This Friday, Munich’s Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) will sit down at a table in the town hall with Benjamin Idriz, the board of the Munich Forum for Islam, and two to three members of the Muslim Advisory Council to discuss the situation in Munich in view of the war in Israel and in the to discuss the Gaza Strip. The Muslim clerics had urgently called for this meeting because they feared an escalation in Munich. “We are extremely concerned about peace in this city,” 13 imams and representatives of Muslim organizations wrote in an open letter on Wednesday.
Unlike in cities like Berlin, where there were anti-Semitic riots and tough clashes with the police at pro-Palestinian gatherings in Neukölln on Wednesday evening, the situation in the Bavarian capital is still calm. But Benjamin Idriz, the imam known beyond his Islamic community in Penzberg, Upper Bavaria, is watching with concern the plans of Palestinian supporters to drive through the city center with cars and flags on Saturday evening. “I am absolutely relieved that a conversation is now taking place with the mayor; we have to act as a unit,” he says. Reiter confirmed the meeting date.
“We imams want to provide clear guidance during Friday prayers in the mosques,” Idriz told the SZ on Thursday morning. “Any rally that cheers violence is counterproductive to peace and reconciliation.” The imams therefore wanted to warn their community members not to follow the call of the radical network “Samidoun” for a car parade in the city center on Saturday afternoon. “We say we don’t agree with it. We feel our responsibility as Muslim actors,” says Idriz.
At the memorial event for the victims of the terrorist attack last week in front of the Munich synagogue, Mayor Reiter announced a ban on pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel demonstrations to great applause. Since then, these gatherings have been banned. The police are closely monitoring what is happening, have a strong presence at possible meeting places, but also specifically use their discretion to avoid violence. She allowed the participants of a protest meeting on Tuesday night in front of the Israeli Consulate General to do so because “the mourning character was clearly recognizable,” according to a police spokesman.
Idriz announces further actions by the Islamic communities in Munich for reconciliation, and anti-Semitism as a “religious belief” must not grow. And it is addressed to the Jewish-Israeli community in Munich: “Your security is our security. Your suffering is our suffering. Your concern is our concern.”