Once again, DITIB board members are attracting attention with anti-Semitic and unconstitutional Facebook postings. The national association regrets the comments and distances itself.
It is the comments of individuals. But the Facebook postings by board members of the DITIB mosques in Osnabrück, Hildesheim and Hanover raise questions. Researchers from the Göttingen Institute for Democracy Research found the posts in random samples on social networks.
DITIB is an abbreviation for “Diyanet İşleri Türk İslam Birliği”, in German translated: “Türkisch-Islamische Union der Anstalt für Religion”. The largest Islamic umbrella organisation nationwide is based in Cologne and includes around 900 mosque congregations. According to DITIB, its aim is to give Muslims a place to practise their faith and to contribute to integration. In addition to community centres, the association organises educational, sports and cultural programmes. However, there is repeated criticism that DITIB is subordinate to the Turkish religious authority and is too close to the Turkish state and President Erdogan’s ruling AKP.
Political scientist Marvin Hild evaluated the publicly accessible profiles for his research. In total, there were 34 user accounts that are or were visible to everyone. These were private accounts of men who, according to the websites of the DITIB communities, belong to the extended executive boards. Political scientist Hild explains: “We looked in particular for Islamist-antidemocratic statements, clearly anti-Semitic statements and those that can be attributed to Turkish right-wing extremism. The researcher found six profiles.
According to the researchers, a DITIB board member from Hanover commented on a video at the end of July 2014 during the Gaza war saying: “You cursed Israelis (…) I curse you and Hitler for not wiping you out”.
“This is anti-Semitism of an eliminatory nature,” says political scientist Lino Klevesath, who accompanied the research. He means anti-Semitism that justifies the murder of Jews. The researchers also found anti-democratic postings. Accordingly, a board member from Hildesheim demands in a Turkish-language posting that Allah should have “unconditional” sovereignty in the state. “The posting is incompatible with a democratic polity,” says democracy researcher Klevesath. Translations and screenshots are available to broadcaster NDR. When asked by NDR, the DITIB board member said: “I did not mean to do that” – the man from Hildesheim did not want to comment further.
The DITIB regional association in Lower Saxony also finds the postings problematic. Managing Director Emine Oĝuz tells NDR “that these posts neither reflect the attitude of DITIB nor are they justifiable for us as a regional association or mosque associations”. She points out that these are only “a handful of examples” – out of more than 2,000 volunteers who are actively involved in a total of 81 communities in Lower Saxony. Far more people attend the DITIB mosques. Emine Oĝuz also refers to new guidelines and regulations for board representatives, for example on the “common basis of values” and “political neutrality”.
“The problematic posts are just a small number,” says researcher Lino Klevesath, but in his opinion they are of serious quality: “The local mosque communities also need to be aware of the problem,” demands Klevesath. Such postings must be noticed and discussed within the community boards. “It is certainly understandable that a national association cannot view the postings of all its members,” says Klevesath. “But it also shows that awareness of the problem has obviously not reached the grassroots.” Anti-Semitism must be addressed there.
The trigger for the researchers’ random checks was the case of Mustafa Keskin, the former DITIB mosque chairman in Göttingen. There, too, it was about anti-Semitic content on social networks. Keskin has therefore been charged before the Göttingen District Court.