Demo in Essen: Gegen Israel und für ein Kalifat in Deutschland
www.sueddeutsche.de
Essens Oberbürgermeister Thomas Kufen (CDU) reagiert entsetzt auf eine Demonstration am Freitagabend in seiner Stadt.

Translation:

Essen’s mayor Thomas Kufen (CDU) reacts with horror to a demonstration in his city on Friday evening. 3,000 people, including many Islamists, marched through the Ruhr metropolis.

Essen’s mayor Thomas Kufen (CDU) reacted with outrage and incomprehension to an anti-Israel demonstration that marched through the Ruhr metropolis on Friday evening. Several of the approximately 3,000 participants chanted slogans and held up posters calling for a “Khilafah” (caliphate) in Germany. The three-hour procession on the edge of the city center was accompanied by 450 police officers and observed by state security.

According to the Essen police, the demonstration was registered by a private individual. However, the main organizer was apparently the “Generation Islam” group, which security experts consider to be part of the pan-Islamist movement “Hizb ut-Tahrir” (HuT) . HuT has been banned in Germany since 2003. The main speaker at the final rally in Essen was the activist Ahmad Tamim, the head of “Generation Islam.” The Islamic scholar Ahmad Omeirate told WAZ that Tamim was “using the Middle East conflict for mobilization and radicalization.”

Mayor Kufen regretted on Saturday morning that “Islamists, anti-democrats and Jew-haters” were allowed to parade through Essen protected by the freedom of assembly guaranteed by the Basic Law: “That is difficult to bear.” The CDU politician, who was the North Rhine-Westphalia state government’s integration officer from 2005 to 2010, called for consequences: “The Office for the Protection of the Constitution must take a closer look at Hizb ut-Tahrir’s splinter and successor groups. Bans must be an option.”

The demonstrators shouted slogans in Arabic and German on Friday evening. Posters condemned the Israeli military operation in Gaza (“Stop the genocide”) after the terrorist attack by the Palestinian Hamas, and one sign read: “German raison d’état calls for the killing of children.” The organizers initially used loudspeakers to remind people of the police requirement that no participant should question Israel’s right to exist. The tip-off was met with loud boos from the crowd.

At the beginning of the march, participants were also asked over loudspeakers to separate men and women. So it happened that most of the female demonstrators marched through the city behind the male participants. They repeatedly shouted “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) and held up signs calling for the unity of all Muslim believers and the establishment of a caliphate in Germany. Individual demonstrators stuck their right index fingers in the air; This gesture is intended to symbolize belief in the “one God”, but is also seen as a symbol of the terrorist organization “Islamic State”. The design of several black and white banners and flags also resembled depictions of IS.

The Essen police announced on Saturday that they would subsequently analyze the Friday demonstration and examine its “criminal relevance”. It turned out that the motive for a pro-Palestine meeting was only a pretext. Instead, the organizers held a religious event.

  • IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social
    12·
    1 year ago

    Yep just look at for example Indonesia where foreign Islamic influence from the Middle East has slowly gained a foothold in society and politics since the fall of the dictator Suharto. Indonesia is regressing and is introducing more draconian laws clearly pushed by conservative Muslims and it’s secular status is nowadays merely a facade.

    • iain@feddit.nlEnglish
      35·
      1 year ago

      If you give the situation a little more context, you can see the west’s hands in this as well, similar to Palestine and other former colonies. After being brutally exploited by western powers, there were many secular and moderate resistance movements. Because they were socialist and considered a threat to the western dominance they were either ruthlessly bombed, like Laos and Vietnam, or the west supported dictators like Suharto, because they promised to kill all the communists for them. Even though the dictator is gone now, it will take many years for a moderate generation to grow again.

      The exact same is happening in Palestine. The west supports Israel’s ethnic cleansing, meaning that the only resistance that is left is groups like Hamas.