Strict government control of donations to religious institutions in Germany

Germany’s Foreign Ministry has warned that countries sending donations and grants to religious institutions in Germany should inform the government in advance, so that the German intelligence agency can examine the donations sent and verify the identity of the sender and the recipient, the German newspaper Süddeutsche reported on Friday.

The German government has reduced its funding support for the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), which oversees about 900 mosques throughout the country, due to its association with the Turkish government and the involvement of its imams in politics.

Martin Schultz, the leader of the Socialist Democratic Party (SDP), told German newspapers that if the association does not distance itself from its political activity, then it should be placed under the control of the security services.

Meanwhile, research reports issued in 2015 warned against the impact of funds coming from outside the country and recommended tightening the monitoring of funded Salafist advocacy activities.

Germany’s domestic security service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, warned in its annual report last July that the number of Salafists in Germany has doubled since 2013, reaching about 11,000.

According to the security services, about 3,000 of these Salafists live in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany; more than 800 of them are willing to use violence, while more than 250 are classified as "security dangers".

According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, all those who carried out terrorist attacks in Germany in recent years were saturated with Salafist ideas, including Anis Amri, who committed a terrorist attack on Berlin’s Christmas market in in December 2016, killing 12 people in the bloodiest terrorist attack Germany has witnessed so far.

"We have to discuss the idea of ​​imposing taxes on mosques with experience and reason," said Aiman Mazyek, head of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, in remarks to the German newspaper Rheinische Post on Friday, adding that mosques, which are often underfunded, should be able to appoint imams who are educated, trained and speak German. He added that this could be accomplished through the establishment of a mosque based on donations and with the support of the state.

Cem Özdemir, the former leader of the German Green Party, announced the establishment of a secular Islam initiative late last month, in partnership with politicians and publishers, to counter the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment, especially with the rise of the right-wing extremists in the country on one hand and Islamist extremist movements on the other.

Those participating in this initiative have called for a contemporary understanding of Islam and demanding that Islamic associations not be recognized as entities under public law. However, this initiative is not the first to seek to change the status of Muslims in the country.