Turkish groups resorting to courts after links with extremism uncovered

Hani Daniel

German institutions refuse to deal with religious agencies backed by Turkey against the background of Turkish interference in German affairs.

Turkey provides the mosques affiliated to it in Germany with funds.

German institutions make continual attempts to suspend religious and educational cooperation with Turkish institutions. There are similar attempts in German courts now.

The Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, widely known as DITIB, is responsible for teaching religion in 56 primary schools and 12 secondary schools, despite criticism.

German courts turned down urgent requests for preventing DITIB from teaching religion at these schools.

However, a German newspaper revealed recently that DITIB has been teaching religion in schools in the central state of Hessen since 2013.

In April 2020, the German government stopped religious teaching at the schools. It said it has doubts about the ability of this organization to be an educational partner.

The German government also said that it doubts the independence of this organization from the Turkish state.

Cooperation between the two sides came to a halt as a consequence. This was why DITIB decided to take the case to the court.

The association of mosques in Hessen said cooperation between DITIB and the state did not have any problems for seven years. It called for maintaining religious teaching by the organization.