 The
largest parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, the faction of the
ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party,
the Christian Social Union (CSU), has approved a wide-ranging strategy
to contain the spread of political Islam in Germany. Pictured: Germany's
Bundestag in session on May 6, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean
Gallup/Getty Images) |
The largest parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, the faction
of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister
party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has approved a wide-ranging
strategy to contain the spread of political Islam in Germany.
The plan, outlined in a new policy paper, "Preserving Free Society, Promoting Social Cohesion, Fighting Political Islamism,"
warns that a growing number of areas in Germany, where German law is
overruled by Sharia law, are in danger of becoming "parallel societies."
The document also warns that many mosques and Islamic associations in
Germany are controlled by foreign governments and that they are
producing a generation of German jihadists who extol martyrdom and
threaten Germany's liberal democratic order.
The authors of the report argue that a recent wave of jihadist
attacks in Germany and elsewhere in Europe — including the beheading of a
schoolteacher in Paris, a crime celebrated by many Muslim pupils in
Berlin — requires urgent measures to stop the "poison" of extremist
ideology from gaining further ground on the continent.
The policy paper, which whole-heartedly commends law-abiding Muslims
who respect Germany's democratic order, argues that the debate about
Islamism in Germany is often reduced to violence and terror, but that it
is necessary to focus more on ideology. The proposals include improving
research and analysis of political Islam in Europe and the methods by
which it spreads; banning the foreign funding of mosques; and reducing
the number of foreign imams active in Germany.
Arguably the most important proposal involves reversing the German
government's long-standing policy of supporting extremist groups in
Germany, which, under the guise of promoting dialogue, has legitimized
those groups and fueled the spread of political Islam in Germany.
The strategy has been greeted with a mix of approval, cynicism and
skepticism. Some say the proposals are long overdue while others counter
that the strategy is too little, too late. Some critics describe it as
an electoral gimmick — federal elections are scheduled for September 22 —
aimed at capturing the attention of supporters of the conservative
party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has long called for a
crackdown on political Islam.
An English translation of excerpts of the policy paper follows:
"In recent months, Islamist terrorism has returned with
full force: A barbaric attack in Nice on October 29, 2020, in which
several people were killed; the horrific murder of the French teacher
Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb on October 16, 2020; and the bloody attack
in Vienna on November 2, 2020. Germany has also been hit by Islamist
terror, for example in an attack on the Berlin city motorway on August
18, 2020, and in a knife attack on a homosexual couple in Dresden on
October 4, 2020.
"Investigations are being conducted into security failures in the
run-up to each of these attacks and whether there is potential for
improvement in security structures. Some of the attackers had criminal
records and had already been classified as dangerous by security
authorities. The investigations are important and necessary, but by no
means sufficient. Islamism is not limited to a certain number of violent
attacks. The ideology behind it is poison for our free society. It
endangers integration and social cohesion by inciting Muslims against
our democracy.
"When martyrdom is extolled in some German mosques; when Islamists
meet in Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt to demonstrate against freedom of
expression and freedom of the press and express solidarity with the
murderer of the French teacher Paty; when children in Berlin schools
dismiss this murder with the remark that the teacher got what he
deserved; then we cannot accept that. In addition, it must be stated
openly and clearly that the spread of Islamist-tinged nationalism, the
agitation against Christians and Jews, the denial of Israel's right to
exist and the glorification of war have long been a sad part of everyday
life in Germany.
"In addition, there are increasing cases of direct influence of
foreign governments on Muslims in our country, partly under the guise of
religious freedom and with the spread of Islamist and
Islamist-nationalist ideas. These include, for example, the influence of
the Turkish right-wing extremist 'gray wolves' on young people in
Germany; reporting to the Turkish governmental religious authority
Diyanet on alleged supporters of Fethullah Gülen in Germany; and DITIB's
[the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, an arm of the Turkish
government] support for the Turkish military operation in northern
Syria in January 2018.
"Equally worrying are developments at the Islamic Center Hamburg
(IZH), which is under the influence of the Islamic regime in Tehran and
is the propaganda center for Shiite extremism in Germany, or at Salafist
mosque associations, some of which are financed by donors from the
Middle East. The abuse of Muslim stakeholders and structures in Germany
by foreign governments and Islamist agents, often disguised with
reference to constitutionally protected religious freedom, must come to
an end.
