As a recent immigrant to Germany, it was all the more painful for me to watch 30,000 demonstrators in the city of Cologne — majority of them second or third generation migrants of Turkish-origin — marching in support of Erdogan’s takeover of Turkey. Thousands chanted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they welcomed dignitaries belonging to Erdogan’s Islamist party AKP. For millions like them, more than 50 years of state-sponsored project of Multiculturalism has neither created a bond loyalty to their adopted home nor a sense of value for the liberties and freedoms that one so naturally enjoys in the West.
To understand what really went wrong with Germany’s young migrant generation, one needs to look at the family structures, school system and mosques to find real answers. Nearly 3 million people of Turkish origin live in Germany, making them the biggest ethnic group among the country’s migrant Muslims population. Vast majority of the mosques attended by the Turkish community are in firm hold of Erdogan-funded organisation called the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB). These mosques are run by Imams, or preachers, imported directly from Turkey and chosen on the basis of their loyalty to Turkey’s Islamist establishment. Not to be outdone by Turkey’s despot Erdogan, Saudi Arabia too has been investing heavily in building its own network of ‘Wahabi’ mosques and centres to attract radical elements from within the Arab migrants in Germany.
These ‘imported Imams’, firmly rooted in the Islamist doctrines of Jihad and Sharia, act as catalysts for the radicalisation of Muslim youth in Germany. Not surprisingly, fervent congregants from Erdogan-funded German mosques have been popping up in Syria and Iraq to join the fighting ranks of the Islamic State.
In a report published by German daily Die Welt, Dr. Abdel-Hakim Ourghi, a prominent scholar of Islamic Studies, has criticised the role of these ‘imported Imams’:
The organisations like [Erdogan funded] Ditib and Central Council of Muslim “represent the interests of the countries of their origin and they are not loyal towards our state,” criticises [Dr. Abdel-Hakim Ourghi] Head of the Faculty for Islamic Theology and Religious Studies at the Freiburg University of Education. For that reason, he advises churches not to work together with conservative governing bodies.(…) [According to Dr. Ourghi] these so called ‘Imported Imams’ preach a very conservative version of Islam in their mosques. The political system of Turkey maintains a great influence [over them].Pointing to the pro Erdogan rally in Cologne, [he says] it is deadly to watch second and third generation that have been socialised here, is going out in the streets “for the cause of a tyrant”. They support a ‘dictator’ that mixes Islam and nationalism. [Author’s translation]
Organisations like the Turkish-funded DITIB have a considerable political clout in Germany. DITIB not only decides on the set curricula for teaching Islam in German schools, but also has a say in the recruitment of teachers for this purpose in public schools.
According to an investigative report published in 2015 by the German news magazine FOCUS, the DITIB-run Cologne mosque serves as the base for Erdogan’s spy agency MIT. A team at the mosque not only runs an intelligence gathering operations against Erdogan’s perceived enemies but also maintains a ‘thug squad’ to rough up Turkish dissidents living in Exile.
So far German government has failed to crackdown on Erdogan’s Islamist network in the country. Ideologically Islamist organisation in Germany have effectively shut down any meaningful dissent from within and are now acting as sole representatives of Muslim populations in the country. Once again organised band of flag-waving fascists are growing unchecked in Germany — an ominous sign for the country and the rest of the civilised world.
Video (raw footage): Thousands of Erdogan supporters chanting “Allahu Akbar” in German city of Cologne on July 30, 2016
[Cover image courtesy EuroNews, YouTube]
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