Time and again – not only in Corona times – some cities and municipalities allow mosque congregations the call of the muezzin. In contrast to church bells, which actually only want to “call” for worship or invite people to pray the “Hail Mary”, the muezzin call “Allahu akhbar” has a political-religious dimension. “Allah is the Most Great” “There is no God but Allah.” – Wherever his call resounds, the doctrine of his prophet rules.
Since most German politicians are – if at all – Christians in name only and do not take their religion seriously, they often cannot imagine that the call of the muezzin has any meaning beyond the call to prayer. They do not “fight” for Christianity to remain firmly anchored in the minds of the citizens in our country and therefore it is beyond their imagination that people of other religions might have other demands with regard to their faith.
In Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia, 39-year-old Marcel Bauersfeld – “armed with a lid, a wooden spoon and a cowbell” – demonstrated for a long period of time in the summer of 2020 against the permission to call the muezzin in front of the mosque in Herford and tried to drown out the muezzin’s call. The police arrested him several times for this. The police were particularly disturbed by the fact that many onlookers were of the same opinion and that there were subsequently several “copycat offenders”.
Now the public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against Bauersfeld. He is accused of incitement of the people, disturbing the practice of religion and resisting state authority. While many state officials secretly applaud when women from Maria 2.0 call for a church strike to prevent worshippers from entering the church and loudly protest outside during the liturgy, the judiciary shows no mercy when Islam, which has become part of Germany, is involved.
The Bielefeld public prosecutor’s office is appalled by the Islamophobic attraction that resulted from the perpetrator: “The prosecution assumes that he deliberately wanted to disrupt religious worship with his behaviour. In doing so, he was intent on inducing other citizens who shared his attitudes to commit similarly hostile acts against the gathered Muslims.”
In addition, the actions had violated the Corona Protection Ordinance. In Germany, of course, this does not constitute a misdemeanour or even a criminal offence only in the case of clan funerals, anti-Israeli demos and BLM kneeling actions. Bauersfeld and his co-defendants now face up to five years in prison. This time, however, the judges will presumably let mercy go before justice and pronounce a sentence in the range of probation. After all, Islam is mercy. Of course, the German judiciary will also want to provide a lenient warning.