The German government has ordered the closure of the Islamic Center of Hamburg (IZH) and its affiliated organizations across the country, citing accusations of propagating extremism and radical Islamic ideology.
Early Wednesday, police raided 53 properties linked to the IZH across eight German states. The raids resulted in the confiscation of assets and the shutdown of four mosques. The ban also extends to the IZH’s subgroups in Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin.
In a statement released on Wednesday, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced the ban on the Islamic Center Hamburg for "pursuing radical Islamist objectives." She stated that the police were conducting searches at the famous 'Blue Mosque,' operated by the IZH.
To know more about the goals behind this anti-Islamic move, we reached out to Cahit Tuz, London-based international relations expert and analyst.
Here is the full text of the interview:
What is the main reason behind such behavior towards Muslims and Islam in some Western countries and why some always are beating the drum of Islamophobia?
All incidents experienced in Western countries should be considered in historical context. Because all incidents experienced in Western principles are definitely connected to the past. First of all, I think that the concept of "Islamophobia" should be defined correctly. Because this concept was put forward deliberately and aims to hide the true nature of the incidents. If you define an incident as a "phobia", you will be referring to any fears that people feel instinctively in their daily lives. Therefore, the incident completely disappears from its real context and becomes innocent. Like some people's phobia of traveling by plane or fear of mice. However, the incidents experienced in Western countries towards Islam and Muslims are not a "phobia" but rather an "enmity" coming from the past. Therefore, it would be more accurate to use the expression "enmity towards Islam in the West" instead of the concept of Islamophobia.
We can explain this hostility of the West towards Islam and Muslims with 4 basic reasons.
1.) Anxiety about the possibility of the Islamic world becoming a power that will rule the world again as it did in the past
2.) Although the European Union countries do not openly declare it, they see themselves as a Christian union. In other words, the European Union is a "crusader" union.
3.) Although the European Union countries talk about freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, this reality is not the case in their essence.
4.) The hostile attitudes of the radical right movements that have risen in the European Union in the last fifteen years towards Islam and Muslims.
Therefore, it can be clearly stated that the Western world has never been truly tolerant and the events that have taken place in European countries are purely hostile to Islam.
Limits are forced against the Abrahamic religion of Islam, while many terrorist groups are active in these countries. How can such double standards be justified?
All policies of Western countries are built on double standards. While they use their liberal, democratic faces to consolidate their own societies domestically, they constantly create controllable crises in other countries of the world through proxy warrior groups.
The Western world has become the center of understandings that act completely against the Abrahamic faith, especially in the last half century. In other words, the western world has come under the control of groups with a "satanic" understanding. When you carefully examine the events organized in western countries, you can see that many symbols used represent the satanic understanding. The most recent example of this is the visuals and symbols used in the opening of the Paris Olympics. Again, we can evaluate the rise and support of perverted understandings such as LGBT in western countries within this framework. While insulting or burning the Quran is considered within the scope of freedom of expression in western countries, not a single word is allowed to be uttered about the satanic system of Zionism. Therefore, the west has become a slave to double-standard policies, stuck between two different faces it implements at home and abroad.
What should be done to make people of the world and followers of the different religions closer?
Human beings need to be satisfied physically and spiritually. We meet our physical needs with food and water. Our spiritual needs can only be met with divine faith. In my personal opinion, the only way for the world to escape the corruption it has fallen into in the last century is to turn to faith. The world needs to come together around common values. I think that the only instrument that provides this is divine faith.
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