German police and security services have carried out dawn raids against institutions classified as Islamist extremist by the federal interior ministry.
In total 54 buildings in seven federal states were raided early on Thursday, all with links to the Hamburg Islamist Centre (IZH) which operates the landmark “Blue” Imam Ali Mosque on the inner city Alster lake.
Germany views the IZH as an extremist organisation with close links to Iran and Lebanon’s Hizbullah. Announcing the raid on Thursday morning, federal interior minister Nancy Faeser accused the IZH of working to undermine Germany’s constitutional order and intercultural understanding.
“We have the Islamist scene in our sights,” said Ms Faeser. “Especially now, at a time when many Jews feel particularly threatened, we do not tolerate Islamist propaganda or anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incitement. It is particularly important now to be highly vigilant and take tough action.”
The move against the IZH came as little surprise to close watchers of Germany’s Islamist scene: after the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel, Hamburg’s political parties - and the Bundestag in Berlin - united to demand Ms Faeser act to close the Blue Mosque and related IZH facilities in the northern German port city.
Hamburg’s city-state interior senator Andy Grote welcomed the raids as a “serious blow to IZH, an organisation whose “time is up and which should disappear entirely from Hamburg”.
The IZH was founded in 1953 by Iranian exiles and is seen as a key mouthpiece for the Tehran regime in Germany.
Green Party co-leader Omid Nouripour has called the IZH Iran’s “most important nest of spies” in Germany, responsible for spying on a sizeable network of Iranian exile figures in the country.
Last year, Germany expelled the deputy head of the IZH while a bookshop operated by the organisation in Hamburg until recently sold books by Ayatollah Khomeini which propagated stoning adulterers and executing homosexuals.
The IZH has never accepted any allegations levelled against it by German politicians or security services, dismissing claims it is an extension of the Iranian government.
“The IZH condemns all forms of violence and extremism and has always advocated peace, tolerance and inter-religious dialogue,” it said in a statement.
Earlier this year it lost a legal action to overturn observation by German intelligence and prevent Germany’s spy services describing them as an extremist organisation controlled by Tehran.
After Thursday’s dawn raids, from Hamburg to Bavarian, investigators will inspected seized materials, including hard drives phones and computers, to see if further evidence exists to close the Blue Mosque and other IZH-linked institutions.
The raids come ahead of a three-day state visit by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Germany, beginning on Friday.
Relations between Ankara and Berlin have been fraught in recent years, in particular over his country’s go-slow on Nato membership for Sweden and Finland, its migrant deal with the EU and divided loyalties of people of Turkish origin living in Germany.
Ahead of the trip, the Turkish leader said he was anxious to “leave the last years completely behind us” and help create a “warm atmosphere” with Germany.
Those efforts may be doomed to failure given his remarks after the October 7th attacks. Mr Erdogan described the group as a “liberation organisation” and accused Israel of “fascism” and “war crimes”.
This remarks were dismissed as “absurd” by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who meets Mr Erdogan on Friday evening for a working dinner. It is not yet clear if the Turkish president will watch a Germany-Turkey soccer international on Saturday evening in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. A spokesman for Chancellor Scholz said he will not be attending.
Thursdays raids have sparked renewed calls that Germany’s interior minister intervene in Turkish-controlled mosques in Germany, which make up about 70 per cent of the 2,300 total. DITIB, an organisation steered from Turkey, says it “rejects every form of violence and [rejects] calls for violence”.
In Friday prayers after the October 7th attacks, the president of DITIB’s Turkish parent organisation, Ali Erbas, likened Israel to “a rusty dagger stuck in the heart of Muslim geography”.
