A 'liberal mosque' where all Muslims can pray together regardless of their gender, sexuality or branch of Islam has opened in Germany.

The Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque, which is housed inside a Protestant church in Berlin, is the first of its kind in the country.

Sunni and Shiite believers are encouraged to preach alongside one another and women will not be allowed to wear veils.

Women's rights activist Seyran Ates, who has campaigned for a progressive place of worship for Muslims in Germany for eight years, said: 'I couldn't be more euphoric, it's a dream come true. This project was long overdue.

The Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque, which is housed inside a Protestant church in Berlin, is the first of its kind in Germany

Women's rights activist Seyran Ates leads the prayer in the mosque

More than 4 million Muslims live in Germany, the majority from Turkey but also from the Balkans, the Middle East and Northern Africa

'There's so much Islamist terror and so much evilness happening in the name of my religion ... it's important that we, the modern and liberal Muslims, also show our faces in public.'

Ms Ates told Der Spiegel newspaper that headscarves are banned at the mosque.

'No one will be let in with a niqab or burqa veil,' she said.'This is for security reasons and also it is our belief that full-face veils have nothing to do with religion, but rather are a political statement.'

More than 4 million Muslims live in Germany, the majority from Turkey but also from the Balkans, the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Most started coming to Germany in the 1960s as workers to help rebuild the economy after World War II. While it was Germany's intention to send them home after a few years, many stayed and brought over their families.

More recently, Germany has taken in more than 1 million refugees since 2015, most of them Muslims from war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Relations between the country's majority Christian population and the Muslim minority traditionally have been complicated.

They have been strained by several terror attacks in Germany by Muslims in the name of the extremist Islamic State group.

Sunni and Shiite believers are encouraged to preach alongside one another and women will not be allowed to wear veils

Police officers are posted at the entrance of the Ibn Rushd-Goethe-mosque. Ms Ates waved aside any potential worries about threats or criticism from more conservative Muslims

Raids on, and bans of, radical Muslim associations and arrests of extremist suspects have become commonplace.

Ms Ates said the new mosque will be a place of liberalism where everyone is welcome and equal. Women will not have to wear headscarves, can preach as imams and call the faithful to prayer just like men.

'There won't be any hate preaching against democracy here,' Ms Ates said. Instead, followers can express doubt about their beliefs and approach their religion with sense and reason instead of blind devotion, she said.

Ms Ates waved aside any potential worries about threats or criticism from more conservative Muslims.

The mosque currently housed in a room on the third floor of the St Johannes Lutheran church

'I've received a few messages via social media, mostly full of expletives,' she said. 'But 95 percent of the feedback has been beautiful and positive.'

The mosque's name combines the names of medieval Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rushd and German writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe.

It is currently housed in a room on the third floor of the St Johannes Lutheran church.

In the future, Ms Ates and colleagues dream of building a real mosque with several prayer rooms for believers of all the different Islamic sects as well as an academy devoted to the education of liberal imams, male and female.

Ates herself preached at the opening ceremony on Friday.

'I will start studying Islamic theology and Arabic in Berlin this fall,' she said beforehand. 'I want to become an imam myself.'