Far-right German party criticized over headscarf ban

BERLIN

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was accused of promoting “racist propaganda” Monday over its calls for a ban on Muslim headscarves and mosque minarets.

One of the party’s deputy leaders, Beatrix von Storch, told local media Sunday that Islam was a “political ideology which is not compatible with the constitution”.

In comments to the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, she added: “Muslims belong to Germany but Islam does not belong to Germany. We are for a ban on minarets, on muezzins and on full body veils.”

Her remarks were condemned by Christine Buchholz, a lawmaker for the opposition Left Party.

“The problem in Germany is not about minarets, headscarf or muezzins but rather it is about racism against a religious minority,” Buchholz said in a statement. “The AfD distracts attention from unjust distribution of wealth and channels social discontent to racist propaganda.”

In proposals to be adopted at its April 30 party congress, the AfD calls for a “general ban of full concealment by the burka and niqab in public and in the civil service” as well as a bar on headscarves in schools “because the headscarf is a symbol of the religious-political character of Islam relating to the subordination of Muslim women under men”.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman would not comment on the AfD’s program at a news conference Monday but underlined government’s commitment to religious freedom.

“Chancellor Merkel has clearly stated on several occasions that that Islam has unquestionably become part of Germany in the near past,” Steffen Seibert said.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) have previously criticized the AfD for stoking fears about Islam. “The AfD is becoming more and more radicalized. Their position about Islam is demonstrating extremist views which are not compatible with our constitution,” senior CDU lawmaker Franz Josef Jung told Die Welt newspaper.

The AfD achieved record support in regional elections last month with an anti-immigration and anti-Islam platform amid growing concern in Germany over the influx of more than a million refugees last year, many of them Muslims.

Germany, which will hold a general election next year, has the second-largest Muslim population in western Europe. Among the four million Muslims in the country, three million are of Turkish origin.