The last Islamic conference in Germany this year was marked by October 7th in Israel and the consequences for German Muslims.
This time, the conference orchestrated by the German Interior Ministry was actually supposed to be about anti-Muslim sentiment. In view of the situation in the Middle East and the subsequent wave of protests in Germany, which were partly exploited by Islamist supporters, anti-Semitism was now also discussed. In view of the war in Gaza, solidarity with Hamas on German streets and the visit of Turkish President Erdoğan, the German government had to change the agenda of the meeting.
The original goal of the German Islamic Conference, which was founded by the then Federal Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) in 2006, was an Islam that fits a pluralistic society. But it is not only in Berlin that this is far away, even though imams and Muslim religious teachers are now being trained at German universities. Most communities cannot afford an academically trained imam. Most foreign prayer leaders still come from Turkey. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Turkish Office for Religious Affairs Diyanet is sending almost a thousand religious employees to Germany.
The vast majority of them are employed in DITIB communities, but also in the low double-digit range in the Islamic Community Millî Görüş and the ATIB association, which, according to the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution, is connected to the right-wing extremist “Grey Wolves”. Faeser plans to end the deployment entirely. According to her, an agreement has now been reached. This seems all the more urgent since the president of the Turkish religious authority Diyanet, Ali Erbaş, recently described Israel as a “rusty dagger in the heart of the Muslim world” in a Friday sermon. At a virtual conference with theologians from all over the world, he spoke of how “Zionist Israel” in Gaza was committing “genocide” with its attacks based on a “dirty and perverted faith.”
The official theme “Social Peace and Democratic Cohesion: Combating Anti-Semitism and Muslimphobia in Times of Social Division” served to avoid conflict in view of the heated mood. The discussions were also based on the study by the Independent Expert Group on Muslimphobia, which was commissioned by former Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) after the right-wing extremist attack in Hanau in February 2020. The head of the Erlangen Center for Islam and Law in Europe, Mathias Rohe, who coordinated the group of experts, pointed to many stereotypes that persist in a wide variety of social groups. The fundamental problem of a lack of empathy affects both Muslims and Jews.
It was not just the behavior of a small but extremist group within the German Muslim community that was openly criticized. The German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called on Muslim associations to make a clearer commitment against anti-Semitism. She appealed to the major Islamic associations to push forward the fight against anti-Semitism even more visibly. It is not enough to visit a synagogue and take a stand against terror and anti-Semitism without communicating this in mosques or on your own social media channels. It must be said clearly there too, “and in the same way, regardless of whether communication is in German, Arabic or Turkish,” said Faeser. One must recognize that “we have a problem with anti-Semitism, which also comes from Muslims,” she said. For the German politician, the Shoah gives rise to a responsibility that applies not only to the state, but also to every individual, including people who later took on German citizenship. Resentments related to Israel are significantly more widespread among Muslims in Germany than in the rest of society, this has been scientifically proven. If Jews become targets again, “we have to recognize that our ‘never again’ has become fragile,” said Faeser. It is the task of the Islamic associations to speak out loudly and clearly against anti-Semitism – in Friday prayers and on their social networks.
At the same time, Faeser spoke out against general suspicion against Muslims. The state is not taking action against a religion, but against Islamist terrorism. There are certainly Muslims and mosque communities who are committed to fighting anti-Semitism, and their voices must become louder, said Faeser, who also invited smaller and liberal Islamic associations to this year’s meeting.
The ministry also made a statement with its invitation policy. The controversial DITIB association, which had tolerated the appearance of a Taliban representative in its own premises, did not receive an invitation. In the future, DITIB must guarantee “that something like this won’t happen again,” said Faeser. Likewise, the Central Council of Muslims in Germany was not invited to the conference for the first time. The Interior Ministry justified this by saying that the associations monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) and the Union of Turkish-Islamic Cultural Associations in Europe (Atib), are members of the Central Council. According to the domestic intelligence service, the IZH is considered an “important Iranian propaganda center in Europe”. The Central Council had suspended the membership of the IZH after a raid. The Atib is attributed to the Turkish right-wing extremist movement Gray Wolves.
Former German President Christian Wulff called on Muslims to take an honest inventory of anti-Semitic content in Islam. Protestantism also confronted Luther’s anti-Semitism, he said. The roots of Muslim hatred of Jews reach deep into the history of this religion and are an integral part of education in many parts of the Islamic world. The Quran sometimes paints a distorted picture of Judaism. It must be clear to everyone that we are not living in seventh-century Medina, when the Prophet Mohammed had Jews killed and expelled, but on the threshold of the year 2024.
The most relevant announcement was made by the German Interior Minister regarding DITIB imams, who, as Turkish state officials, are currently directly subordinate to the religious authority Diyanet, which is located under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. During the Turkish President’s visit, an agreement was initiated with the Federal Chancellor to “significantly expand the training of imams in Germany,” said the Interior Minister. “With the aim of completely ending the deployment of imams from Turkey.” One must be able to trust “that Friday prayers will remain free of hate messages.”
The federal government is now planning to expand training, particularly at the Islamkolleg Deutschland, which is supported by the Ministry of the Interior. The training of imams there should continue to be financed by the federal government. In September, the first 26 graduates received their final certificates after completing their studies in Islamic theology in Germany and two years of imam training in Osnabrück. The controversial Central Council of Muslims in Germany is also represented on the Islamkolleg’s board of trustees.
Training at the DITIB Academy in Cologne should also be expanded. The more imams are trained in Germany, the fewer visas should be issued for the imams sent from Türkiye. The imams working in DITIB mosques should then no longer be Turkish state officials, i.e. no longer employed by Diyanet in Türkiye, but by DITIB in Germany. Volker Beck, President of the German-Israeli Society, believes it is progress to bring training to Germany. “But if the curriculum continues to be determined by the DITIB, nothing will be gained,” he said.
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