A senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party says the German government should record and spy on the content of speeches in German mosques.
Christian Democratic Union MP Volker Kauder has said that he wants the government to be more active and aware of what imams are preaching in German mosques.
“We need to talk about that fact that in some mosques sermons are given that don’t chime with our understanding of the role of the state,” he said in an interview with Berliner Zeitung.
In the interview, Kauder was questioned about the policies of his government and what role it should have in combating extremism. He told the paper that Germany is a country “in which religion doesn’t take precedence over the state, but vice versa. This may be different in Islamic states. In Germany, the state sets the rules.”
He compared the duty of Muslims to fight against extremism to the German experience with Nazism saying, “just as we as German a responsibility to ensure that Germany never returns to Fascism, we must confront neo-Nazi tendencies. So too Muslims are to stand firm against radicalization and terrorism.”
Kauder spoke of the need to have a balanced approach when it came to dealing with the topic of integration.
Many conservative politicians have taken harder line responses to the migration crisis since the rise of anti-migration parties like the Alternative for Germany which won huge gains in local elections and the Freedom Party in Austria whose Presidential candidate Norbert Hofer trounced the establishment in first round voting.
Many conservative politicians have taken harder line responses to the migration crisis since the rise of anti-migration parties like the Alternative for Germany which won huge gains in local elections and the Freedom Party in Austria whose Presidential candidate Norbert Hofer trounced the establishment in first round voting.
When asked about Andreas Scheuer of the CDU proposal to force Imams to speak German during services Kauder took a softer approach saying: “I do not demand that all imams speak German,” adding, “for Italians the Holy Mass is also offered in Italian. In the synagogues, they pray in Hebrew.”
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