Translation:
Essen’s mayor Thomas Kufen (CDU) reacts with horror to a demonstration in his city on Friday evening. 3,000 people, including many Islamists, marched through the Ruhr metropolis.
Essen’s mayor Thomas Kufen (CDU) reacted with outrage and incomprehension to an anti-Israel demonstration that marched through the Ruhr metropolis on Friday evening. Several of the approximately 3,000 participants chanted slogans and held up posters calling for a “Khilafah” (caliphate) in Germany. The three-hour procession on the edge of the city center was accompanied by 450 police officers and observed by state security.
According to the Essen police, the demonstration was registered by a private individual. However, the main organizer was apparently the “Generation Islam” group, which security experts consider to be part of the pan-Islamist movement “Hizb ut-Tahrir” (HuT) . HuT has been banned in Germany since 2003. The main speaker at the final rally in Essen was the activist Ahmad Tamim, the head of “Generation Islam.” The Islamic scholar Ahmad Omeirate told WAZ that Tamim was “using the Middle East conflict for mobilization and radicalization.”
Mayor Kufen regretted on Saturday morning that “Islamists, anti-democrats and Jew-haters” were allowed to parade through Essen protected by the freedom of assembly guaranteed by the Basic Law: “That is difficult to bear.” The CDU politician, who was the North Rhine-Westphalia state government’s integration officer from 2005 to 2010, called for consequences: “The Office for the Protection of the Constitution must take a closer look at Hizb ut-Tahrir’s splinter and successor groups. Bans must be an option.”
The demonstrators shouted slogans in Arabic and German on Friday evening. Posters condemned the Israeli military operation in Gaza (“Stop the genocide”) after the terrorist attack by the Palestinian Hamas, and one sign read: “German raison d’état calls for the killing of children.” The organizers initially used loudspeakers to remind people of the police requirement that no participant should question Israel’s right to exist. The tip-off was met with loud boos from the crowd.
At the beginning of the march, participants were also asked over loudspeakers to separate men and women. So it happened that most of the female demonstrators marched through the city behind the male participants. They repeatedly shouted “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) and held up signs calling for the unity of all Muslim believers and the establishment of a caliphate in Germany. Individual demonstrators stuck their right index fingers in the air; This gesture is intended to symbolize belief in the “one God”, but is also seen as a symbol of the terrorist organization “Islamic State”. The design of several black and white banners and flags also resembled depictions of IS.
The Essen police announced on Saturday that they would subsequently analyze the Friday demonstration and examine its “criminal relevance”. It turned out that the motive for a pro-Palestine meeting was only a pretext. Instead, the organizers held a religious event.
Okay so question: What do y’all think a caliphate is? While it’s not something I’d expect most Europeans to support given the lack of separation of church and state and all that, “caliphate” is (to simplify) a state ruled by the laws of Islam, which while again aren’t things most Europeans support (the lack of LGBT rights coming to mind) it’s not like these people are trying to recreate ISIS.
Let’s not pretend that religious stewardship of any state has ever not resulted in human rights abuses. The idea of a caliphate in Germany should rightly horrify the German people. Fundamentalist Islam (or Christianity) can easily cite scripture to justify child brides, executions, and domestic violence.
So let’s flip the question; why aren’t you horrified at the idea of a caliphate in Germany, and seemingly hand waving the atrocious results it would bring?
I’m not handwaving it; more saying that it seems like everyone in the comments is acting like they wanna kill all non-Muslims or something, with stuff like “this is what happens when you invite Muslims into your country” and shit.
I do appreciate the distinction. At the same time, it’s hard to look too favorably on a group that immigrates to a country, and then advocates for the establishment of a religious state and all that that entails. And while no country has clean hands when it comes to human rights abuses, most of the places you can be executed for your beliefs are religious states to one degree or another. More specifically, looking at the Islamic world, you have Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc. None with good records for how they treat, well, anyone other than devout Muslims. The only countries I’m aware of that are majority Muslim and don’t execute people for their beliefs is places like Albania, which is a secular country despite being Suni Muslim majority. So the issue isn’t Muslim majority, the problem is people who want religious states. E.g., the people you are defending from the article.
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Yeah that makes sense.