Sunday, August 24, 2025
Nordic Monitor
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
Nordic Monitor
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
  • About Us

Turkey’s Diyanet, Muslim Brotherhood to woo European Muslims

January 6, 2019
A A
Turkey’s Diyanet, Muslim Brotherhood to woo European Muslims
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

 

The Turkish government’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), in cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood network in Europe, is set to woo European Muslims with a new secretariat to be set up in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

The Diyanet and its German affiliate, the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB), held a conference in the German city of Cologne Jan. 2-4, 2019 to address issues facing European Muslims. Some 100 representatives reportedly attended the three-day event, which concluded with 18-point final declaration.

A decision was taken to set up a secretariat under the Diyanet in Ankara that will oversee the meetings of European Muslims. The secretariat will also organize a major gathering of European Muslims every two years.

The event, the Second Meeting of European Muslims, was attended by Ali Erbaş, the head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate, and Hussein Mohammed Halawa, general secretary of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), a Dublin-based Muslim Brotherhood organization that serves as a channel for controversial cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Speaking at the event, Erbaş rejected such terms as moderate Islam, European Islam or French Islam and said all efforts to coin such terms would be in vain. He described the hostility against Islam as a crime against humanity and accused print, broadcast and social media of hiding behind criticism to cover up the hostility against Islam.

Turkey’s top government imam also criticized Germany and other European countries, although not by name, and said host countries’ expectation that immigrant Muslim communities would sever ties with their countries of origin was inhuman and against nature. He underlined that policies developed by host countries without the involvement of volunteer Muslim groups in Europe were doomed to fail.

“Because marginalizing civil society organizations or trying to reshape them not only amounts to an interference in religious, legal and individual freedoms but also means people will be left vulnerable and defenseless to assimilation,” he added.

Erbaş noted that it was important to monitor developments with regards to Muslims in Germany and Europe and asked for solutions to cope with the narrative and activities to smear Muslims.

The Cologne-based DİTİB is the largest Islamic umbrella group in Germany as well as in Lower Saxony and Bremen. It runs more than 900 mosques tied to the Turkish government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs, which provides imams to DİTİB mosques.

In recent years, DİTİB has been accused of acting as the long arm of the Turkish government. Some imams are alleged to have acted on the orders of Turkish diplomatic posts to spy on followers of the Gülen movement, a civic group that is critical of the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan government. The movement is led by US-based Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen.

In February 2017 German police teams raided the apartments of four DİTİB imams in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate who were suspected of acting as informants on sympathizers of the Gülen movement. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (GBA) said the imams had acted on an order issued on Sept. 20, 2016 by the Religious Affairs Directorate to spy on Gülen movement sympathizers.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said the four imams were members of DİTİB. “It is very clear that the influence of the Turkish state on DİTİB is big. The association must plausibly disengage itself from Ankara,” Maas said in a statement.

The final communiqué issued at the end of the event in Cologne described the Gülen movement as a “terrorist organization,” reflecting the Turkish government’s official line. This stands in sharp contrast to the public record that shows the movement has not been involved in any violence. In fact, the track record of the movement’s leader, Gulen, shows the cleric has been opposed for decades to any violence or manipulation of religion for political goals.

Erdoğan accused Gülen of staging corruption probes in 2013 and a failed coup in 2016. Gülen has repeatedly and strongly denied these allegations, and the Turkish government has so far failed to present any evidence to back up its claims.

 

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Borders of Turkish province stretch from Vienna to Adriatic and China, Erdoğan says

Next Post

Erdogan aide meets with al-Qaeda-linked Ali Mohammed al-Sallabi in Turkey

Nordic Monitor

Nordic Monitor

[email protected]

Next Post
Erdogan aide meets with al-Qaeda-linked Ali Mohammed al-Sallabi in Turkey

Erdogan aide meets with al-Qaeda-linked Ali Mohammed al-Sallabi in Turkey

Turkey’s richest people hide their identities as unexplained wealth, money laundering and favoritism raise alarm

Turkey’s richest people hide their identities as unexplained wealth, money laundering and favoritism raise alarm

August 22, 2025
Turkish gov’t leveraged bribes to New York mayor to undermine Erdogan’s opponents

New York watchdog puts a new spotlight on Turkey’s meddling in US elections

August 21, 2025
Erdogan uses Turkish NGOs to project power, advance political Islamist goal

Erdogan uses Turkish NGOs to project power, advance political Islamist goal

August 20, 2025
Secret report reveals Turkish police and intelligence have unrestricted access to citizens’ private data

Secret report reveals Turkish police and intelligence have unrestricted access to citizens’ private data

August 19, 2025
Former Turkish Airlines employee laundered money for US drug traffickers

Former Turkish Airlines employee laundered money for US drug traffickers

August 18, 2025
Document shows Turkish diplomats spied on an Erdogan critic who was kidnapped in Kenya

Turkey intensifies global hunt for critics, report finds

August 15, 2025
FBI affidavit reveals Turkey as conduit for ISIS financing while Syria frees ISIS captives

FBI affidavit reveals Turkey as conduit for ISIS financing while Syria frees ISIS captives

August 14, 2025
Turkey unable to push Russia to speed up nuclear plant construction as financial and diplomatic tensions mount

Turkey unable to push Russia to speed up nuclear plant construction as financial and diplomatic tensions mount

August 13, 2025
Loyalty to Erdogan becomes only factor in Turkey’s 2025 military promotions

Loyalty to Erdogan becomes only factor in Turkey’s 2025 military promotions

August 12, 2025
The case of indicted American-Turkish ISIS suspect reveals how Turkey became a hub for jihadists

Turkey was a conduit for jihadists to join ISIS in Syria, FBI told US court

August 11, 2025

Nordic Monitor

Nordic Monitor is a news web site and tracking site that is run by the Stockholm-based Nordic Research and Monitoring Network. It covers religious, ideological and ethnic extremist movements and radical groups, with a special focus on Turkey.

Tags

al-Qaeda Andrei Karlov China Cyprus Diyanet Egypt Erdogan espionage Germany Greece Gülen Movement Hakan Fidan Hamas Hulusi Akar Ibrahim Kalın IHH Iran IRGC Quds Force ISIL ISIS Isis al-qaida Israel Libya Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı MIT Muslim Brotherhood NATO President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Profiling Qatar Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Russia SADAT spying Spying Activities Suleyman Soylu Sweden Syria Torture Turkey Turkish Intelligence Agency Turkish intelligence agency MIT Ukraine United States

Recent News

Turkey’s richest people hide their identities as unexplained wealth, money laundering and favoritism raise alarm

Turkey’s richest people hide their identities as unexplained wealth, money laundering and favoritism raise alarm

August 22, 2025
Turkish gov’t leveraged bribes to New York mayor to undermine Erdogan’s opponents

New York watchdog puts a new spotlight on Turkey’s meddling in US elections

August 21, 2025
Erdogan uses Turkish NGOs to project power, advance political Islamist goal

Erdogan uses Turkish NGOs to project power, advance political Islamist goal

August 20, 2025

Copyright © Nordic Research and Monitoring Network All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us

Copyright © Nordic Research and Monitoring Network All rights reserved.