Andreas Abu Bakr Rieger

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Andreas Abu Bakr Rieger

Andreas Abu Bakr Rieger (born February 11, 1965 in Freiburg im Breisgau as Andreas Rieger ) is a German lawyer and publicist . He is editor of the Islamische Zeitung and was the author and co-partner of the Compact magazine published by Jürgen Elsässer .

Life

Andreas Rieger grew up in a Catholic family , his father was chairman of the CDU city ​​council of Lahr . After graduating from high school, he began to study law at the University of Freiburg . In Granada he converted to Islam in 1990 under the influence of Murabitun founder Ian Dallas and, following the example of the first caliph, took the name Abu Bakr . After the 1st state examination , he moved to Thuringia to complete his legal clerkship and take the 2nd state examination. In 1993 he gave an anti-Semitic speech at an event organized by the supporters of Cemaleddin Kaplan in the Cologne City Hall: “Like the Turks, we Germans have often fought for a good cause in history, although I have to admit that my grandfathers did not face our common main enemy were very thorough. "

In 1995 he settled in Weimar as a lawyer and founded the Islamische Zeitung and the Weimar Institute for Intellectual and Contemporary History . In the same year he authorized as “ Amir of the Muslim community in Weimar” a fatwa from the pen of the founder and leader of the Murabitun movement , Ian Dallas alias Abdalqadir as-Sufi , in which Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was declared a Muslim. Rieger now distances himself from the claim that Goethe is a Muslim. In 1997 he wanted to create awareness for his educational work on the Balkan conflicts. Rieger often gives lectures about Goethe in which he points out the topicality of Goethe's thought.

In 1996, Abu Bakr Rieger made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina for the first time . He describes the experience of having gathered together with Muslims from all parts of the world as a clear teaching that “Islam is alien to any preference for a certain race”. Rieger therefore sees the identity of the German Muslim as a “citizen of the world in the Goethean sense”. Rieger spoke at the invitation of the Consulate General of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Düsseldorf in 2005 at an event to commemorate the Srebrenica massacre , and accused NATO of complicity. According to Rieger, the teaching of Srebrenica must result in a turning away from ideology and human contempt.

In 2011 Rieger founded COMPACT-Magazin GmbH together with Jürgen Elsässer and Kai Homilius , which publishes the monthly magazine Compact ; Rieger, Elsässer and Homilius each held a third of the shares. According to Rieger, the goal was to be able to controversially discuss different views in one medium. Rieger has not been a partner since November 2014. He justified his departure with the "increasingly radical-subjective attitude" of Elsässers. The paper was "one-sided and politically slipped, since it represented racist and nationalist positions". The position on the PEGIDA movement speaks volumes, that on the Russian crisis is “ folkish ”. The project “failed because it is no longer possible to represent different positions”.

Work in the Islamic Council, resignation

Rieger was later a board member in the Islamic Council for the Federal Republic of Germany , for which he became a member of the Islam Conference . As a result of research by the journalist Claudia Dantschke , a long-known video recording of his 1993 speech, which had been criticized as anti-Semitic, was published in Spiegel magazine in 2007. As a greeting to supporters of the later banned caliphate state of the Islamic fundamentalist Metin Kaplan , he had declared that he was happy about the "future fighters for the Din of Islam" present, "like the Turks", so that "we Germans have often already been in history fought for a good cause, although "he" had to "admit" that his "grandfathers were not very thorough with our common main enemy". He saw it as his task to invite "his German comrades" to Islam. The Union Group Vice Wolfgang Bosbach demanded, "As long as Mr. Rieger is still active in the Islamic Council, the organization can not be a dialogue partner," the Islam commissioner of the SPD , Lale Akgün , supports this claim.

Rieger stated that this speech was "foolish and stupid" and that he was never a right-wing radical or an anti-Semite. He was also ready at any time to apologize to anyone “who rightly perceives this sentence as inhuman and cynical.” Nevertheless, he resigned from the post of deputy chairman of the Islamic Council. Rieger had previously resigned as a board member of the Islamic Council in 2002, the taz noted that Abu Bakr Rieger, "a high-ranking functionary of the dubious Murabitun association", was "controversial" because this "sect-like organization" was due to "contacts to the right, anti-Semitic scene ". In 2004 Deutschlandfunk complained that Rieger did not "unmistakably distance himself from his anti-Semitic statements".

International

He is the chairman of the European Muslim Union, which he co-founded in 2005 . In 2009 he was included in a “List of 500 Most Influential Muslims” by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Jordan .

