In February, the state of Berlin became the first federal state to appoint an expert commission on the topic of Muslim hostility. In principle, it is a good idea to deal with the various virulent forms of discrimination and hatred. However, the justice administration, which is mainly responsible for the committee, and the Commissioner for Integration of the Berlin Senate made a serious mistake in appointing the committee.
The Islam Forum of the Integration Commissioner has also appointed Mohamad Hajjaj, managing director of the Islamic association Inssan as well as state chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Berlin, to the committee.
Research by the newspaper WELT showed that Hajjaj was and is a functionary in several organisations that are considered to be Islamist. For example, he is the deputy chairman of the Teiba Cultural Centre, which is accused by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood, and according to WELT information, he was a representative of the Palestinian Community in Germany (PGD), which according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is close to Hamas. Hajjaj denies the connection to the PGD, from whose email account he authorised an interview in which he is quoted as a PGD functionary.
On the Facebook page of the Teiba Cultural Centre, for example, there is a disturbing photo of Hajjaj posing with a group of children, all of the young girls wearing a tightly tied headscarf. Also to protest against such massive discrimination against Muslim girls, the only correct reaction to these investigations would have been to kick Hajjaj out of the commission and to withdraw the lavish financial support from his association Inssan.
The Berlin senate, however, acts differently: The senator of justice and the Green parliamentary group say that it was important to include representatives of Muslim associations. It is therefore correct that the Islam Forum itself has appointed members for the commission – as if there are no Muslim associations that are not involved in Islamism.
The integration commissioner does not like to confirm that Hajjaj is active in associations that are assessed as Islamist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. She apparently wants to excuse herself by saying that the last mention in the reports was a few years ago.
This reaction is pathetic. The Greens and the Social Democrats prefer to remain in a mixture of naivety and false tolerance in order not to play into the hands of right-wing Muslim haters. They do not realise that they are doing this by elevating Islamists to representative offices.
Many citizens of Berlin with a migration background from Muslim-majority countries, who left-wing and right-wing identitarians gladly declare collectively to be Muslims,might shake their heads at the fact that the red-red-green state government declares functionaries of political Islam to be their representatives.