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The German Federal Administrative Court has supported a decision that the activities carried out by the Islamic Center in the city of Hamburg, known as the Blue Mosque, are “extremist Islamic organization” activities.

According to Voice of America, the Islamic Center filed an objection and complaint against the action taken by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The Hamburg Administrative Court confirmed last Friday the classification of the center’s activities as “Islamic extremism”.

The report continued that in both 2018 and 2019, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the Blue Mosque activities as “extremist Islamic organizations”.

Siege against extremism

According to the British Sky News, in 2019, the German government stated that there were “close links and connections” between the Islamic Relief organization in Germany and the Muslim Brotherhood, and it suspended its funding. The Vice President of the European Parliament, “Nicola Beer,” wrote to the European Commission that it is unacceptable for Islamic Relief to receive funding if it has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

In April 2020, Germany classified the Lebanese Hezbollah party as a terrorist organization and banned all its activities and affiliated organizations from operating on its territory. The German police conducted several raids on religious associations and mosques in several German cities, including Berlin, Bremen, Dortmund, and Munster, to arrest suspected members of the group supported by Iran.

Extremist organizations

The German network “Deutsche Welle” confirmed that Germany’s campaign to stop extremist activities funded by Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood began several years ago but reached its peak in 2020 through banning the activities of many Hezbollah-affiliated associations or the Muslim Brotherhood and including some on terrorist lists.

On May 5, 2021, the German Interior Minister at the time, Horst Seehofer, announced the ban of the Islamic organization “Ansaar International” and many affiliated organizations. Steve Alter, Seehofer’s spokesperson, stated on Twitter that “the network funds terrorism worldwide through donations.” Alter quoted Seehofer as saying, “If you want to fight terrorism, you must dry up its sources of funding.” The ban was imposed because the organization was collecting money with the intention of transferring it to terrorist groups abroad, specifically the Nusra Front in Syria, Hamas, and Al-Shabaab in Somalia. It appears that the donors were deceived into thinking that their money would be exclusively used for humanitarian purposes.

The German network also confirmed that in the same year, Germany also banned nine subsidiary organizations such as “Assistance for Global Resistance” and “Call of the World’s People” affiliated with the organization “Ansaar International”.

In the same month, the German government banned three associations that collect money in Germany for the benefit of a Hezbollah-affiliated institution: “German Lebanese Family,” “People for People,” and “Give Peace.” The police conducted search operations and confiscation measures in the states of Bremen, Hesse, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, and Rhineland-Palatinate.

Renewed decisions

In February 2022, Germany announced another blow, as the Central Council of Muslims in Germany agreed to revoke the membership of the “Islamic Association of Germany,” which German security authorities classify as a group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

On March 15 of the same year, the Alternative for Germany party submitted a resolution to Parliament aimed at tightening control over the sources of funding for the political Islam movement and drying up the financing channels of the Muslim Brotherhood. On June 9, 2022, the German parliament published a document regarding a request for briefing by the Alternative party about some platforms of political Islam. The document revealed the existence of supporters within the government, some of its media institutions, and the Left and Green parties.

In July 2022, the German federal security authorities revealed that they had obtained information about organizational relations and communications between elements of the German and Austrian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood. They confirmed the existence of links between the organizational structure of the Brotherhood in Austria and Germany through the umbrella organization for the Brotherhood in Europe, which is the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe. This prompted German authorities to monitor their activities and ban many of them.

New ban

Voice of America network confirmed that 2023 witnessed a new wave of tightening and besieging by Germany against the activities of the Hezbollah party affiliated with Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood on its territory. After holding two oral sessions in April and May of this year, the Administrative Court in Hamburg issued its written judgment regarding the complaint filed by the Islamic Center. The court partially accepted the plaintiffs’ complaint, leading to the ban on publishing specific sections of the report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. However, the Islamic Center’s challenge to the classification of the “Blue Mosque” as an “extremist Islamic organization” was unsuccessful, as the court deemed this aspect legally valid and not subject to objection.

According to the report issued by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Germany, the association supporting the “Blue Mosque” was classified as an extremist Islamic organization that actively seeks to achieve unconstitutional goals. The full text of the judgment has not been announced, and all parties concerned in the case still have the opportunity to file an appeal.

According to the German newspaper “Die Welt,” the Office for the Protection of the Constitution considers the Islamic Center in Hamburg responsible for managing the Imam Ali Mosque in the Alster region as a center for the Iranian government in Europe. It has been under surveillance for several decades.