Mosques in Germany are praying for the Turkish army’s success as it wages a fierce military offensive against the U.S.-allied Kurdish forces and civilians in neighboring Syria, German newspaper Die Welt reported.
The worshippers pray the victory verse: “Allah, Lead Our Glorious Army to Victory.”
The backing from mosques in Germany comes days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered a full-scale attack against Kurds in northern Syria following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region. German mosques read out the “victory verse,” or Surah al Fath, from the Muslim holy book Quran, celebrating Muhammad’s victory over his rivals in 7th century Arabia, media reports suggest.
Turkey’s state-controlled Directorate of Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, issued the call to prayer. Germany’s largest Turkish Islamic group, DITIB, which runs some 900 mosques across the country and boasts of 800,00 members, has also allegedly participated in prayers calling for the victory of the Turkish military against Kurds in northern Syria. DITIB officials denied endorsing the call, but a media investigation showed several leading DITIB officials involved in the campaign. Mosques affiliated with Milli Görüs, Germany’s largest Islamic association with around 10,000 supporters, also reportedly took part.
German newspaper Die Welt reported the nationwide Islamist prayer call:
Following Turkish invasion of northern Syria, Mosques in Germany have prayed for Turkey’s victory. Turkish [state-run] agency for religion, Diyanet, imams to mosque congregations of DITIB, Germany’s Islamic Association Milli Görüs (IGMG), and ATIB (Turkish-Islamic Union in Europe), have circulated a Friday sermon that says verbatim: “Help our heroic Army that has launched a military campaign for the safety of our land.”In addition to this, The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper reported about an audio recording which was circulated by DITIB congregation in the [northwestern German city of] Herne. “Allah, lead our glorious army to victory,” it says. A spokeswoman for the DITIB head office explained that this was “neither ordered nor planned by us.”Now investigations on Facebook shows that significant number of mosques have prayed for a Turkish victory. “After the prayer on Sunday afternoon the surah [verse] of victory was read so that our Prophet comes out victorious,” the [Facebook] page of DITIB-branch in [the town of] Forbach said. The board member of the DITIB congregation in [the town of] Kirn posted [on social media] that this surah was read “in mosques all across the country” during the operation in Northern Syria.On the [Facebook] page of DITIB mosques in Saverne [a French town near the German border] one could read: “May Allah allow our armies to be triumphant.” The DITIB congregation in Horn-Bad Meinberg posted a quote of Diyanet Chief, Ali Erbas, who prayed to “make our glorious armies victorious.” [Translated by the author]
Erdogan’s government exercises firm control over DITIB and other Muslim congregations in Germany. They send hand-picked imams from Turkey to run their mosques and direct their activities. Despite its loyalty to Turkey’s Islamist regime, DITIB has received millions of euros in German state funding in the name of “de-radicalization” and “refugee aid” programs.
The loyalty of these foreign imams has long been under question. In 2017, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency uncovered an elaborate spy-ring run by DITIB imams under Ankara’s direction. In the light of compelling evidence, DITIB accepted the spying allegations, pinning the blame on a “few” imams who had acted on the instruction of their Turkish handlers.
The damning revelation of espionage activities did not stop Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government from signing further fat checks for the Erdogan-backed organization. Only subsequent public pressure forced the government to cut the group’s funding.
The latest jihad-style prayer call should come as a wake-up call to the German and Western Liberals. Decades of government-sponsored multiculturalism in Germany has miserably failed to “integrate” its immigrant Muslim population. It is a slap in the face to Germany’s state-ordained “Welcome Culture” (Willkommenskultur), which hoped to win over imported a hostile Muslim population by loading them with welfare benefits and making the society Sharia-compliant.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin threatens sanctions against Turkey
[Cover image via YouTube]
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