Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque

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The mosque is located in an outbuilding of the Johanniskirche in Berlin-Moabit

The Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque is a liberal mosque in the Berlin district of Moabit . It opened on June 16, 2017. It was founded largely by the lawyer and women's rights activist Seyran Ateş . Other founders include the doctor and writer Mimoun Azizi , the human rights activist Saïda Keller-Messahli , the political scientist Elham Manea and the Islamic scholar Abdel-Hakim Ourghi . The mosque does not have its own building, but currently uses a room in an outbuilding of the Evangelical Church of St. Johannis .

backgrounds

In an article in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit , Seyran Ates justified the founding of the mosque as follows: “On Friday, June 16, we will open the Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque in Berlin because we want to reform Islam from within. […] The new mosque in Berlin should be a spiritual home, especially for those women and men who do not feel comfortable in traditional mosques and who no longer want to be told how to live their religion. Tolerance , non-violence and gender equality should be in the foreground. "

Surname

The mosque was named after the Andalusian doctor and philosopher Averroes ( Arabic  : Ibn Ruschd, 1126–1198), who was known in the Middle Ages for his commentaries on the work of Aristotle , and after the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) in appreciation of his engagement with Islam, e.g. B. in the west-east Divan .

Theological orientation

Liberal Islam is to be practiced in the mosque . Women and men should pray together, and women should also be able to speak the sermon. Homosexual men and women are expressly welcome. Furthermore, the mosque is said to be open to various Islamic denominations, including Sunnis , Shiites , Alevis and Sufis .

Finances

The mosque has the legal form of a non-profit GmbH . It should be financed through donations in the future.

history

The mosque opened on June 16, 2017. It does not have its own building, but uses a room in an outbuilding of the Protestant Church of St. Johannis .

Founding members

It was founded largely by the lawyer and women's rights activist Seyran Ateş . Other founders include the doctor and writer Mimoun Azizi , the human rights activist Saïda Keller-Messahli , the political scientist Elham Manea and the Islamic scholar Abdel-Hakim Ourghi .

Resignation of Mimoun Azizi

Founding member Mimoun Azizi said on Facebook - one day after the mosque opened - that he wanted to withdraw from the political discourse “for personal reasons” . On June 21, 2017, he also announced on Facebook that in recent years he had only mingled with the “self-proclaimed reform Muslims” as a disguise in order to conduct a political-scientific study of “ Islamic criticism , Islamic hatred and Islamophobia ”, which he considered an “anti-Muslim Fascism ”. A spokeswoman for the Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque said that she has not had any contact with Azizi since the statements. Shortly before the opening of the mosque, he had informed Seyran Ateş of his withdrawal by telephone and was also not present at the opening ceremonies. Since Azizi and his family had been threatened by Islamic fundamentalists several times in the past , there was speculation that this revocation was made under duress.

Controversy

The opening of the mosque attracted a great deal of national and international media coverage. In addition to many positive voices, there was also criticism from the ranks of conservative Muslims. A report in the Arab television program of Deutsche Welle led to predominantly negative comments on the Internet, there was even a death threat.

The chairman of the Gülen Foundation for Dialogue and Education , Ercan Karakoyun , received death threats after he was falsely linked to the mosque on a Turkish television station.

The Turkish state religious authority Diyanet brought the Ibn Rushd Goethe mosque into connection with the movement of the preacher Fethullah Gülen . She said: "It is obvious that this is a project of religious reform that has been carried out for years under the leadership of FETÖ and similar ominous organizations." According to Diyanet, it is an effort to "undermine and destroy the religion." ". Believers should not allow themselves to be provoked by the liberal interpretation of Islam. Seyran Ateş rejected any connection between the mosque and the Gülen movement.

The Egyptian Fatwa Office criticized the mosque and wrote on Facebook : "No to liberal mosques". Women could not pray in a row next to men and were not allowed to pray without a veil. The authority also rejects a female imam if men are present.

The board of directors of the Islamic Community of Shiite Congregations in Germany (IGS) also criticized the mosque: “If the idea of ​​a 'liberal Islam' or a 'liberal religion' means the suppression of the divine commandments according to human standards and judgment, and with it one Disparagement, abuse and insult of religious traditions [...] then [...] our society is faced with a great and difficult test. ”It was concluded that this was not a mosque.

Because of the threats received, the mosque founders complain that liberal Muslims are at great risk if they go public. They ask for acceptance, respect and tolerance for their modern, gender-equitable reading of the Koran . Ateş himself received many death threats which, according to a risk analysis by the State Criminal Police Office, should be taken seriously and has been under police protection ever since.

See also

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Seyran Ateş: Islam: Grüß Gott, Frau Imamin! In: The time . June 17, 2017, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed August 20, 2017]).
  2. ↑ Matthias Drobinski: A house of prayer called Goethe. In: sueddeutsche.de . June 16, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Sabine Kinkartz: Ibn-Rushd-Goethe: A mosque for everyone. In: dw.com. June 16, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b c Frauke Oppenberg: “I want to be human in the mosque”. In: rbb-online.de. Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, June 16, 2017, accessed June 20, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b Uta Keseling: Everyone prays together in the Ibn Rushd Goethe mosque. In: morgenpost.de. June 17, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017 .
  6. ↑ a b Jean-Philippe Baeck: What happened, Dr. Azizi? In: Die Tageszeitung , June 26, 2017
  7. ↑ "Spy" in the new mosque should go . In: Der Tagesspiegel , June 29, 2017, p. 7; online at pressreader.com
  8. ↑ Kemal Hür: Liberal Islam - "A brilliant project". In: deutschlandfunk.de. June 19, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Sebastian Leber: Berlin Mosque for Liberal Muslims - "Islam does not belong to fanatics". In: tagesspiegel.de. June 16, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque: Death threats because of a liberal mosque in Berlin. In: Berliner-Kurier.de. June 19, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017 .
  11. ↑ a b c Jürgen Stryjak u. a .: Diyanet railed against the new Berlin mosque. In: tagesschau.de . June 21, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Term used by Turkish government agencies for the Gülen movement
  13. ↑ a b Diyanet connects new Berlin mosque with Gülen. In: welt.de . June 21, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017 .
  14. ↑ IGS: IGS press release on "Marriage for All". Retrieved July 23, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Andrea Schwyzer: Seyran Ateş: “The reactions surprise me”. In: ndr.de. June 21, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Andrea Schwyzer: 100 death threats against liberal mosque founder. In: welt.de. July 1, 2017, accessed July 2, 2017 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 29 ″  N , 13 ° 20 ′ 57 ″  E