Central Council of Muslims in Germany

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Central Council of Muslims in Germany
(ZMD)
logo
legal form registered association
founding 1994
Seat Cologne , GermanyGermanyGermany 
purpose Representation of Muslims and Islamic member organizations in Germany
Chair Aiman ​​Mazyek
Members 22 member organizations (2020)
Website Zentralrat.de and islam.de

The Central Council of Muslims in Germany e. V. ( ZMD ) is one of the four largest Islamic umbrella organizations in Germany, alongside the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion (DITIB), the Association of Islamic Cultural Centers (VIKZ) and the Islamic Council for the Federal Republic of Germany (ISLAMRAT) . The association represents around 10,000 to 20,000 Muslims through its 22 member organizations. That corresponds to less than one percent of the Muslims living in Germany.

management

The founding chairman was Nadeem Elyas , who was chairman from 1994 to 2006. Elyas later became honorary chairman of the Central Council. Ayyub Axel Köhler was elected as his successor in 2006 . He was followed in 2010 by Aiman ​​Mazyek , who until then worked as General Secretary in the Central Council. Mazyek was succeeded by lawyer Nurhan Soykan in the role of General Secretary . Soykan is currently one of the three deputy chairpersons alongside the theologian Mohammad Khallouk and Mehmet Alparslan Çelebi ( Avrupa Türk-İslam Birliği ). Abdassamad El Yazidi performs the function of Secretary General.

organization structure

In addition to full members, the Central Council of Muslims has also founded various regional associations. There are the following official regional associations and representations:

  • Berlin
  • Bavaria
  • Hamburg
  • Hesse
  • Union of new federal states
  • Lower Saxony
  • North Rhine-Westphalia
  • Rhineland-Palatinate
  • Saarland
  • Thuringia

Meaning and definition

The majority of non-Turkish Muslims are organized in the ZMD . Organizations Arabic, German and multi- ethnic origin are involved. According to the self-portrayal, its composition represents "the entire diversity of Muslims in Germany". The importance of the Central Council in Germany results from this multi-ethnic composition, by which the ZMD differs from the Turkish-influenced umbrella organizations DİTİB , Islamrat and Association of Islamic Cultural Centers.

The Higher Administrative Court in Münster ruled on November 9, 2017: "Islamic associations" are not religious communities within the meaning of the law. The Central Council of Muslims and the "Islamic Council", which is also suing, do not meet the requirements to be regarded as religious communities within the meaning of the Basic Law . This means that they have no claim against the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to the general introduction of Islamic religious instruction in public schools, the court ruled (AZ: 19 A 997/02). Above all, the judges in Münster doubted whether the umbrella organizations had sufficient teaching authority over their member associations. The court did not allow an appeal against the judgment. A non-admission complaint was lodged with the Federal Administrative Court against the judgment ; the decision on the complaint is still pending.

history

The association emerged in 1994 from the Islamic Working Group Germany . In 2000, the largest sub-organization with 22,000 members, the Association of Islamic Cultural Centers, unexpectedly left the ZMD and began to separate itself more from non-Muslim society. From now on, the largest member association was the Union of Turkish-Islamic Cultural Associations in Europe .

From its founding in 1994 until June 30, 2006, Eschweiler was the seat of the Central Council. The ZMD is a founding member of the Coordination Council of Muslims, which has existed since April 2007 .

aims

Together with the Islamic Council, he has set up commissions that are committed to providing Islamic religious instruction in German schools and granting an exemption for slaughtering in Germany.

"The Central Council of Muslims in Germany [...] sees itself as a discussion and action level of its members and performs the task of a dialogue and contact person for the German state, the administration and the other groups of society."

"The Central Council does not want to replace or compete with mosque communities, Islamic associations, associations and umbrella organizations; it rather wants to represent their common interests as a social group before the authorities and demand the rights to which they are entitled as a religious community on their behalf."

- From the self-presentation of the ZMD

financing

The ZMD is primarily financed through membership fees, fundraising in mosques and private donations.

criticism

Attitude to Sharia

The Central Council is accused of not having fundamentally distanced itself from Sharia law. The former central council chairman Ayyub Koehler said that believing Muslims could not do this either, since only a small part of the Sharia concerns “extreme examples of the Islamic administration of justice [such as the death penalty , flogging and cutting off hands ”) and the rest contain legal principles and ethics. The Central Council's positions on equality between men and women are criticized because they do not correspond to the fundamental rights of equality enshrined in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany . The position of the “Islamic Charter” - “There is no contradiction between Islamic teaching and the core of human rights” - was also criticized in public.

“It should be positively emphasized that one sees a consensus in the core material, in particular the protection of the individual against the abuse of state violence, and again points out the need to recognize the“ local legal system ”. At the same time, however, the phrase “core inventory” means that certain areas of international human rights declarations are not regarded as mandatory. The Central Council seems to follow the position of Islamic human rights declarations (from 1981 and 1990), in which human rights are understood as a gift and grace from God and are linked to the fulfillment of religious duties. In view of the fears that are associated not only with non-Muslims, but also in large parts of the Muslim population with a conservative interpretation of Sharia law, this thesis does not contribute to building trust, but confirms existing fears. "

- Church Office of the EKD : on the "Islamic Charter" of the ZMD (January 2003)

There was also criticism of this passage from the Muslim side. Ahmad von Denffer explained : "In fact, there are irreconcilable differences between Islamic teaching and 'human rights', especially with regard to women." He criticizes the renunciation of the demand for a "society in accordance with Islam" or its non-pronunciation as Illusion. He also criticizes the orientation of the “Charter” towards Europe and its anti-religious culture instead of an orientation towards the Ummah .

