The Berlin Film Festival causes a scandal.
The Berlin “Soura Film Festival” intends to create a so-called safe space for homosexuals, women and migrants – but tricked a gay Muslim into staying away. Worse: His association was denigrated at the festival.
Apparent reason: Tugay Saraç (24) works for the women’s rights activist Seyran Ateş (58), who campaigns against Islamism.
The film festival was to show the documentary “Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution and Islam” on Friday evening, which features the establishment of the Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque founded by Ateş.
The mosque is one of the first in the world where men and women can pray side by side, where headscarves are not compulsory and where homosexuals and queers are welcome. Saraç was supposed to discuss the film and liberal Islam with the audience afterwards.
But it came to nothing.
Because: The student was warned by quasi-invitation that there were “complaints” and “threats” against him and Ateş’ organisation (correspondence is in the possession of the tabloid BILD).
Since Ateş is regularly under police protection because of hostility from Islamists, the student assumed that his safety was at risk – and cancelled his participation.
But that was not true.
The background was different. Only when asked did an employee of the festival admit that the threats had not been made by Islamists, but by sponsors of the cultural centre Oyoun, where the festival takes place. They were afraid that Oyoun would lose its sponsors if Saraç came on stage, they said.
Explosive: The Oyoun is an institution of the Berlin Senate and was supported with 940,000 euros in 2021. The Soura Film Festival was publicly funded with 42,000 euros for 2021 and 2022.
But that is not all.
While Saraç was led to believe that he was being threatened by Islamists, the festival organisers read out a statement before the film screening in which the organisers defamed the feminist Seyran Ateş as “Islamophobic”.
Spectator Nico W. was sitting in the audience on the evening in question and tells BILD: “A woman came on stage before the screening and read out a written statement on behalf of the cultural organisation Oyoun and the festival. They were in solidarity with the fight for the rights of women and LGBTQs within Islam, but wanted to distance themselves from the Islamophobic views of Seyran Ateş and not give her a platform. That is why they cancelled the discussion with Tugay Saraç.”
The documentary “Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution and Islam” was nevertheless shown at the festival. Not only that: on social media, the organisers even boasted that the screening was sold out.
Tugay Saraç is appalled by the incidents. When asked by BILD, he said: “We were kept away from the festival just so that Oyoun and the Soura Film Fest could drag our names through the mud undisturbed. This is not how critical and controversial debate works in a democratic society. With the accusation of ‘Islamophobia’ made in the statement, the organisers are expelling us from Islam, just as radicals do. As Muslims, we do not accept that.”
When asked by BILD, Oyoun said that there had been no threats. The cultural institution did not want to comment on the questionable treatment of the young Muslim. Instead, the cultural institution refers to a statement published by the festival and Oyoun on Monday.It said it regretted “that it ultimately came to the screening of the film” because it did not want to “serve as a mouthpiece for a one-sided portrayal”. The statement calling Ateş “Islamophobic” was necessary to “contextualise” the screening and distance themselves from Ateş.
The liberal Muslim woman had accepted an invitation from the Austrian party FPÖ and was campaigning for a headscarf ban, which did not fit in with the organisations’ “world view of openness, democracy, freedom of belief and equality”. They are “committed to an anti-racist, intersectional and inclusive society”.
Explosive: The organisers added a list of newspaper articles and publications defaming Ateş as “Islamophobic” to the statement. Among them is a “fact sheet” from Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative. The initiative has been criticised for branding critics of Islam, academics and secular Muslims who speak out against Muslim extremism as far-right.
Ateş tells BILD: “Erdogan declared our mosque and me Gülen supporters because I gave lectures to Gülen people and accepted a award. I was declared a PKK supporter because I support the Kurdish people. The Al-Azhar Fatwa Authority has declared us non-Muslims, likewise the mullahs of the IZH have issued a press statement that we are Islamophobes. It is more than cheeky when people from a left spectrum declare me a right-wing person because of a lecture on ‘political Islam’ at the FPÖ Academy.”
Ateş: “I am a Muslim and I have the right to be critical of a dress code within my religion. I do this because I love my religion and think it is liberal and plural enough that it can stand plurality and diversity.”
The Berlin Senate did not want to comment on the cultural institution when asked by BILD because they are “fundamentally free in their programme” and “act independently”.
