Bodo Ramelow goes slowly into the knee, as the screaming begins again. “You should be ashamed of”, blaring it from the speakers from the other side of the street, “you don’t know-it-all and idiot over there!” The Left-politician does not respond, deliberately, he places a red brick to a painted old rectangle.
A striking Sunny November day in a striking desolate industrial area in the Erfurter the North. In the suburb of Marbach, the Thuringian Prime Minister lays the Foundation stone for a mosque – for a very special: For the first Time will be built in one of the new länder, a Muslim house of worship.
The resistance is huge. The administrative court in Weimar had decided that the opponents of the project allowed to demonstrate on this day, directly in front of the property – with a loudspeaker van, with Transparent, with great attention.
It is very much, for all Involved. The one that the Muslims of the Ahmadiyya community, wanting to leave after a long planning finally the turmoil and resistance. The others, including groups called “Erfurt shows face” and “Pax Europe”, want to continue their resistance, after years of Protest.
If the Plan of a rising, is within a year of Thuringia, the first mosque-building with prayer rooms, an apartment for the Imam, an illuminated glass dome and an eight-metre-high minaret. If the Plan of the other works, these plans for as long as possible, only plans.
fear for a night land
While the Islam enemies, guarded by a dozen police officers, in crude insults and bold theses endure. commit the Muslims this special day with a rather inconspicuous, quiet Celebration You might think: The a’s take their right to freedom of expression is true, the other their right to freedom of religion.
If it would be just as easy. The first construction of a mosque in one of the new länder is the mosque’s opponents as a beacon of an alleged Invasion of Islam. You believe them, is in the Marbach commercial area to the West is in danger. nahge
it is Unclear, however, how Erfurt, is calculated from this barren patch of earth from Islami magnetized. Already normal community work is reaching its limits here: The site is located in a commercial area in the North-West no-man’s land in the state capital, halfway between the University campus and the remote Marbach.
here Would call soon, a Muezzin, his believers, his reputation was good enough only up to the nearby car repair shop, or the danger protection center on the other side of the street. It should therefore be noticed that the least citizens anything at all from the municipality of life. Apart from that, here are no Muezzin: The minaret serves only for ornament, is a mere Symbol.
the fear of The Islam’s opponent, however, is real. In the past, the Protest was appropriately tasteless: some of them were large wooden crosses next to the building plot, a spitted pig’s head with blood and paws. Once disguised, the protesters marched through the district, and at other times staged a right-wing extremist in the city centre, a mock execution in the style of Islamist terrorists.
Other Erfurt, between the mosque site and the Islam enemies
also, to remain of such scenes reasonably spared, instead of the actual ceremony in a marquee, out of sight of the demonstrators. The mayor came, representatives of all parliamentary groups except for the AfD, the emissaries of the great Christian churches and the Jewish community. Alone, the number of prominent visitors is a Signal to the protesters on the other side of the street.
“The basic law applies to all”
As one of the first occurs Ramelow to the microphone. “I have nothing against freedom of expression,” he says, “but I value the Betgaranti fact that the basic law applies to all of us.” It does not go to the Islam. But freedom of religion.
Ramelow avoids it, not to mention political actors directly – but he is likely to think much of what he says in the AfD under the ultra-right-land-in-chief Björn Höcke. The party interfered in the matter and made the mood against Islam. It was a hectic public meetings and city Council were meetings, however, was issued in January, the approval for the 650,000 Euro expensive construction funded by donations.
This success story, Abdullah Uwe Wagishauser highlights, the Federal Chairman of the Ahmadiyya community. The Muslim group sees itself as a liberal reform movement within Islam, which probably has to do with their history: In many Muslim countries, the faithful are persecuted in this flow, many followers fled in all the world – to Europe. In Germany, Ahmadiyya has about 45,000 members, in Thuringia, there are a few dozen.
Bass against the hate
Wagishauser, type a retired English teacher, is political in his speech. He was proud of what they have Achieved, he says, “may it please the demagogues and Stalkers, or not.” Mosque buildings are “no land acquisition projects, as Mr Höcke claimed again and again”. Wagishausers voice is shaking now, literally, as would resonate all the Stress of the past few years. It is simply a matter, he says, to build a worthy place to Pray.
Wagishauser indignant about “self-experts on Islam”, a supposed “clash of civilizations” and a “hate spiral that is flat against all of the dissidents called.” Even while he speaks, the opposing side, out loud. More and more frequently, entire sentences of the Islam opponents are now in the festival tent to understand. Sentences like this: “friends, we are Healthy!”
Then another group turns up the volume control: Left protesters, the signs have been formed with “without hatred”-a kind of human shield in front of the mosque grounds. Her Motto: “love of rock – freedom of religion is law”. The group has brought a music system, and insulates well with loud bass, the acoustic range of the other side.
A high-yield Dialog. How to live the faithful in the Erfurter the North and your new neighbors together in the future, how great is the risk of further conflict or escalation of the situation? Wagishauser, is optimistic: Everywhere, where in the past, Ahmadiyya mosques were incurred, and gave it after some time, a peaceful coexistence.
The man is allowed to hope.
Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Germany, The Ahmadiyya-Muslim-Jamaat-community (AMJ) has members in Germany, according to their own information around 45,000 and within the different Muslim groups have a prominent Position: As the first municipality of the Ahmadiyyas have been given the Status of a Corporation under public Law, awarded in 2013 in the state of Hesse, and later in Hamburg. This means that the Ahmadiyyas are provided so that the Christian churches are legally equal and, for example, teaching of Islam in primary schools and their members may collect taxes. The Ahmadiyyas have their origin in India, many of their followers in Germany originate from Pakistan. There, as in other Muslim countries, are supporters of the community suppressed and not as Muslims recognized. The Ahmadiyyas are considered to be peaceful, but conservative.
