Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen has announced a ban on the activities of an Islamic association operating near Berlin due to its links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas groups, as well as the dissemination of anti-Semitic propaganda.
Police are currently conducting searches at the association’s offices in the town of Fürstenwald, some 80 kilometres from Berlin, as well as at private homes in other parts of Brandenburg and Berlin.
The association, founded in 2018, operated the Al-Salam mosque in Fürstenwald and provided a wide range of services to the region’s Muslim community, including Friday sermons. However, in July 2023, Brandenburg’s internal intelligence services classified it as an extremist organisation. The report by the Office for the Defence of the Constitution argued that its activities, including social media posts, supported the organisation’s extremist goals. The association was found to be distributing content related to the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical movements.
Michael Stübgen stressed that the authorities do not tolerate associations that oppose the constitutional order and undermine interethnic harmony. In his opinion, extremist ideologies must be stopped as soon as possible to prevent their spread. He also pointed out that this organization is engaged in spreading anti-Semitic ideas and denying Israel’s right to exist, which is unacceptable in a democratic society.
The statement came ten days before the elections in the federal state of Brandenburg, scheduled for 22 September. The issues of migration and religious extremism are playing an important role in the election campaign, especially as the popularity of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is leading the polls, is growing.
Stübgen also highlighted the danger of the spread of extremist ideologies among young people and stressed the need to combat radicalisation at its roots. She added that behind these activities there are well-organised and hidden strategies of extremist movements.
Earlier, Kursor reported that an Islamic center associated with Hamas terrorists had been discovered in Germany.
