German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has banned an Islamist association active throughout Germany that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution calls a “major Iranian propaganda center in Europe.” Raids were carried out throughout Germany.
In order to enforce the banning order against the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) and five sub-organizations, police officers searched the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) with the Imam Ali Mosque and other buildings in a total of eight states on Wednesday morning.
As the direct representative of the Iranian “revolutionary leader,” the IZH is spreading the ideology of the so-called “Islamic Revolution” in Germany in an aggressive, combative manner, according to a statement from the German Interior Ministry.
Faeser: Do not act against a religion
“It is very important for me to make a clear distinction: we are not acting against a religion,” Faeser stressed. The peaceful practice of the Shiite faith and religion is explicitly not affected by the ban. The “revolutionary leader”, officially the spiritual leader, of Iran is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Faeser’s ministry said a total of four Shiite mosques would be closed as a result of the ban. There are an estimated 150 to 200 Shiite communities in Germany. According to the announcement, a total of 53 properties in Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria were raided in connection with the ban.
After the extensive house searches against the IZH last November, the serious suspicions were confirmed, according to Faeser. The ideology of the club is directed against women’s rights, against an independent judiciary and against the democratic German state.
Dozens of police officers on duty
“In addition, the ‘Islamic Center Hamburg’ and its sub-organizations support the Hizb Allah terrorists and aggressively spread anti-Semitism,” the minister said. The American Jewish Committee Berlin welcomed the ban.
Statement by German Interior Minister Faeser:
Dozens of police officers cordoned off the Blue Mosque in Hamburg early this morning. According to a reporter for the German Press Agency, they began searching the Shiite church. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the association that manages the mosque as extremist and controlled by Iran. According to a dpa reporter, several police officers stormed the building of a Shiite club in Berlin around the same time.
Iran’s influence also in Austria
In Austria, the Documentation Center for Political Islam (DPI) recently warned about Iran’s foreign activities. “Iran is also a central player in political Islam in Austria and will remain so,” DPI Deputy Director Ferdinand Haberl said at a press conference in Vienna last week. Haberl specifically commented on the Imam Ali Center in Vienna-Floridsdorf: This appears to be a “branch office” of Iran and has staff overlaps with the highest Iranian government levels.
Source: Krone
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