Since demonstrations in Berlin and Düsseldorf turned violent when supporters of Syria’s new government clashed with pro-Kurdish demonstrators, discussions surrounding radical Islamism in Germany have been on the rise.
At the protests last weekend, people celebrated the wave of attacks on Syria’s Druze minority by Bedouin militias, which left hundreds dead, a wave of sectarian violence that threatened to derail post-war Syria’s hopes of renewed stability.
Around 400 people took part in the protests in Berlin, while 500 participants took to the streets in Düsseldorf, where the rally ended in violence and police officers were injured.
The German-Turkish Imam Seyran Ateş criticised the demonstrations in comments to Euronews and issued an urgent warning against radicalism on the streets of Germany.
“They were sent to Europe to cause unrest here, to recruit people for their ideology and to work on the grand idea of Islamising Europe,” she claimed.
Counterpoints by other imams
So is Germany really being Islamised by extremists as Ateş claimed?
Some of the country’s other imams are now speaking out to Euronews, putting forward diverging opinions.
Benjamin Idriz, an imam in Penzberg, countered: “I disagree with the insinuation that ‘Islam’ or ‘the Muslims’ want to threaten Europe.”
Anyone who uses the term Islamisation is “stirring up Islamophobia,” he emphasised.
“I consider Ms Ateş’ statements, according to which young Syrians are allegedly being sent here to Islamise Europe, to be dangerous and simply irresponsible;” Idriz told Euronews.
Idriz accuses her of adding “fuel to the fire”. There are “of course individuals, with or without a migration background, who misuse religious terms” to incite hatred against people of other faiths. “There is no justification for this,” he stated.
“But identifying such people with a religion or an entire faith is as wrong as it is dangerous,” Idriz said.
According to Idriz, Islamisation is a “politically charged fighting term” stemming from “right-wing populist contexts” and suggests a “targeted infiltration of Europe by Islam”.
This is a narrative that is “close to conspiracy ideologies” and anyone using it is fuelling Islamophobia, he said.
No connection with Islam, Berlin imam says
Berlin imam Sharjil Khalid was also outraged. “The main function of these self-proclaimed Islam experts seems to be to make simplified general judgements,” he told Euronews.
This can be seen in the “decontextualised use” of Islamisation. The term is “increasingly being used in a populist way … without regard for context or differentiation. This was also the case with the protests in Berlin and Düsseldorf.”
Khalid sees an ethnic conflict rather than one with Islam at its core.
“Why is Ms Ateş suddenly linking these demonstrations, which were clearly about an ethnic conflict between Druze and Syrians, to Islam?”
“We know that many people who read about Islam are hardly religiously educated. This was also the case with extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda or (the self-described) Islamic State (group).”
“Reports have shown that many members had hardly any Islamic knowledge, and a large number were even illiterate. Despite this, a direct connection to Islam is repeatedly made across the board,” he said.
“What we are seeing in these riots is not an expression of Islam,” emphasises Khalid, but “the result of profound ethnic and geopolitical problems”.
Any incitement to violence should be firmly rejected.
“As an imam and Islamic theologian, I would like to remind you of a central tradition of the Holy Prophet Muhammad: ‘A Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand people are safe.'”
Outrage from Austria
Ateş’s warnings have made waves beyond Germany’s borders.
“With all due respect to the professional successes achieved by native German-Turks, but fear-mongering conspiracy theories such as ‘The Islamists were sent to Islamise Europe’ are less useful here,” Austrian-Turkish political analyst Ercan Karaduman told Euronews.
Karaduman has already appeared with Ateş on the “Talk im Hanger-7” show to discuss the subject.
“I can’t understand why people who think differently are subjected to death threats. Muslims shouldn’t be allowed to do that either,” he said, speaking about the death threats against Ateş.
It can be observed how the “Taliban in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda with 9/11, Daesh terror in Syria, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Iran and its offshoots in Lebanon are forming generalised opinions about all Muslims and Islam in European societies,” he said.
Daesh is another term used for the so-called IS group by Arabic speakers to disempower it.
Karaduman finds this unjustified. “This even creates blanket judgements about Muslims who have lived in NRW for generations and are even more German than the Germans,” he explained.
With regard to the radical protests in Berlin and Düsseldorf, he believes it would do no good to see “Islam as the source of the problem”.
“We need to focus on professional extremism prevention,” says the Austrian political analyst with Turkish roots.
Who is the ‘liberal’ imam Seyran Ateş?
Ateş founded the first and so far only liberal mosque in Germany in 2017, where women and men have equal rights and Muslims of all sexual orientations can practise their religion openly.
The feminist and lawyer was brought up in a conservative family and is fighting to reform Islam.
The Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque, which she founded in 2017, had to close temporarily last year due to an Islamist attack plot.
Ateş has been under police protection for almost 18 years, but continues to campaign for gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights.
Many in the Muslim world see this as a provocation. Egyptian religious leaders have issued a fatwa — a religious ruling — declaring prayers in her mosque “not valid”.
The price for her fight to establish a centre for liberal Islam has come in the shape of death threats, police protection and further pressure on her wellbeing. Ateş has already withdrawn from public life several times.