"Focusing only on the violent part of Islamism, Islamist terrorism,
does not do justice to the overall problem. Islamism — like other
extremisms — has an ideological basis and the aim must be to explore
this ideological underground. This political Islamism, which ostensibly
acts non-violently, but stirs up hatred, agitation and violence and
strives for an Islamic order in which there is no equality, no freedom
of opinion and religion and also no separation of religion and state,
has spread far and wide in parts of our society.
"Political Islamism promotes a system of rule that is a fundamental
alternative to democracy, pluralism and individual rights of freedom.
Its representatives strive for the submission of society, politics,
culture and law to norms that correspond to their Islamist ideas. This
politicization of religion is expressed in a comprehensive regulation of
the lifestyle of Muslims based on the categories of what is permitted (halal) and what is forbidden (haram).
Every person is judged on submission to the do's and don'ts of Islam.
Individual voluntariness falls by the wayside because of the high
pressure to conform. At the center of political Islamism is the Islamist
gender order with extensive gender segregation, extreme patriarchalism
and the partial or complete exclusion of women from the public.
"We owe the fight against political Islamism not only to our
free-democratic ideals and values, but also to most of the Muslims in
Germany who share these ideals with us and want to live with us on their
basis. Because it is precisely liberal, secular Muslims who are victims
of this illiberal, anti-democratic ideology. Those who publicly oppose
political Islamism and its strategies are particularly at risk.
Prominent critics of political Islamism such as Seyran Ates, Ahmad
Mansour and Mouhanad Khorchide have been threatened by Islamist circles
for years and can only live under police protection. This situation is
unacceptable.
"In some urban quarters and areas in Germany, but also in many of our
neighboring countries such as France, Belgium and Austria, parallel
societies influenced or shaped by Islamic influence have formed over the
years and decades — often with the tolerance of society out of
misunderstood tolerance: leading French Islamic scholars recently
sounded the alarm that around 150 municipalities in France are now in
the hands of Islamists. Anyone who identifies himself as a Jew or a
homosexual there must fear for his life; women who dress according to
Western fashion in public can expect attacks and abuse. Children and
young people who grow up in these milieus are particularly at risk of
being receptive to ideologies. The necessary integration work with the
families is only possible with great difficulty. Such a development must
be prevented in Germany by all means.
"There is currently a lack of a comprehensive systematic overview and
linking of knowledge available in Germany and Europe about the
activities, personnel and financial resources of Islamist groups active
in Germany and Europe, as well as about their international networking,
their strategic goals and the range of their ideologies. In this
country, the focus is primarily on groups that openly call for violence.
Representatives of political Islamism who are involved in politics and
society are often perceived as legitimate religious representatives and
not as followers of an extremist ideology. The present focus on groups
prepared to use violence has led to disregarding the ideological
justification of violence. These politically extremist, non-violent
groups aim to establish an order based on their Islamist ideas by
actively preventing integration, dividing Western societies into
'believers' and 'unbelievers,' rejecting equality and religious freedom,
and alienating Muslim youth from Western societies. They use democratic
structures to undermine and ultimately abolish democracy."
A Five-Point Action Plan
The policy paper outlines five broad measures aimed at understanding and fighting political Islam:
Supporting basic research on political Islamism in Germany and Europe.
This includes: establishing academic chairs to focus on Islamism and
its structures, networks and financing; providing federal authorities
with financing for researching the structures of political Islamism;
implementing a scientific study on the experiences and problems of
school teachers with Islamist influences and forms of Islamist-motivated
behavior to better understand the extent to which political Islamism is
influencing children, young people and adolescents; establishing a
"Political Islamism in Germany and Europe" documentation center;
establishing a "Political Islamism in Germany" expert group in the
Federal Ministry of the Interior that would develop recommendations in
the fight against political Islamism in Germany and report to the
Federal Government and the Bundestag once a year; networking and
exchanging information on political Islamism at EU level, for example by
strengthening the Helsinki-based "European Center of Excellence for
Countering Hybrid Threats."
