In November 2019, the municipality of Göttingen signed the “joint declaration for peace and mutual respect and against anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia and racism” with representatives of the religious communities. It says: “There is no place for slurs here. We see diversity as an opportunity and call for a respectful and open approach to the social debate on religious and cultural plurality.Mustafa Keskin, long-time chairman of the Ditib community in Göttingen, also signed this declaration. According to its own statements, the German-Turkish mosque association Ditib has more than 900 members.Postings that Keskin published on Facebook and WhatsApp from 2013 to 2021 show a different picture of the honorary Islamic association official. The posts contain, among other things, a positive reference to the far-right assassin of the Pope in 1981, conspiracy myths as well as hatemongering messages against Jews and Armenians.
For example, one of Keskin’s postings from May 2015 shows Pope Francis and the Turkish right-wing extremist Mehmet Ali Agca, who seriously injured John Paul II in an assassination attempt in 1981.
Because Francis acknowledges the Armenian genocide as a historical reality, he should not be surprised if he is shot in the head, says the post, which, like the other posts, was published in Turkish.Other posts from May 2015 say “Jerusalem belongs to Muslims” and “Armenian bastard dogs”. In addition, Keskin posted a photo of an Israeli soldier, with a child raising his hand in front of him.”He opposes the Jewish dog, saying: your Zionism will be surprised when I strike you down with an Ottoman slap,” Keskin wrote about it at the time.
The same month, he posted a meme featuring Turkish President Erdogan and former Israeli President Shimon Peres. “The first since Sultan Abdülhamid to stand up to the cursed Jew, the powerful voice of the silent Ummah: Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” it read. A picture from 2014 shows a weapon composed of the map of Israel stabbing the torso of a child.
At the time, a Beretta pistol with ammunition also appeared on his Facebook profile picture.
In January 2021, Keskin posted a photo on WhatsApp referring to former US President Donald Trump as an “old puppet”, his successor Joe Biden as a “new puppet” and investment banker Jacob Rothschild as a “puppet master”. The Rothschild family functions in anti-Semitic conspiracy myths as a placeholder for “the Jews”, who are hallucinated as powerful and dominating world politics.Christoph de Vries ( Christian Democratic Union, CDU), rapporteur for religious communities of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, calls Mustafa Keskin “the typical face of political Islamism”. With him, the Janus-facedness can be witnessed, which is already known among Ditib representatives in other cases. “Outwardly appearing liberal and tolerant and committed to inter-religious dialogue, inwardly acting in a grossly anti-Semitic, nationalistic and intolerant manner,” said de Vries. The case shows once again that with regard to Ditib, the highest level of vigilance and restraint in state and civil society cooperation is required.