no matter who it is against,” said Kaddor. “There needs to be a clearer stance on this and the ‘yes-but’ rhetoric needs to come to an end” – a clear stance is missing in some communities.
The question is how one should react to the fact that an association like the ZMD comments on the atrocities of Hamas with criticism of Israel and that there were pro-Hamas events in Berlin-Neukölln and other places in Germany in response to the massacres in Israel.
The Central Council of Muslims is disqualifying itself with its “terrifying attitude,” says the religious policy spokeswoman for the FDP parliamentary group, Sandra Bubendorfer-Licht. “But the problem goes beyond that. The reactions of the Islamic community Milli Görüs and Ditib are just as disturbing in parts,” explains the MP. “It is therefore all the more important that we address this unacceptable attitude clearly and clearly at a special meeting of the German Islamic Conference, to which Federal Minister Faeser must now invite.” What is necessary is to reduce the enormous influence of foreign governments on mosque communities and associations.
CDU: “Liberal Muslims” “finally” need more support
Union parliamentary group vice-president Spahn comes to the conclusion that in this country people were working with seemingly less radical associations in the hope of combating the very radical ones. “But that is a fallacy. Instead, liberal Muslims and their associations must finally receive the support they deserve,” demands the CDU politician. The liberal Bubendorfer-Licht speaks of the “misunderstood tolerance of intolerance” that has long dominated. She demands: “We therefore urgently need to support and strengthen the structures of liberal Islam.”
The Green Party politician Kaddor, on the other hand, believes it is wrong not to continue talking to Islamic associations, including the Central Council of Muslims. “On the contrary, we should expand the circle of contacts and make them all responsible for working towards an Islam that connects Muslims with this country and its values. “You can’t do that with silence,” she says. But it is also clear, says Kaddor: “There is a dregs of people with right-wing ideas in Germany. And we have to come to terms with the fact that this also exists among people with an Islamist orientation who we can no longer reach.” The Central Council of Muslims did not comment when asked.