The German interior ministry has cracked down on allegedly Islamist organisations operating within the country.
Today, the ministry announced it had banned the organisation Muslim Interaktiv, effective immediately, and would seize its property.
On the same day, German police searched seven premises associated with Muslim Interaktiv in the northern city of Hamburg.
The police also raided 12 other properties in connection with two other organisations, Generation Islam and Realität Islam, in Berlin and Hesse. Investigation proceedings against both associations are ongoing.
The ministry wrote today that Muslim Interaktiv’s purpose and activities were “directed against the constitutional order and the idea of international understanding”.
It said the organisation would reject the principles of democracy. The ministry said it was promoting Islam as the single model for society and ignored human rights, especially the equality of the sexes and the freedom of sexual orientation and identity.
It added that Muslim Interaktiv was acting against the constitutional order “in a combative and aggressive manner and was using use social media to indoctrinate large groups of people”.
Interior minister Alexander Dobrindt (Christian Social Union, CSU) said: “We will respond with the full force of the law to anyone who aggressively demands the caliphate on our streets, incites hatred against the State of Israel and Jews in an intolerable manner and despises the rights of women and minorities.
“We will not allow organisations such as Muslim Interaktiv to undermine our free society with their hatred, despise our democracy and attack our country from within.”
Andy Grote, Hamburg’s city councillor for the interior, said the ban was “a strike against modern TikTok Islamism” – alluding to the widespread use of Chinese social media app TikTok by Islamist organisations to spread their ideology.
Germany’s Constitutional Protection Office (BfV) has had its sights on the three Muslim organisations for a while.
In its 2024 Annual Report, the agency wrote that Muslim Interaktiv was “enticing youths with its pop culture style and professional social media presence”.
The Constitution watchdogs also noted that the group was behind a couple of anti-Israel protests in Germany for which it managed to mobilise more than 1,000 participants.
Despite their Islamist tendencies, the three organisations are not officially seen as part of the Jihadist spectrum, in the sense that they do not rely on violence and terrorism to further their political goals.
