Mohammad Hadi Mofatteh, the ex-head of the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH), was provided an expulsion order today, 5 weeks after German authorities prohibited the company, a representative for Hamburg’s Interior Ministry claimed on Wednesday.
The order suggests the 57-year-old Shiite Muslim cleric has actually been hired to leave Germany within 2 week or be deported to his homeland– Iran– at his very own expense, she claimed.
Mofatteh is likewise prohibited to reenter Germany or invest at any time in the nation. If he were to disobey, he would certainly deal with a jail sentence of approximately 3 years.
Fears of Iranian impact
The IZH, which Mottafeh headed from 2018 till its forced closure in July, was thought about by German residential knowledge authorities to be regulated by Iran.
In enhancement, the facility advertised “an Islamist-extremist, totalitarian ideology in Germany,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser claimed in a declaration provided to warrant the relocate to shut it down.
“This Islamist ideology is opposed to human dignity, women’s rights, an independent judiciary and our democratic government,” she claimed, worrying, nevertheless, that the step was not guided versus Islam as a faith.
Her ministry claimed the IZH served as a “representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution” and spread this belief in an “aggressive and militant way.”
Mottafeh was seen by Hamburg’s branch of Germany’s residential knowledge company, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), as representing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Germany.
The outlawing of the IZH likewise consisted of the confiscation of the company’s popular “Blue Mosque,” located in an upmarket location on the coast of the port city’sOuter Alster Lake
The structure, formally called the Imam Ali Mosque, is currently under the control of the German federal government.
This write-up makes use of reporting from the dpa information company.
While you’re right here: Every Tuesday, DW editors assemble what is occurring in German national politics and culture. You can join right here for the regular e-mail e-newsletter Berlin Briefing.
