Germany shuts ‘Blue Mosque’ and bans Shia group for extremism

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Germany has shut down one of many nation’s largest and oldest mosques and ordered a ban on the nationwide Shia Muslim organisation that runs it for spiritual extremism.

Dozens of police raided Hamburg’s Blue Mosque on Wednesday morning, in addition to 53 different properties throughout Germany, in probably the most vital crackdowns on political Islamism within the nation in years.

The inside ministry mentioned it was formally banning the Islamic Centre of Hamburg and its affiliated organisations for preaching “totalitarian rule, aggressive antisemitism and help for the fear group Hizbollah”.

Three different mosques, in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, have additionally been raided and closed.

“The [ICH] propagates an Islamist, totalitarian ideology in Germany,” mentioned inside minister Nancy Faeser. “This Islamist ideology is directed towards human dignity, towards girls’s rights, towards an unbiased judiciary and towards our democratic state.

“It is extremely essential to me to make a transparent distinction: we aren’t appearing towards a faith. We clearly differentiate between Islamists, towards whom we take robust motion, and the various Muslims who belong to our nation and stay their religion.”

Iran’s overseas ministry summoned the German ambassador to Tehran to “condemn the hostile motion” and warned about “the implications of such harmful actions,” which they mentioned “exemplify a transparent case of Islamophobia,” based on the official information company, IRNA.

Iran conveyed to Germany that the measure may “incite spiritual and sectarian tensions”, the ministry added.

The ICH, which didn’t reply to a request for remark, has beforehand denied accusations of extremism.

It was probably the most outstanding Shia organisations in Germany, and a founding member of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany.

However the group has come underneath mounting scrutiny lately, with rising requires it to be shut down because of its hardline spiritual doctrine and hyperlinks to extremist teams outdoors Germany.

The Blue Mosque itself has been monitored on and off by German home intelligence since 1993, and in 2017 was formally designated by safety authorities to be an “instrument” of the Iranian regime.

The assault by Hamas on Israel in October final 12 months has prompted a zero-tolerance clampdown by the German authorities, which has been at pains to claim its help for Israel and Jewish life in Germany and rebut criticism that it has been idle in tackling home spiritual extremism.

Investigations into the ICH started final November when police searched ICH properties and confiscated proof.

Intelligence businesses and police concluded the organisation was “extraordinarily conspiratorial” and had fastidiously labored to craft a false picture of tolerance whereas working “intensively and steadfastly” in secret to advertise an “Islamic revolution” in Germany, the inside ministry mentioned.

Tensions between safety authorities and plenty of German Muslim teams stay excessive amid a marked uptick in antisemitic hate crimes throughout the nation.

Antisemitic incidents rose 83 per cent in 2023, based on the federal government’s unbiased commissioner.

However Berlin has additionally come underneath fireplace for adopting a heavy-handed strategy to policing opinion across the struggle in Gaza, and generally failing to pretty distinguish between official criticism of Israeli authorities coverage and racial hatred.

Sabine Döring, Germany’s junior minister for larger training, was compelled to resign final month after her ministry began exploring authorized choices to defund the analysis of German lecturers who had signed a public letter criticising a police crackdown on anti-Israeli scholar protests.

Further reporting by Najmeh Bozorgmehr