Connection to Islamism

In particular, the Central Council is accused of presenting itself to the outside world as ready for dialogue, while internally the goal is to establish an Islamic society in Germany. He is also strongly influenced by a member association, the Islamic Community in Germany (IGD). For the protection of the constitution, the IGD is a German offshoot of the international, Islamist Muslim Brotherhood . The Muslim Brotherhood venerated the scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi (whose books the IGD made popular in Germany) as one of their great masterminds . Among other things, he calls for the death penalty for apostates, adulterers and homosexuals. At the same time, thinkers such as al-Qaradawi in the Central Council are calling for a Sharia-oriented Islamic state to be established as soon as Muslims are in the majority. The Muslim Brotherhood advocates a return to the “true” values ​​of Islam and strives to create a “truly Islamic state”. At the end of the process, a federal, Islamic world empire should be under the leadership of a caliph ( caliphate ). The Middle East historian Guido Steinberg, who works for the Science and Politics Foundation, identifies the ZMD as a joint project of the parts of the Syrian and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in exile in Germany.

With regard to the priority of the German legal system over religious regulations, the Central Council's websites are also viewed critically, which state that Muslims are only bound to comply with the legal norms of a non-Islamic constitutional state in which they reside, "as long as they are not are contrary to Islam ”.

Member organizations of the Central Council

(Stand 2013)

  1. Federal Association for Islamic Activities eV, Aachen
  2. German - Islamic Association (DIV - Rhein-Main)
  3. German Muslim League Bonn eV (DMLBonn)
  4. German Muslim League eV
  5. Free Association of Muslims FVM eV
  6. Haqqani Trust - Association for New German Muslims V. / Ottoman hostel, Kall
  7. House of Islam eV (HDI), Lützelbach
  8. Islamic Working Group for Social and Educational Professions (IASE)
  9. Islamic Community Saarland e. V. (IGS), Saarbrücken
  10. Islamic Community Braunschweig eV (IGB)
  11. Islamic Community in Germany eV (IGD), Munich, currently (2019) German Muslim Community , DMG
  12. Islamic Community in Hamburg eV (IGH)
  13. Islamisches Bildungswerk eV, Duisburg
  14. Islamic Center Aachen eV (IZA)
  15. Islamic Center Dresden eV
  16. Islamic Center Hamburg eV (IZH)
  17. Islamic Center Munich eV (IZM)
  18. Muslim Student Association in Germany eV (MSV), Cologne
  19. Union of Islamic Albanian Centers in Germany (UIAZD)
  20. Union of Turkish-Islamic Cultural Associations in Europe (ATIB), Cologne
  21. Union des Musulmans Togolais en Allemagne eV (UMTA)
  22. Association of Islamic Communities NRW eV (VIG NRW)

Associate members:

  1. German-Islamic Mosque Foundation Düsseldorf (DIMS)
  2. Islamic community of Bosniaks in Germany
  3. Council of Imams and Scholars in Germany (RIGD), Frankfurt a. M.
  4. Deaf-Islam e. V.
  5. Islamic Community in Erlangen e. V. (IGE)
  6. Stuttgarter Moscheeverein e. V.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Central Council of Muslims in Germany eV District Court Cologne, association register number 12030. Association statutes of March 26, 1995
  2. ↑ a b statutes ( memento of September 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) of the ZMD
  3. ↑ Nora Schareika: Who speaks for the Muslims in Germany? n-tv.de from January 13, 2015, accessed on March 30, 2017.
  4. ↑ Nurhan Soykan, deputy chairwoman of the ZMD in “Your opinion - Is Islam dangerous?” WDR, May 12, 2016.
  5. ^ Rita Breuer : The Muslim Brotherhood in Germany | bpb. Federal Agency for Civic Education, May 2, 2019, accessed on May 21, 2019 .
  6. ↑ islam.de on December 10, 2011
  7. ^ ZMD Board of Directors at centralrat.de
  8. ↑ Zentralrat.de / ZMD regional associations / ZMD regional associations. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Self-presentation of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany
  10. ↑ Press report of the Frankfurter Rundschau , November 9, 2017
  11. ↑ Andreas Blätte: immigrant associations in the migration and integration policy from 1998 to 2006. Springer-Verlag, 2014, p. 130. ISBN 3-531-93105-9
  12. ^ German Bishops' Conference: Christians and Muslims in Germany . Arbeitshilfen 172, 2002, p. 50.
  13. ↑ Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) relocates to Cologne , ZMD press release, June 30, 2006
  14. ↑ What we perceive in many politicians in this country is not certainty of belief, but self-righteousness and self-love , Die Welt -Interview with Ayyub Köhler, Zentralrat.de, August 27, 2006
  15. ↑ “Islamic Charter” , cf. Item 13
  16. ^ Statement by the church office of the Evangelical Church in Germany on the "Islamic Charter" presented by the Central Council of Muslims in Germany ( Memento of April 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), January 2003
  17. ↑ Ahmad von Denffer on the Charter
  18. ↑ http://www.efg-hohenstaufenstr.de/downloads/texte/selig_sind_die_belogene.html
  19. Jump up ↑ Die Welt : Attack on Kind Islam , January 26, 2014, accessed July 23, 2015.
  20. ↑ http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/de/download-manager/_vsbericht-2013.pdf
  21. ↑ Guido Steinberg: The Muslim Brotherhood in Germany, in Barry Rubin (Ed.): The Muslim Brotherhood - The Organization and Politics of a Global Islamist Movement , New York, 2010, p. 152.
  22. ^ Arnd Diringer : Muslims in the Bundeswehr. The cross with the Sharia . Article from October 11, 2011 in the portal lto.de ( Legal Tribune Online ), accessed on September 30, 2014
  23. ^ List of members at the ZMD ( Memento from January 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )