Germany’s methods to confront extremists: Most notably, donations check

Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar

Decisive steps are taken by the German government over a long period of time in order to face the threat of extremist organizations and ideas, which it succeeded in reaching in the current year 2019.

An official statement confirms success

The German Federal Ministry of the Interior announced in an official report, December 21, 2019, that Berlin had classified 679 people from the extremists as dangerous elements, as of November 2019, while the number reached 774 people in the month of July 2018, according to German news agency DPA.

The German Ministry of the Interior indicated that dangerous elements are individuals who have intentions to carry out serious crimes within the country, which can even amount to the implementation of terrorist crimes and attacks.

The German ministry considered that the decline in the number of dangerous Islamists in the country was due to the successful policies adopted by Berlin, but stressed that this does not mean that their risks have already ended.

A successful German model

Germany was not far from the threat of terrorist and extremist organizations, as Said Ramadan, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, established what was known as the “Islamic Assembly in Germany” during 1985, which was classified as the most dangerous group entity in the country, according to what was published by the German Parliament website in 2019.

So the German state relied on a number of policies and mechanisms to confront individuals with extremist ideas, and it did not differentiate between individuals associated with terrorist organizations or individual wolves, and some states worked to deport them to their countries.

Among the most prominent German policies are the following:

1- Islam for Germany:

The Turkish state worked during the reign of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to penetrate European societies by sending imams there, in order to be at the head of mosques and religious associations in it, which Ankara clearly supports.

So the German government worked during 2019 to counter the influence of imams from abroad, through the “Islam for Germany” program.

A spokesman for the German Interior Ministry, on November 2019, indicated that the federal government will impose learning the German language on all imams and religious scholars who want to work inside the country, as a prerequisite for obtaining an entry visa.

The Federal Minister of the Interior added that the bill submitted to the Bundestag (German Parliament) contributes to the success of the process of integrating imams into society, noting that they must have a great deal of knowledge about German society, as they are considered as a reference for immigrants in the country.

Donations check

The German government focused on the nature of donations received to religious institutions and organizations within the various states, which some countries have exploited to achieve their own goals, such as Turkey.

The German newspaper “Süddeutsche” published, in December 2018, a report indicating that the Foreign Ministry asked all countries to send donations to religious institutions inside the country to inform them in advance, in order for the German intelligence agency to examine it and verify the identity of the sender and recipient.

The German authorities have also reduced material support to the Turkish Islamic Union Association, “Ditepe”, which operates 900 mosques and religious societies inside the country, and is clearly linked to the Turkish government, which sends the Turkish imams to the country through Ditepe, which number 960 imams.

This is what the German Interior Minister demanded, in November 2018, when he stated during a press conference that Muslims in Germany need to solve their association with foreign influence.

To do this, demands have increased for taxing mosques, as happens in German churches, an idea that has received much support from the federal government, according to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, May 2019.

According to the newspaper, a poll showed that most residents of Germany’s 16 states supported taxing mosques, with the aim of blocking foreign funding for religious institutions.

Confronting Islamophobia

Islamophobia has spread among the old countries of the continent in recent years, influenced by the misconception of the Islamic religion, given the terrorist attacks carried out by extremist organizations around the world.

German political institutions seek to confront the feelings of Islamophobia within the country, in order to spread societal peace among the various groups of the state, and to prevent the rise of a counter-hate trend.

This was expressed by former leader of the German Green Party, Jim Ozdemir, in November 2018, when he announced the establishment of the “Secular Islam Initiative”, with the aim of confronting the growing feelings of anti-Muslims after the rise of the extreme right in the country, and the initiative aims to find a contemporary understanding of the Islamic religion.