Terminating state cooperation and contractual relationships with organizations of political Islamism.
In the future, all financial donations, subsidies, contractual
relationships and collaborations with Islamic clubs and associations
that are being monitored by German security agencies must be
discontinued at the federal and state levels. This includes rescinding
statutory tax breaks and charitable status or groups that pursue
anti-constitutional aims. Exceptions to this are necessary contacts
between governments and federal and state authorities.
Training imams in Germany. Most of the imams working in
Germany are posted from abroad. The proposal calls for providing
academic and spiritual training for imams in Germany, while maintaining
religious freedom and the separation of state and religious communities.
The strategy aims to promote an Islamic practice of faith that respects
German values.
Financing of mosques. Many mosques and Islamic religious
communities in Germany receive funding from third countries. The plan
calls for increased transparency of membership structures and financing
flows, including a requirement to disclose every direct and indirect
source of funding, including donations, subsidies, contracts and
collaborations, to the federal tax office.
Preventing radicalization. The plan calls for improved
cooperation between federal, state and local governments and civil
society. It calls for expanding the National Prevention Program against
Islamist Extremism; investigating the risk of radicalization processes
in the penal system in Germany; and expanding information and awareness
programs for specialists from the areas of police, justice, school and
education, social work, youth welfare and refugee aid, among others.
Select Commentary
The lead author of the paper, Bundestag Member Christoph de Vries, said:
"Religious extremism and its representatives must be met
with the same distance and rejection as the political extremists from
the left and right. Fundamental values such as equality, protection of
minorities and the priority of our laws over religious rules are
non-negotiable. There can be no religious exception to this. The enemies
of our constitution and their ideologues cannot be partners of our
state at the same time. That is the clear message of our position paper.
Our goal is to understand the ideological breeding ground on which
political Islamism thrives with broad scientific research and to tackle
the problem with a comprehensive package of measures at the root level.
It is precisely liberal, secular Muslims who are victims of this
illiberal, anti-democratic ideology and are threatened by Islamists. Our
aim is to promote social cohesion and to ensure that Muslims in Germany
do not fall into the clutches of radical, intolerant ideologies."
The spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Mathias Middelberg, added:
"So far, when looking at Islamism, groups prone to
violence have been in the foreground. With the package of measures that
we adopted in the position paper, we are now focusing more on the
ideological basis. In order to fight political Islamism in the long
term, we will in particular strengthen basic research in this area and
further advance imam training in Germany. On the other hand, we want to
create more transparency with respect to the foreign financing of
mosques in Germany and prevent possible state cooperation and
contractual relationships with Islamist organizations and expand
prevention work. With this comprehensive strategic approach, we have the
means at hand to tackle Islamism at its roots."
The integration commissioner for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Nina Warken, said:
"Religious extremism doesn't come out of nowhere. On the
contrary, it thrives in isolated parallel worlds that have nothing in
common with our values. We urgently need to shed light on this and not
only wake up when violence erupts."
The German-Moroccan author Sineb El Masrar, in an interview with the public radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur, said
that the policy paper is clearly directed against "reactionary,
Islamist organizations" and "that it is not aimed at all Muslims, but at
those with a radical agenda." She added: "There are quite a lot of
Muslims and mosque associations that are not affiliated with Islamist
associations. Dialogue with them must be sought more intensively."
Mouhanad Khorchide, a Lebanese-Austrian Islamic theologian and
sociologist who is a professor of Islamic pedagogy at the University of
Münster in Germany, said
that the policy paper reflects a growing awareness of the problem of
political Islam in Germany: "It is important to implement concrete
measures that put pressure on this misanthropic ideology to prevent
situations as in France, where Islamists control entire city districts."
The renowned Frankfurt-based Islam scholar Susanne Schröter expressed
skepticism about the new strategy. She said that secular states have a
fundamental challenge when dealing with Islam, which is political by
nature due to its law, Sharia.
