Berlin shuts down Hamburg's Blue Mosque
The German Ministry of the Interior has banned the Islamic Centre Hamburg (IZH) mosque association on the grounds the organisation pursues anti-constitutional goals and spreads aggressive antisemitism and the ideology of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Tehran summoned the German ambassador to Iran over the issue. Is the ban long overdue?
A well-measured dose of state authority
Such a step should never be taken lightly, the Frankfurter Rundschau emphasises:
“Just last week, the ban against the Compact complex drew critical questions, and now the Federal Ministry of the Interior is once again resorting to one of its toughest weapons. Is the state becoming too authoritarian? This is a question that alert citizens can't ask themselves often enough. The answer, however, is that in view of the growing clout of aggressive, authoritarian groups on the fringes of society, such well-measured doses of state authority are a must.”
Naive and conflict-averse
For the Aargauer Zeitung the ban should have come sooner:
“As early as 2017, the German government declared that the head of the centre was sent by the revolutionary leader in Tehran and that the IZH was an Iranian propaganda tool. Yet the Hamburg city government under then mayor Olaf Scholz did nothing. ... This is a story that could play out in many places in Europe because it follows a familiar pattern: a naive and conflict-averse approach vis-à-vis Islamists. The continent cannot afford either.”