German authorities on Wednesday banned the Islamic Centre Hamburg (IZH), an organization that domestic intelligence considers to be controlled by Iran.
To enforce the ban, which was published in the Federal Gazette and also affects five affiliated organizations, officers searched the IZH inside the Imam Ali Mosque in Hamburg as well as premises in eight other states early in the morning.
Dozens of police officers were seen cordoning off the Imam Ali Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque, in Hamburg, a Shiite mosque run by the IZH that is located in an upmarket area on the shore of the northern German city’s Outer Alster Lake.
Several police officers stormed the building of a Shiite organization in Berlin’s Tempelhof district at around the same time.
Germany’s domestic intelligence service has classified the IZH as extremist.
Interior Nancy Faeser said that IZH “promotes an Islamist-extremist, totalitarian ideology in Germany.”
“This Islamist ideology is opposed to human dignity. women’s rights, an independent judiciary and our democratic government,” she said in a statement.
Her ministry said that the IZH acts a “representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution'” and spread this ideology in an “aggressive and militant way.”
The ministry said that around 670 police officers were deployed in the early morning to enforce the prohibition order against the Islamic Centre Hamburg (IZH) and five sub-organisations.
“It is very important to me to make a clear distinction here: we are not acting against a religion,” Faeser said, assuring that the peaceful practice of the Shiite faith is explicitly unaffected by the ban.
In total, four Shiite mosques have been shut down as part of the ban, according to the statement.
Germany is home to some 150 to 200 Shiite communities.
The IZH is considered an important propaganda centre for Tehran in Europe. The state-level branch of the domestic intelligence service in Hamburg has been monitoring the organization since the 1990s.
A total of 53 properties in the states of Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hesse, North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria were searched in connection with the ban, according to the statement.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador in Tehran in protest against the ban on the Islamic Centre Hamburg (IZH), the German Foreign Office confirmed in Berlin on Wednesday.
“We can confirm that our ambassador in Tehran was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry today,” the Foreign Office said. According to Iran’s IRNA news agency, the Iranian ministry justified the summons by stating that the German government’s decision to ban the Islamic Centre was unacceptable.
The Foreign Office in Berlin said that an urgent meeting with the Iranian ambassador had also taken place at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.
Wednesday’s large-scale operation came after officials searched some 50 properties across Germany in November, including the Blue Mosque and dozens of other premises in Hamburg.
Serious suspicions had been substantiated following the extensive search measures directed against the IZH last November, the interior minister said.
Extensive material was confiscated at the time.
Calls have been mounting for years for the IZH to be shut down. The German parliament has urged the federal government to assess “whether and how” the IZH, “a hub of the Iranian regime’s operations in Germany” can be closed permanently.
According to the Hamburg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a state-level intelligence agency that monitors potential threats to Germany’s democratic values and institutions, in recent years the IZH has built up a nationwide network of contacts through which it exerts influence on Shiites of different nationalities as well as Shiite mosques and associations – having complete control in some cases.
Several state interior ministers welcomed the ban. “The ban on the IZH and its sub-organisations is a sensitive blow against Islamist aspirations in Germany,” said Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann.
Berlin’s Senator of the Interior Iris Spranger emphasized: “Today’s measures show that ongoing attacks on our central basic principles such as democracy and the rule of law will not be tolerated.”
Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher said: “Our security authorities have been monitoring the IZH intensively for many years, have consistently taken action against the IZH and have effectively supported the federal government’s ban proceedings with their findings.”
David Turner is a globe-trotting journalist who brings a global perspective to our readers. With a commitment to shedding light on international events, he explores complex geopolitical issues, offering a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
