The increasingly far-reaching demonstrators who are challenging German politics and society are meeting in the north of Germany, more precisely in the second largest German city of Hamburg. The last rally was attended by over 1,000 people, mainly young men.
The demonstrations are directed against the media coverage of the Gaza war, but how fanatical many of the participants are can be read on their signs: “Germany – dictatorship of values” or “Caliphate is the solution”. Caliphate means that God, not man, is the supreme legislator – Sharia law applies, caliphate means gender segregation, discrimination against non-Muslims, the death penalty for blasphemy and adultery, and no recognition of state borders. Anyone who calls for the caliphate is therefore calling for the abolition of democracy.
Even if many observers now believe that such tendencies have not existed up to now, this assumption is incorrect. In the past two years alone, Islamist demonstrations have repeatedly taken place on German streets. As the images of the latest demonstration spread, the federal government responded unusually quickly and harshly: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz demanded that all Islamist activities be dealt with „all the possibilities and options of our constitutional state.” Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser immediately linked the issue to deportations: “Anyone who wants to declare a caliphate in Germany has no home and no future here.” Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann advised Islamists to leave Germany “if they prefer a caliphate” to German laws and values.
Hamburg had already made national headlines on the Easter weekend when 300 people held a “secret caliphate meeting.” On the same weekend, 400 Islamists met for a lecture. A year earlier, in February 2023, there was a major demonstration in Hamburg with 3,500 people because an Islamophobe in Sweden had burned a Quran. In the fall of 2023, a flash mob of around 500 people gathered to protest against Israel’s war in Gaza, but some of the peace demonstrators brought wooden slats with them, and in the end bottles and stones were thrown at the police. A radical group was involved in all of these actions, the core of which, according to the police, consists of only around 20 people: “Muslim Interaktiv”. The suspected head of the group is Joe Adade Boateng, a 25-year-old from Hamburg with a German passport who is studying to be a teacher at university. On Instagram, Joe Adade Boateng’s first name is Raheem – the Merciful. In his videos, he claims that he recognizes the validity of the constitution. But at the same time, he praises the advantages of a caliphate for the Middle East. And at the demos of his group “Muslim Interaktiv”, the signs with the caliphate demands are simply in the room, so that one automatically relates them to Germany.
Boateng doesn’t think much of the media, and the last demonstration was explicitly directed against the alleged “media incitement” against Muslims. The Islamists portray themselves as victims of discrimination in order to appear harmless themselves. At the most recent demonstration, they waved newspapers that were smeared with blood-red paint.
However, the security authorities are certain that the organizers of the demo are extremists. “Muslim Interaktiv” has been appearing in the Hanseatic city’s constitutional protection report for years. In autumn 2023, Joe Adade Boateng’s house was searched. It was about the alleged violation of a ban on anti-Israel rallies in Hamburg. The investigation is still ongoing. So even though the police knew which group had organized the recent march, they could not prevent it. The Hamburg police chief does not hide his frustration: what was seen at the demo was unbearable. But all lawyers agreed that the necessary risk forecast for a ban on the demo was not available. So there were no clear signs that the demonstration could lead to violence. “That is difficult to bear, but that is the system of our constitutional state,” says the police chief.
Along with North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin, Hamburg is considered a core area for Islamists in Germany since the terrorist cell around Mohammed Atta formed here before September 11, 2001. At the time, the authorities had no idea what would happen. Today they are alarmed, but they lack the means to prevent Islamist indoctrination. What you find if you follow the tracks of a man like Boateng on the Internet is extremely dangerous, says “Modus”, a center for applied deradicalization research. It monitors media offerings through which young people are radicalizing today: “Muslim Interaktiv” and Boateng are among the successful players here. Their social media accounts have tens of thousands of followers, most of them male and teenagers. In total, around 280 YouTube channels are monitored, some of which have reached up to 250,000 followers. There are also a similarly large number of offerings on social media. The state is already trying to shut down these channels, and the accounts of “Muslim Interaktiv” have also been deleted or blocked several times. But new accounts will soon appear, and Boateng will smile again from the video tiles. After the last deletion, the group currently only has a meager 4,000 followers on Instagram, but now has almost 25,000 on TikTok.
