[The German Islamic "Milli Goerues" have shown themselves to be
brothers in spirit with the Scientologists in the past.]
The political elite seek dialogue with the Milli Goerues, but
critical journalists are being intimidated by the Islamic
association.
Flirting with the Islamists
Berlin, Germany
by Eberhard Seidel
The professor bowed deeply to his former opponents. Three
years ago, Udo Steinbach, Director of the German Oriental
Institute in Hamburg was warning of the dangers emanating
from the Islamist groups in Germany. Now his motto is, "There
is a new openness in dialogue. And the anti-Semitic duct in
many publications has been deactivated.
It was a conciliatory start to the meeting of the Friedrich Ebert
Foundation entitled, "Fellow citizens of the Moslem Faith: the
neglected minority," which took place on Thursday in Berlin.
Steinbach even made a good witness for the Milli Goerues, the
most influential organization of political Islam in Germany. He
appears to have forgotten that the Milli Goerues systematically
lied to the German public for years - about their organizational
structure, their ideology, their sources of finance, their
connections to Scientology and their dependency upon Turkish
Islamic leader Necmettin Erbakan.
"What is wrong with Steinbach?" puzzled Hasan Oezdogan
during the coffee break. The Chairman of the Islamic Council
of Germany, which is an umbrella organization dominated by
the Milli Goerues, was not expecting an answer. He knows
that it is no longer the Milli Goerues, but their critics, who are
running against the wind.
During the meeting on Thursday, the moderator tried to play
down criticism by Cologne journalist Ahmet Senyurt for the
Milli Goerues as an irrelevant private discussion. Senyurt's
"private war": he revealed the years of cooperation between
the Milli Guerues and Scientology, reported on the money
transfers for the Moslem rebels in the Chechnian war, and, in
recent times, has been devoting himself to the billion dollar
financial and commercial empire which the Islamists have been
building up in Germany and Turkey.
Hasan Oezdogan had the upper hand. During the podium
discussion, he denounced Senyurt as a "bad journalist" who
"reported falsely" and "slandered" the Milli Goerues. A
superfluous attack. Because the critical public had lost interest
in information of that sort. Instead of that it flirts with
high-ranking Milli Goerues functionaries. All at the head of the
Heinrich-Boell Foundation, which is aligned with the Greens.
False Pluralism labeling
Since the beginning of the year, the foundation has been
advertising with a series of events for more tolerance for the
Moslem minority. In doing that, organizer Thomas Hartmann
also increasingly supports the Milli Goerues. The speakers,
however, are announced as representatives of the Islam
College of Berlin, the Islamic Basic School of Berlin, the
Center for Islamic Women's Research and Promotion of
Cologne or the Institute for International Academics and
Didactics of Cologne. The apparent pluralism is false labeling.
They are all organizations of Milli Goerues, which are centrally
directed from their Cologne headquarters.
Politician also seek proximity to the Milli Guerues. Berlin
Foreign Commissioner Barbara John (CDU), for example.
When she presented the booklet on "Mosques and Islamic Life
in Berlin" last year, there was a lively discussion. Reason: the
role of political Islam in Berlin was said to have been
de-emphasized. No big surprise. The sponsor of the work was
Muesiad, a business association dominated by Islamists who
the Milli Goerues would like to assimilate. John's justification,
"We would be getting into a disastrous discussion if the attempt
were made to declare them to be lepers."
The new openness is astonishing. Because neither the liberal
Christian Democrat John, the Heinrich-Boell Foundation nor
the Evangelical Academy in Loccum bothers to carry out a
dialogue with the Deutschen Volksunion (DVU). The DVU
and Milli Goerues have much in common - they do not call for
the use of violence, but they split society with ideologies of
inequality, have a conspirative and undemocratic management
and organizational structure and non-transparent sources of
finance. They also share a virulent Anti-semitism. There are,
however, two differences: the Milli Goerues are more
successful. And the DVU has met with determined resistance
from civilian society.
Also the foreign political spokesman for the CDU
parliamentary faction, Karl Lamers, no longer finds anything to
reproach the Milli Goerues about. In 1999 he participated in
their annual gathering at the Muengersdorfer Stadium in
Cologne. Lamers criticized the image which German agencies
have of the Milli Goerues, "It is strongly influenced by the
picture which the Kemalist forces in Turkey have of the Milli
Goerues. One will not progress with that."
How should one regard the Milli Goerues? They were founded
by Necmettin Erbakan in 1976 in Germany. Today he still
determines the politics of the organization. He wants to replace
the system in Turkey with one based on the Koran and Sharia.
This is not demanded in Germany as long as they are in the
minority.
Who determines the rules of play
The politics of the Milli Goerues are being implemented in
Europe by means of hundreds of mosque, women's, youth and
student associations. Many of these associations belie their
dependency upon Milli Goerues. The Islamic Federation in
Berlin, for example, which recently has been acknowledged as
a religious community. That federation has credibly assured the
officials, at least, that it has nothing to do with Milli Goerues. In
one of the internal Milli Goerues documents which is available
to taz [this newspaper] it says, in contrast, that the "Islamic
Federation," which is in nearly all German states, belongs to the
Milli Guerues.
What does an organization which lies so consistently have to
hide? The German public has lost any interest in getting an
answer. In the meantime, the Milli Goerues determine the rules
of play. One example: on September 30, 1999, the Islamic
Council, dominated by the Milli Goerues, arranged a podium
discussion in the Willy-Brandt building, the SPD center in
Berlin. Those invited included Theo Sommer, co-publisher of
"Zeit," Edzard Reuter, Peter Scholl-Latour and Michel
Friedman from the Central Council of the Jews. Two Berlin
journalists, Claudia Dantschke and Ali Yildirim, were denied
entrance to the meeting by Milli Goerues ushers.
The reason: they had published material from a person who had left the
Milli Goerues which proved that the Milli Goerues and their
cover companies deceive the public and which showed the
tricks by which Milli Goerues intend to infiltrate the CDU
district group in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Hasan Oezdogan told the
taz: "These two journalists are regarded as instigators,
slanderers and active opponents of Islam who practice yellow
journalism." Oezdogan described correspondent Yildirim as a
"former communist and a radical, apostate Alevite with a great
desire to exact revenge upon Moslems." Communist, opponent
of Islam, apostate Alevite - translated from the language of the
Islamists, that means that any means is permitted in taking
action against this man. Nobody took the side of the two
journalists. Michel Friedman (CDU) praised the event as an
"attempt at the conversational principle of respect."
Where does the sudden favoritism for Milli Goerues come
from? The answer is clear to Ahmet Senyurt, "the Milli
Guerues have influence in the ghetto. And whoever has this
influence can win the politicians over." Many politicians are
aware of the explosive situation which lies in portions of the
city like Berlin-Kreuzberg, where more than thirty percent of
the immigrants are unemployed. Milli Goerues offer help. "We
bring the young people away from drugs and violence," goes
their offer. "If it weren't for us, it would be much less peaceful
in Berlin-Kreuzberg and Cologne-Nippes," Mehmet Sabri
Erbakan, Germany's chief of the Milli Goerues, gives food for
thought.
But things do not have to stay that way. Hasan Oezdogan
ominously added on Thursday that if the German public were
to force the Milli Goerues into a corner, that there would not
be any integration.
---
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