MESOP NEW REPORT : ERDOGAN’S IMAM’S KICKED OUT IN GERMAN PRISONS

Dortmund prison bans Erdoğan’s imams –  The prison administration in Dortmund, Germany banned entry for 4 imams from DİTİB who “provided religious services for Muslim convicts”.

ANF DORTMUND Sunday, 6 Aug 2017, 13:30  – Despite the espionage investigations against the Religious Affairs Turkish-Islamic Union (Diyanet İşleri Türk- İslam Birliği – DİTİB), one of the most prominent institutions of the AKP regime in Germany, many prison imams are still appointed by them.The federal government is yet to issue a decree on banning Erdoğan’s imams, but individual states have since stopped allowing these imams into prisons. The Lübecker Hof prison in Dortmund, one of the biggest in North Rhine-Westphalia, has decided out of their own initiative to revoke access for the 4 DİTİB imams.

THEY COULDN’T SAY THEY HAD NO RELATIONS TO RADICAL ORGANIZATIONS

According to Dortmund’s local media, the 4 DİTİB imams in question refused to participate in the security inquiry the prison administration wanted to run. The administration then announced they severed all ties with the imams. As it was a very quick decision, regular Friday prayers last week could not be performed as there were no imams.

The prison administration demanded all four Turkish imams sign a document that states they have no ties with radical organizations or individuals, and the imams refused to do so. Prison administration stated that it is a routine procedure and encompasses all persons employed within the prison.DİTİB’s efforts are concentrated in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s largest state with the biggest immigrant population. It had recently come to light that 12 DİTİB imams were still working in the state’s prisons. By early July, Rheinland Pfalz State Minister of Justice Herbert Metin from the FDP had opposed DİTİB imams visiting arrestees and convicts in prisons.

IMAMS TURNED OUT TO BE ISIS MEMBERS IN SWITZERLAND

A similar scandal had taken place in Switzerland recently. It had come to light that the imams appointed to prisons to provide religious services for Muslim convicts were hired without any vetting by the state.The imams turned out to be involved with radical religious groups, which led to the Swiss authorities leaping into action, while expert on Islam Saïda Keller-Messahli had pointed out the situation of two imams stationed in a prison in Zurich. According to Messahli’s research, one of the two was a Macedonian imam named Nebi Rexebi and the other Bilal Yıldız, a Turkish imam with ties to Turkish intelligence agency MİT. The Macedonian imam Nebi Rexebi is reportedly the leader of a Salafist group.