German far-right party says Muslims not welcome in Germany

Members of Germany’s anti-migration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Sunday backed an election manifesto that says Islam is not compatible with the country’s constitution and calls for a ban on minarets and the burqa.

In a raucous debate on the second debate of a party congress, many of the 2,000 members cheered calls from the podium for measures against “Islamic symbols of power” and jeered a plea for dialogue with Germany’s Muslims.

Germany Chanellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly underlined that freedom of religion is guaranteed by the German constitution, and that accordingly, Islam is welcome in the country. The chapter of the AfD manifesto concerning Muslims is entitled ‘Islam is not a part of Germany’. The manifesto demands a ban to minarets - the towers of a mosque from where the call to Muslim prayer is made - and the burqa, the all-encompassing body garment worn by some conservative Muslim women.

 “Islam is foreign to us and for that reason it cannot invoke the principle of religious freedom to the same degree as Christianity,” Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, an AfD politician from the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said to loud applause.

One delegate’s call for greater understanding with Muslims drew jeers and loud whistles.  “I call for a differentiation and urge everybody to visit their local Muslim communities and initiate a dialogue,” said Ernst-August Roettger, a delegate from the northern city of Lüneburg.

He was speaking in support of an amendment that called for acceptance of everybody’s religious freedom and for the party not to regard all Muslims as extremists. Delegates rejected the amendment.

Germany is home to nearly four million Muslims, about five percent of the total population. Many of the longer established Muslim community in Germany came from Turkey to find work, but those who have arrived over the past year have mostly been fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The AfD was set up three years ago and has been buoyed by Europe’s humanitarian crisis and the arrival of more than a million mostly Muslim refugees in Germany last year. The party has no presence in the federal parliament in Berlin but has members in half of Germany’s 16 regioanal state assemblies.

Opinion polls give AfD support of up to 14%, presenting a serious challenge to Angela Merkel’s conservatives and other established parties in the run-up to the 2017 federal election. Other parties have ruled out a coalition with the AfD.

Last month the head of Germany's Central Council of Muslims likened the AfD's attitude towards his community to that of Adolf Hitler's Nazis towards the Jews.

Although the AfD aimed to broaden its political agenda during the congress, members hardly debated on domestic issues, such as taxation and social welfare.