The day after the short-term cancellation of the interreligious peace prayer by Muslims, Jews and Christians on Monday evening at Marienplatz, only one thing seems clear: they did not want to do a common cause and only noticed this a few hours before. The attempt to unite as many people from the city’s society as possible in a prayer for peace in the Middle East failed on Monday afternoon.
It was the time when Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) announced the official end. He explained in writing that the prerequisite for accepting his patronage was that a representative of the Jewish religious community also said a prayer at the peace prayer initiated by Munich imams. That is no longer the case. “I regret that, but I also understand it.”
Nevertheless, according to the police, around 70 people gathered on Marienplatz around 6 p.m. on Monday evening. “They prayed briefly and then left peacefully.” Also there was the co-initiator of the planned peace prayer, the Penzberg Imam and chairman of the Forum for Islam Munich, Benjamin Idriz. “We suspected that people, especially older people, who don’t have social media would be there and wanted to inform them.”
He was surprised at how many came, “90 percent, in my opinion, Christians, some came from as far away as Ulm, Augsburg and Garmisch.” At the request of the visitors, they still prayed together. Christian, with an Our Father. Idriz himself recited the lines that he had wanted to speak that evening anyway.
Who ultimately got the ball rolling for the short-term cancellation and why is difficult to trace, even the day after – those involved do not comment publicly. The only specific name is Benjamin Idriz. On Sunday evening, the first person to apologize by email was the Protestant regional bishop Christian Kopp, who, like the Catholic cathedral priest Klaus Peter Franzl, wanted to speak at the peace talks, for scheduling reasons. He is represented by a dean.
At 11 p.m., says Idriz, the rejection from Rabbi Jan Guggenheim was also received by email, with the same reason. In the morning, Dieter Reiter finally decided against taking part, citing the Jewish community’s cancellation.
The speakers of the Christian churches cited the mayor’s cancellation as a reference for their absence on Monday afternoon. Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria (IKG), described Reiter’s decision as the right one on X, formerly Twitter, in the evening. “The open questions of the last few days have shown that this event in its planned form would not be able to send out the right signals.” The IKG did not comment more explicitly when asked the day after.
Idriz complains about a “lack of transparency in the dispute”: “I miss a bit of honesty because they first promise and promise and then don’t keep them.” The crux of the matter, as can be heard in background discussions the day after, could be the fact that the Munich Muslim Council was the organizer of the peace prayer. In the run-up to the event, the “Left Alliance Against Anti-Semitism” accused him of being close to Islamist groups.
This has also been a recurring topic in city politics in recent years; The city council last rejected regular funding from the association in 2019. The Green Party politician Volker Beck, President of the German-Israeli Society, who had also called for a rejection with reference to the Muslim Council, accused the city of failing to select credible Muslim actors after its decision.
“Beck is interfering in a city where he doesn’t know the conditions,” Idriz defends himself, “because the Muslims here have clearly condemned Hamas terror and all forms of violence and intolerance.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the Muslim Council distanced itself from statements made by an imam from the Islamic Center in Munich, who is also a member of the association. “Everyone has their own way of celebrating October,” he posted with a laughing smiley on October 7th. “We have only now found out about this through the media. We find his statement abhorrent,” the statement said.