Mohammad Hadi Mofatteh, head of the banned Islamic Center Hamburg, has been expelled from the country. He took his time leaving the country until the last minute.
Shortly before the deadline expired, Mohammad Hadi Mofatteh, the head of the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH), which is classified as extremist and banned, left Germany. The 57-year-old Shiite cleric left voluntarily on Tuesday evening, the Hamburg Interior Ministry announced. He thus left the country just under two weeks after his deportation order, shortly before the deadline expired on Wednesday evening. He is now not allowed to return to Germany for the next 20 years, otherwise he faces a prison sentence, it was said.
Hamburg’s Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) stated: “With the former head of the IZH, we have expelled one of the most prominent Islamists in Germany.” The fact that Mofatteh has left the country is good news for security in Germany.
Mofatteh is considered the deputy of the Supreme Leader of Iran
Before the expulsion order, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) had banned the IZH. The center was considered an outpost of the Iranian government and was long monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution because of its propagation of Islamist ideas. At the end of July, the center and several sub-organizations were banned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
This is how the raid on the Blue Mosque in Hamburg went
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The ministry declared at the time that the IZH was an extremist Islamist organization with anti-constitutional goals. The so-called Blue Mosque on Hamburg’s Outer Alster, which it operated, and other assets belonging to the organization were confiscated and the mosque was closed for the time being.
According to IZH, Mofatteh is the highest spiritual authority of the Shiites in Europe – with the exception of Great Britain. According to the Hamburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution, he reports to and follows the instructions of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and is considered his deputy in Germany. “Mofatteh is a well-trained representative of the current regime in Tehran. His family is firmly integrated into Iran’s state-religious elite”says the latest report about him from the Hamburg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution. He has headed the IZH since 2018.
Source: Stern
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