German officials raised serious concerns yesterday about an ultra-conservative Islamic group’s drive to hand out 25mn copies of the Qur’an.
Amid a politically charged debate, some lawmakers however admonished critics to respect the freedom of religion.
Volker Kauder, parliamentary group leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, called the free distribution of millions of copies of Islamic scripture by ultra-conservative Salafists a cover for jihadist recruiting.
“I strongly condemn this initiative,” he told German news agency DPA. “The Qur’an is being abused here for subversive extremist activities.
“Muslim groups in Germany are right in distancing themselves from this abuse of religious liberty.
“And it would very much interest me to know where the money for these activities is coming from.”
A group of Salafists calling itself “The True Religion” has said that it seeks to pass out about 25mn German-language copies of the Qur’an on the streets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland and via the Internet in a move to convert non-Muslims.
The Central Council of Muslims has criticised the campaign, saying that the Qur’an is the word of God and “not a public relations brochure or leaflet that is distributed as a mass product”.
Under public pressure, the publishing house working with the Salafists said yesterday it had stopped printing the books while it reviews its co-operation with the group.
The domestic intelligence service estimates there are about 2,500 Salafists, who espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam, in Germany and says it has them under official observation.
The service said in its most recent annual report dating from 2010 that Salafism was the fastest growing Islamic movement in the world and that it calls for replacing national legal frameworks with Sharia law.
“We are talking about an extremist, Islamist phenomenon but not a criminal one,” a security source told AFP when asked about the Qur’an programme, explaining: “Distributing copies of the Qur’an is protected by religious freedom but the movement behind it will remain under observation.”
Michael Hartmann, a domestic policy expert from the main opposition Social Democrats, agreed with the assessment, branding calls to ban the Salafist campaign “grotesque” in a liberal democracy.
Other deputies echoed his criticism.
Meanwhile, the interior ministry said a probe had been launched into threats against journalists who had reported critically on the Qur’an campaign that were posted on the Internet and have since been removed.
In the videos, a group describing itself as Salafist targeted newspaper reporters, with a voice saying: “We know where you live, we know your football club, we have your mobile number,” Die Welt newspaper reported.
