SHAFAQNA-
Germans should not dismiss mosque attacks by pro-Kurdish extremists as a foreign issue with no relevance to German society, the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD), the Turkish Muslim organisation DITIB, and the Islamic Council said on Thursday.
“Muslims have already been under constant threat by far-right extremists for decades anyway,” the groups were quoted by Deutsche Welle as saying . “This dangerous situation has been further heightened by foreign terrorist groups.”
The representatives called for more solidarity from German society at large and said mosques, even those directly funded by the Turkish government, were not party to national disputes.
“A mosque is a German mosque, attended by people of many different ethnicities,” ZMD Chairman Aiman Mazyek said. “Houses of God, regardless of what kind they are, need to be protected, regardless of who the attacker is – whether it’s far-right extremists, or Muslim extremists, or Turkish nationalists, or Kurdish nationalists. That’s a discussion that needs to be had, but it’s nothing to do with whether these mosques need to be protected.”
However, there was no “Turkish-Kurdish conflict being fought out in Germany,” DITIB Board Member Zekeriya Altuğ said. “The vast majority of attacks on mosques are attacks from far-right extremists.”