After the Islamist-motivated terrorist attack in Mannheim last month, German parties are still seeking answers on how to address the threat of Islamism in Europe.
The debate, especially within the circles of the ruling Green Party, is marked by discussions on how to handle the growing number of violent fanatics as well as legalistic Islam.
Indeed, it is undisputed within the party that Islamism is a serious problem in Germany today. The Green Party’s spokesperson on domestic policy, Kaddor, described it in the Bundestag as a “hate-filled political ideology that kills.” Islamism, she said, is a serious threat to people in the country, including Muslims.
Party leader Omid Nouripour also spoke unequivocally after the bloodshed in Mannheim, where a police officer was killed and several people were injured, some seriously. Islamism is a massive danger to German democracy and society, he said. “We must fight it, both nationally and internationally.”
Following the demonstrations in support of the Hamas attack on Israel and protests calling for a caliphate, the Greens responded with determined demands for legal consequences and bans on associations. However, the fight against Islamism does not enjoy the same priority within the party as the fight against right-wing extremism. Comprehensive concepts are lacking. The identification of the problem is still sometimes lacking, as was symptomatic in the party’s European election program.
The program lamented that Muslim life had become a target of right-wing and conspiracy-theorist movements. It welcomed the fact that the EU had “finally filled the position of EU Coordinator on Anti-Muslim Hatred” after a long time. However, Islamism as a problem to be addressed at the European level was not mentioned.
This was already the case in the party’s manifesto for the 2021 federal election. Here, too, the focus was primarily on the equal integration of Islam as a religious community and on better protecting Muslims from discrimination. However, the party expressed solidarity “with critics of fundamentalist political forces when they are massively threatened.” For people who have left the Islamist scene, the party wanted to build a bridge through programs.
In the 2017 federal election manifesto, the Greens were already more advanced. They called for doing everything possible to prevent young people from slipping into “inhumane, violence-promoting ideologies.” “To this end, we want to apply a comprehensive and effective prevention strategy against violent Islamism.” A nationwide prevention center, they demanded, should coordinate tasks and network all relevant state and civil society actors.
Multiple concerns have prevented the Greens, since taking office at the national level, from systematically addressing the problem of Islamism. They fundamentally fear that this would primarily benefit the political right.
Additionally, there is significant concern that Muslims would be placed under general suspicion. Motions introduced by the Union in the Bundestag or at the state level to combat political Islam are regularly rejected by the Greens. They accuse the Union of putting Muslims as a whole under pressure to justify themselves.
Where the party does address the issue of Islamism, it does so only when it also involves combating so-called anti-Muslim racism. A recent expert discussion convened by the Green parliamentary group mentioned both phenomena in the same breath.
MP Kaddor made it clear that the two conflict areas, Islamism and Islamophobia, can only be effectively combated together. However, this approach fails to address the fact that Islamism is also virulent in predominantly Islamic countries. It is not simply a reaction to anti-Islamic attitudes in Western societies.
A motion was introduced into the German parliament focusing on the dangers of Islamism and how politics should deal with it. For the CDU/CSU, the debate has been essentially reduced by the federal government to the announcement of wanting to deport criminals back to Afghanistan and Syria. While this is to be welcomed, “Interior Minister Faeser announced this as early as March 2023 and has not implemented it to this day,” said a CDU MP. Knowing that the last situation analysis on Afghanistan dates from October 2021, it becomes clear: The traffic light coalition talks but does nothing.
However, the population is tired of the “politics of empty phrases and smokescreens.” This was also evident in the European election. Therefore, the Union proposes 14 concrete measures “that you can implement immediately.” These include the deportation of criminals and threats as well as stopping illegal migration, including turning back at German borders. Additionally, the federal police must be equipped “with sufficient resources.”
With the terrible attack in Mannheim, said Irene Mihalic of the Greens, the Islamist threat has once again painfully become a reality. “That’s why we continue to take consistent and tough action against Islamism and Islamists,” she said. The security authorities must be supported as best as possible in their work.
As early as 2020, the Greens had demanded in a motion to finally advance the deportation of Islamist threats, Mihalic emphasized. The rule of law cannot allow “ideological fanatics and extremists to threaten our freedom and security.” Threats and criminals, after serving their sentences, must be deported. “There is no two opinions in my faction on this,” the Green MP made clear. This is already legally possible today. “There is no need for a showcase motion from the Union.” It contains one demand after another that the Union did not address when it was in government.
It was now Chancellor Olaf Scholz who brought up the deportation of criminals from Afghanistan and Syria. But even here, the Greens are slowing down. Even party leader Nouripour, who advocates a comparatively realistic course on the issue of Islamism, expressed his opposition. The necessary talks with the Taliban would only elevate them internationally, said the Iranian-born politician.
Individual Green thinkers are now calling on their party to engage in an open debate. For instance, Baden-Württemberg’s Green Finance Minister Danyal Bayaz has expressed openness to deportations to Afghanistan. “I think it would be right to seriously consider this now for such brutal and severe crimes,” he said. He also opposed reflexively dismissing the Union’s proposals to criminalize calls for a caliphate.
The fact that not all parts of the party share this new awareness of the problem was evident in the Berlin House of Representatives. Social Democratic Interior Senator Iris Spranger, referring to the police officer who lost his life, spoke about the death in Mannheim. “Is Mannheim dead?” interrupted Green MP Tuba Bozkurt. According to the minutes, this was followed by laughter from her faction.
Bozkurt, who is her faction’s spokesperson for anti-discrimination, later apologized. Party leader Nouripour called the behavior indecent. However, the incident shows how divided the Greens are after the terrorist attack in Mannheim.
All publishing rights and copyrights reserved to MENA Research Center.
