In Duisburg, leaflets containing quotations from the Qur’an are currently turning up in several letterboxes. Among other things, they state that non-believers will be “punished by Allah in the fires of Hell”. The police have filed a complaint against the sender of the leaflet – because the imprint was missing.
The police confirmed this to Apollo News. The leaflet opens with the words: “Whoever is an enemy of Allah and His angels and His messengers and Gabriel and Michael, Allah is their enemy. Allah is an enemy of the unbelievers”.
In the leaflet, the author addresses unbelievers directly and warns them: “I am merely a clear warner to you: any person who denies Islam until his death and has not accepted it will be punished eternally by Allah in the fires of Hell,” the leaflet states. The Islamic God is “the true King” and there is “no god but Him, the Lord of the Noble Throne”.
As early as the summer, the same leaflet from a then-unknown sender had appeared in several districts of Duisburg, as reported by the newspaper WAZ. However, the police classified the leaflet as not constituting a criminal offence. Nevertheless, the State Security Department was informed about the leaflet at the time.
According to a spokeswoman for the Duisburg police, they have since been able to identify the sender of the leaflet. A complaint has now been lodged against the sender – on the grounds of an administrative offence. This is because the sender had not included a legal notice on the leaflet. Under North Rhine-Westphalia’s press law, all printed material that is reproduced and intended for public distribution is subject to the legal notice requirement. The complaint has been forwarded to the relevant authority in the city of Duisburg.
There are numerous mosques and Muslim organisations in Duisburg. In the 2024 European elections, the result in electoral district 1001 caused a stir nationwide. According to the results, the DAVA party – considered Islamist and close to Erdogan – secured a relative majority with 41.10 per cent of the vote. The AfD came second with 14.16 per cent, followed by the SPD with 10.96 per cent. The CDU achieved 8.68 per cent.