Rieger presented himself as a supporter of the European Union and expressed his admiration for the French President Emmanuel Macron and his party En Marche .

Private life

Rieger lives in Potsdam with his wife and five children.

Publications (selection)

  • Islam in Germany . Spohr-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2007
  • Away with the interest . Kai Homilius Verlag, Werder (Havel) 2011
  • Cross connections . IZ Medien GmbH, Berlin 2015

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The key words of the Right Shy Fearmaker , by Erik Peter, TAZ April 10, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c Rainer Traub: The Faith Changer , Spiegel Special No. 2/2008, page 94ff.
  3. ↑ Jörg Lau : Religion: Christian is now called Abdul , Die Zeit from December 22, 2004
  4. ↑ Jan-Philipp Hein, Yassin Musharbash and Anna Reimann Extremism: Islam Council member gave an anti-Semitic speech Spiegel-Online on October 1, 2007
  5. ↑ Stefan Meining : Right esotericism in Germany. Constructs of ideas, interfaces and potential dangers , in: Political extremism as a threat to freedom - right-wing extremism and Islamism in Germany and Thuringia , lectures on the occasion of the symposium of the Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution on September 3, 2002 in Erfurt, Erfurt 2002.
  6. ↑ Goethe and the topicality of the Muslims , written lecture.
  7. ↑ Background: About German Muslims. By Abu Bakr Rieger , article Islamische Zeitung.
  8. ↑ Srebrenica from a European perspective , written lecture by IGBD.
  9. ↑ Authorized declaration by Mr. Andreas Abu Bakr Rieger of March 23, 2015 on the sale of his shares in the “Compact” magazine, quoted from Wolfgang Storz : “Querfront” - career of a political-journalistic network (= OBS -Workspapier. Vol. 18) . ISSN  2365-1962 . Otto Brenner Foundation, Frankfurt am Main 2015.
  10. ↑ Potsdam District Court, Commercial Register Gazette HRB 24411 with lists of shareholders from 2011 and from November 17, 2014
  11. ↑ Authorized declaration by Mr. Andreas Abu Bakr Rieger of March 23, 2015 on the sale of his shares in the “Compact” magazine, quoted from Wolfgang Storz : “Querfront” - career of a political-journalistic network (= OBS -Workspapier. Vol. 18) . ISSN  2365-1962 . Otto Brenner Foundation, Frankfurt am Main 2015.
  12. ↑ a b c Extremism - Islamic Council member gave an anti-Semitic speech , Der Spiegel , October 1, 2007
  13. ↑ Anti-Semitic Criticism of Globalization , Claudia Dantschke, June 10, 2003. "We are a group of German Muslims and are pleased that we were received so warmly by you Turkish brothers [...] we saw a great many fighters here today, future ones Fighters for the Din of Islam and that gave us a lot of courage [...] like the Turks, we Germans have often fought for a good cause in history, although I have to admit that my grandfathers with our common The main enemy were not entirely thorough. He, Rieger, and his German comrades now see their main task in strengthening Islam in Germany by inviting Germans to Islam ".
  14. ^ Video recording, Andreas Abu Bakr Rieger , Internet Archive , 23 September 2007
  15. ^ Anti-Semitic speech - member of the Islamic Council resigns after harsh criticism , Der Spiegel, October 2, 2007
  16. ^ Islam Council renovates the facade , taz, January 30, 2002
  17. ↑ hatred of Jews in the name of Allah? Islamism and anti-Semitism in Germany , Deutschlandfunk, September 24, 2004
  18. ↑ European Muslim Union - Istanbul Declaration 2005 . In: www.emunion.eu . Retrieved February 17, 2015. Quotation: Lawyer Abu Bakr Rieger has been elected president.
  19. ↑ John Esposito and İbrahim Kalın : The 500 most influential Muslims 2009 (PDF), p. 142. Quotation: Abu Bakr Rieger is the chairman of the European Muslims Union ...
  20. ↑ “For EMU, good relations to Turkey and Morocco are very important” press release of the European Muslim Union, August 5th, 2016. Quotation: the president of the European Muslim Union (EMU), Abu Bakr Rieger .
  21. ↑ John Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin: The 500 most influential Muslims 2009 (PDF), p. 142.
  22. ↑ How do Muslims feel about Europe? , Article Islamic Newspaper.
  23. ↑ Biography on Rieger's website / current lectures
personal data
SURNAME Rieger, Andreas Abu Bakr
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rieger, Andreas (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and journalist, chairman of the European Muslim Union
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau