Association ban: Blow against Islamists: Brandenburg bans mosque association

Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) has banned a mosque association that is considered extremist and is said to be linked to the terrorist organization Hamas. Around 70 police officers have been conducting searches of the Islamic Center in Fürstenwalde in eastern Brandenburg since the morning. There was also a raid in Berlin, where the mosque’s imam lives.

One and a half weeks before the state elections, the ban on the association is seen as an important signal against Islamist extremism. Especially after the knife attack in Solingen that left three people dead, a debate has flared up nationwide about the direction of migration policy.

Fears of radicalization of young Muslims

The Islamic Center in Fürstenwalde, which is active nationwide, has been under surveillance by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for some time. The security authorities fear that young people in particular are being indoctrinated and radicalized with extremist ideas.

Stübgen: Nip the “embers of Stone Age culture Islamism” in the bud

Interior Minister Stübgen, who chairs the Conference of Interior Ministers, said: “We cannot tolerate associations that oppose the constitutional order or the idea of ​​international understanding. The embers of the Stone Age culture of Islamism must be nipped in the bud to prevent a conflagration.” The association is said to be part of the spectrum of the Muslim Brotherhood and the terrorist organization Hamas.

According to Stübgen, the timing of the ban – shortly before the state elections on September 22 – is related to the fact that two courts confirmed the ban at the end of last week. They had to wait and see. Brandenburg had been working on the ban for many months. The basis was also the Hamas ban by the Federal Ministry of the Interior from October last year.

In addition, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) banned a nationwide Islamic center in Hamburg in July. According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, it was a “significant Iranian propaganda center in Europe.”

Banned club in Fürstenwalde offers holiday camps for children

The center, founded in 2018, operates a mosque in the town of Fürstenwalde (Oder-Spree district), which has a population of 34,000. According to the Interior Ministry, in addition to Friday sermons, leisure and educational activities for women, children and young people are also organized there. Religious training courses are also to be held in holiday camps for children. Stübgen said: “Indoctrinating young people with extremist ideas carries risks that we do not accept. Young people do not become extremists who take up arms in a vacuum.”

Imam allegedly supported Hamas terror attack

In July 2023, the Islamic Center was classified as an extremist endeavor by the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution. On the day of Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, the imam there is said to have said in a private chat, “How beautiful this day is,” according to the Interior Minister.

According to the authority, the center spreads anti-Israel and anti-Semitic content on social media and in sermons that questions Israel’s right to exist. Among other things, one post divided a map of “Arab Palestine” into the borders of the State of Israel and replaced all Hebrew place names with Arabic names. The association also promotes a fundraising organization that collects money for Hamas.

200 to 300 believers came to sermons

According to the security authorities, the core of the association in Fürstenwalde, whose mosque is located in an industrial area, has about a dozen activists. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, around 200 to 300 believers regularly attend the sermons.

During the searches to enforce the ban, the police seized laptops and money. The Interior Minister spoke of “significant amounts of cash”. The club’s premises in Fürstenwalde were sealed.

Parties react positively to ban on associations

Several parties, which are in the middle of the election campaign for the state elections, spoke of the move as the right one. CDU state leader and top candidate Jan Redmann said: “It’s good that Brandenburg is taking action here and, by banning the Islamic Center in Fürstenwalde, is turning off Hamas’s money and drying up a source that feeds the radicalization of young people.” The SPD parliamentary group said that the ban was a clear sign that Brandenburg was taking decisive action against extremist threats. The Greens also said: “If an organization goes against our constitution and radicalizes young people, a ban is the right thing to do.”