The videos are of high quality. They are almost always about the same thing: the evil West and how it oppresses Muslims. Sometimes the accounts have a religious touch, sometimes they pretend to be political. And serious topics are also deliberately set, real pain points are addressed, such as everyday racism and growing „Islamophobia“. But the Islamists are taking tough action against critics. Since October 7, 2023, the researchers have observed that the number of views on the videos has tripled in some cases. “When I deal with Islam on the Internet, I automatically end up in this bubble.” It is difficult for young people to see through the propaganda. “Extremists have gained the power to interpret things in the digital space.” This has consequences in the real world. Four young people are said to have recently planned a terrorist attack in North Rhine-Westphalia, using knives or Molotov cocktails. The possible targets were churches and synagogues. The suspects were only 15 or 16 years old. Security sources say that the young people were using Islamist channels on the Internet.
“Muslim Interaktiv” and similar movements offer are part of a larger network, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution believes. The long-term goal of all Islamists is the unity of all Muslims and ultimately a worldwide caliphate, as the terrorist group IS wanted to establish. According to Islamic scholars, the narrative that all Muslims are under threat plays a crucial role in this: It not only makes it possible to distort the West into an enemy image, but also to demonize all reform-oriented, religion-critical Muslims. But security authorities also say that the majority of Muslims are not impressed by such enemy images. In Hamburg, some Islamists are denied access to mosques. Groups like “Muslim Interaktiv“ know how to address the experiences of discrimination of migrants, especially Muslims, but they give the wrong answers. Instead of counteracting discrimination, they want to get Muslims to secede from the state and German society. That is why Islamists are excluded wherever possible – but what works well in analogue life is difficult in the digital space. If you try to counter hatred with a more peaceful Islam, you get cyberbullying, even stalking. So you want to develop more of your own digital offerings, but resources are lacking. Muslim communities concentrate on traditional educational work in mosques, offer workshops and sensitize the imams.
And what about politics? For them, Islamism has so far been primarily a security issue. When Iran recently fired hundreds of rockets and cruise missiles at Israel, calls were again made in Hamburg to close the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) – because it is controlled by the mullah government in Tehran. That is the view of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The IZH operates the Blue Mosque on Hamburg’s Outer Alster and is suspected of spreading the Iranian leadership’s revolutionary concept. A ban procedure is now underway against the IZH. The Hamburg authorities have been collecting evidence for years. But only six months ago, in November 2023, the state began a search of the IZH and institutions associated with the it. 54 properties were searched in seven federal states. Over 800 officers were deployed. Large amounts of cash, cell phones, laptops and leaflets were seized, among other things. The material was transported away in trucks. But what is the point of a ban? It could alienate the almost 30,000 Shiites in Hamburg, who are not radical but are considered particularly well-educated and moderate. They could see a closure of the IZH as an attack on their faith and become radicalized. If the state were to ban the IZH, a vacuum could arise in the city. Backyard mosques in which radical preachers become independent could be the result.
This also applies to the Sunni extremists of “Muslim Interaktiv“. The Hamburg police chief recently shifted the responsibility to the Federal Ministry of the Interior: Only when the group is banned it will be easier to prevent their marches. However, a decision on this, let alone a quick one, is not in sight. Not even at the local level could politicians agree to vigorously support a ban; the SPD and the Greens rejected a proposal from the CDU. After the Islamists’ most recent march, the police asked the public prosecutor’s office to investigate whether there were any criminal offenses that could justify a ban in the future. They were referring to the calls for a caliphate. The public prosecutor’s office is not very optimistic, however. So far, nothing criminal has been found. This all falls under freedom of expression. So the Islamists in Hamburg are protected for the time being by the freedom they are demonstrating against.
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