Status: 11/11/2022 8:16 PM
Traffic light factions discussed the closure of the Islamic Center in Hamburg (IZH) in the Bundestag on Wednesday, and the majority of parliament approved the proposal to close it. Hamburg wants to support the ban.
The Islamic Center of Hamburg remains an official contracting partner of the city, albeit indirectly. That must change now. The federal government was asked to “examine whether and how the Hamburg Islamic Center, as a hub of the Iranian regime’s operations in Germany, could be closed.”
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The Hamburg Interior Authority clarified that the ban procedure falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Spokesman Daniel Schaefer said Hamburg was ready to provide any support for the closure. “We assume that (…) all legal options for taking action against the IZH will be exhausted.”
Since the beginning of the recent wave of protests in Iran, the center has come under increasing pressure. The Hamburg Social Democratic Party had called for the IZH to be excluded from Schura last Friday. In October, Hamburg’s second mayor, Katharina Wegbenk (The Greens), announced that she no longer believed it would be possible for the center to participate in the city’s contracts with Muslim religious communities.
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