Raed Saleh, the powerful German Social Democratic Party (SPD) puppet master, is repeatedly seen in the company of figures from the Islamist and Palestinian extremist spectrums. When questioned about this, he refers to it as an “absurd campaign”.
Raed Saleh is one of the most powerful officials and powerbrokers in the Berlin SPD. He has led the Social Democrats’ parliamentary group in the House of Representatives for 15 years now – an exceptionally long time by the capital’s standards. The SPD has been part of the governing coalition throughout that period. Many careers, personnel decisions and power dynamics within the state party are linked to the 49-year-old.
Saleh, who arrived in Germany with his parents from a village in the West Bank at the age of five and describes himself as a ‘working-class child’, credibly champions traditional SPD causes such as education, social mobility and housing. Within the party, he is regarded as a bridge-builder to many migrant communities in Berlin. Critics, however, accuse him of personalising power to a great extent and consistently using networks to secure his own position.
An investigation by the German newspaper WELT AM SONNTAG and Focus Online now reveals that Saleh has repeatedly been seen in the company of influential figures from both the Islamist and Palestinian extremist spectrums – over a long period of time and on multiple occasions with the same individuals. One notable connection, for example, is with the Berlin imam Ferid Heider. Heider is chairman of the Teiba Cultural Centre, a mosque in Berlin-Spandau. He also teaches Islamic studies at the Islamic Cultural and Educational Centre (IKEZ) and at the Intercultural Centre for Dialogue and Education.
Heider and Saleh had already met back in 2015, and in 2016 they posed for photos together. At the time, all three of the organisations mentioned were linked in the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s report to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to establish a theocracy based on Sharia law. According to the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s report for 2017, the IKEZ was regarded as the “Berlin meeting place for Hamas supporters”. The organisations are no longer listed.
Heider studied Sharia law at the European Institute for the Humanities (IESH) in France, which security authorities regard as a training ground for the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2020, the imam was appointed to the Fatwa Committee of Germany, which is dominated by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The documented contacts between Saleh and Heider are not coincidental encounters. As recently as March this year, for example, there was a joint Instagram post by Saleh featuring the account of Heider’s Teiba Mosque. “I joined in the prayers here in Spandau, my home district,” says the SPD parliamentary group leader in the clip. “I wish everyone peaceful coexistence.”
A spokesperson for Saleh, the former Berlin SPD MP Torsten Schneider, simply told WELT AM SONNTAG: “It is confirmed that, on the occasion of the breaking of the fast, Mr Saleh engaged in conversation with members of the public outside various mosques in Berlin, the city of freedom and diversity, and intends to continue doing so in future.” He left unanswered the question of how Saleh viewed the accusation that he was supporting the activities of individuals with links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Security authorities do not accuse Saleh himself of any extremist activities. However, numerous photos from the Arabic-language website of the Berlin-based activist Abed Khattar also raise questions about how radical Israel-haters are dealt with. According to German newspaper Bild, security circles consider Khattar to be part of the circle associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Khattar features at least seven photographs on his website showing him alongside Saleh on various occasions over several years.
Khattar himself appears on the site on several occasions standing next to PFLP flags and with an official from the Islamist group Hezbollah. The PFLP is a secular, far-left terrorist organisation that collaborates with Islamist organisations such as Hamas in the fight against Israel.
SPD politician Saleh is pictured alongside numerous other people on Khattar’s website, which reports on Arab and Muslim events in Berlin. Among them is Mohamad B., treasurer of a Berlin-based association of the Lebanese Amal Movement, who appears in several photographs. The Shia movement is regarded as secular, but is allied with the Islamists of Hezbollah, including in the fight against Israel. Both groups regard the Islamist regime in Iran as a friend. B. was a speaker at a memorial service for a Hezbollah spiritual leader who died in 2010. The photos showing Saleh and B. together date from 2012, 2016 and 2019.
In 2019, Saleh also took part in an event organised by the aid organisation Islamic Relief; afterwards, he posted about its “impressive” work and expressed his gratitude. Five months earlier, the German government had reported that the organisation had “significant personnel links to the Muslim Brotherhood or organisations affiliated with it”.
Saleh rejects the impression that he has close ties to extremist groups. Regarding the photographs documented by the anti-Israel activist Khattar, his spokesperson says that the parliamentary group leader has no contact with the individuals mentioned “beyond the exchange of the usual small talk at such events”. A “fabricated, absurd campaign” is being waged against Saleh. Numerous public figures have appeared in photographs taken on the fringes of public events. “The question of one’s stance towards various groups is regarded here as insinuating and defamatory.”