In an interview with Die Tagespost, a Würzburg-based Catholic national weekly newspaper, Schröter noted
the difficulty in finding the dividing line between an Islam that
threatens the democratic order and permitted political participation
based on the Islamic faith. The popular comparison between "Political
Islam" and Christian Democracy is misleading, she said, because the
representatives of political Islam are not interested in political
participation, but with system change:
"Islamists are not interested in democracy. On the
contrary. They reject democracy because they only consider politics to
be legitimate if it follows regulations that adhere to the politics of
Mohammed in the 7th century. They are striving to establish an Islamic
normative order in which Sharia rules and politics is dominated by
religious leaders."
The political editor of Die Tagespost, Sebastian Sasse asked if the CDU's renewed focus on internal security has to do with the upcoming federal election:
"It is interesting that the proposals are being published
right now and in this condensed form. The signal is clear: 'We have
understood' is the message to the electorate. The fight against
political Islamism is intended to show that the CDU still sees itself as
a 'Law and Order' party....
"Whether this catalog of measures is the starting point of a line
that will run through the entire election campaign or will soon
disappear into the drawer again — that will determine whether the Union
manages to reinvent itself as a people's party of the center-right."
In an essay, "The CDU Discovers the Problem of Islamism," published
by the German blog Tichys Einblick, commentator Zara Riffler also expressed skepticism
of the new strategy to combat Islamism, which has long been a taboo
topic in Germany. She predicted that any serious crackdown on Islamism
would be met with charges of 'Islamophobia':
"It must be assumed that German MPs will fear being
labeled as hostile to Muslims if they support tough measures against
political Islam. The effect here is that Islamist actors have long been
manipulating the discourse in Germany: Liberal scholars and publicists
who criticize political Islam are branded as 'Islamophobic' and thus as
pathological. Such battle concepts have an impact on top-level
politics....
"It is conspicuous that only the term 'political Islamism' is used
throughout the policy paper, no longer the term 'political Islam.' Is
that the trick with which the proposals are supposed to be sold more
easily — because 'Islamism' is conceptually further removed from
'Islam'? Islamist actors in Germany are agitating against the term
'political Islam,' which is preferred by liberal scholars and renowned
experts. The goal behind it: to block research by manipulating
discourse. They try to portray the use of the term 'Political Islam' as
hostile to Muslims. Many politicians are intimidated by this and
therefore mostly speak of 'Islamism' — also because they do not
understand that the critics are mostly Islamic extremists, not ordinary
Muslims.
"MP Christoph de Vries said: 'The choice of the term 'political
Islamism' is primarily about remaining consistent in the designation of
the different extremisms — left-wing extremism, right-wing extremism,
Islamism — and at the same time expressing the political
instrumentalization.' It is not the terms that are decisive, he said,
but rather the content, research and awareness-raising."
Bundestag Member Hans-Jürgen Irmer, member of the Interior Committee for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, concluded:
"The representatives of Islam must emulate the
Enlightenment and its influence on Christianity, because if, for
example, German imam training is to be promoted, the basis of all
theological considerations remains the work of the prophet Mohammed and
the Koran, which has 200 passages calling for the annihilation of
unbelievers. The decisive question is to what extent imams are willing
and able to explain that these warlike verses and suras are only to be
considered in their historical context and that they no longer have any
meaning today, i.e. in principle could be deleted.
"As long as this is not the case, there can be no real understanding
between religions in the long run. It should be added that the
implementation of the strategy is only possible if, for example, mosque
communities or Muslims as a whole are willing to actively contribute,
because they understandably know the segregation efforts of many
association representatives much better and more closely than most
German observers."
A recent poll revealed
that three-quarters of Germans are in favor of more resolute action
against Islamism. The survey, conducted by the Erfurt-based opinion
research institute INSA Consulere on behalf of Die Tagespost, found
that 74% of Germans agreed that the government should combat radical
Islam. Only 8% of those surveyed opposed taking a harder line; 12% did
not have an opinion.
The poll found
that 90% of supporters of the conservative party Alternative for
Germany stated that they would like more decisive action against radical
Islam in Germany. This was followed by 84% of CDU/CSU voters; 83% of
Social Democrats (SPD); 73% of Greens voters; and 71% of Free Democrats
(FDP) who agreed that Germany should act more forcefully against radical
Islam.
