Central Council of Muslims outraged by Islam passage in CDU policy program
Aiman Mazyek, Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims (ZMD)
Source: dpa/Thomas Banneyer
The criticism of radical political Islam in the CDU’s new policy program has met with criticism from Muslim associations. The Union “stigmatizes” Muslims, said Aiman Mazyek from the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. The party is against it.
DThe Central Council of Muslims in Germany firmly rejects the new version of the controversial wording on Muslims in the draft CDU policy program.
“Another attempt by the Christian Democratic Union to fish in murky waters to stigmatize Muslims,” said Central Council Chairman Aiman Mazyek to the editorial network Germany.
The Union immediately rejected the accusation. For the First Parliamentary Managing Director of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Thorsten Frei, the changes are “certainly not a stigmatization, but rather a clarification,” as he said in the “Early Start” program on the RTL/n-tv television station.
The CDU had the controversial formulation about Muslims in the draft of its new policy program changed, WELT had reported. Originally, a kind of subheading in the draft program said: “Muslims who share our values belong to Germany.”
This now became: “Muslims are part of the religious diversity of Germany and our society.” This sentence was then inserted into the following paragraph: “An Islam that does not share our values and rejects our free society does not belong to Germany.”
Mazyek criticized: “If anything, a formulation that addresses all world views and religious communities would be acceptable, instead of just singling out a specific one and labeling it negatively.” The CDU’s approach was “selective” and exploited anti-Muslim sentiments and stereotypes, the Central Council complained -Chairman.
Ploß defends new passage
Christoph Ploß, a member of the CDU application commission, also defended the new version in the “Rheinische Post”. The commission “rightly included the important wording in the draft that we as the CDU clearly reject illiberal Islam.”
The CDU member of the Bundestag added: “Not only naming certain groups, but also clearly saying that we reject an Islam that does not share our values, has further sharpened our profile at this point compared to the first draft.”
The new version was approved by the application committee at the weekend. The original formulation sparked strong criticism; SPD leader Lars Klingbeil spoke of the rhetorical exclusion of an entire population group.