Below is the second half (part 1 is here) of an investigative report by ZDF on the “radicalization” that takes place in German mosques, and the failure of the authorities to take action against it.

Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00 The two teenagers from Essen who planted a bomb at a Sikh Temple

00:04 in 2016 had been to the Assalam mosque.

00:08 They were part of the WhatsApp group called “Adherents of the Islamic Caliphate”,

00:13 which radicalized both 16-year-olds.

00:19 Jasmine was in the Assalam mosque for us. The 28-year-old

00:22 visited the Friday prayer meetings on the woman’s side

00:25 for six months. Near the end, she was even accepted in WhatsApp groups.

00:29 That’s where videos and messages are shared.

00:32 “Important audio, please listen and share”

00:37 Besides that, meetings are also arranged over WhatsApp. She also received an invitation to join in.

00:41 In the beginning it was really difficult. After three months it worked.

00:45 They are really clever, they ask a lot of questions

00:49 and pay close attention. —What did they say about Sharia Law?

00:53 I was told that it belongs to the Sharia, that it is our Islamic right

00:57 to fight against the unbelievers and it is a part of Jihad

01:02 in order to protect Islam properly. We are to fight. —Fight?

01:08 Against the kuffar? —Yes, exactly! —Who is the kafir for them?

01:12 The kafir is everyone else. The Jews

01:15 are at the top of the list, then the Christians.

01:19 Jasmine put herself in danger in order to do our undercover work,

01:24 and she knows it. She told us at every single meeting, no matter where, there is a woman

01:29 who always seemed to be the leader. She made these recordings for us secretly.

01:33 Most of the time, during these meetings

01:38 they watched videos from Salafist preachers such as

01:43 Abul Baraa or Pierre Vogel. Women in the Salafist scene

01:48 play a huge role and are very active. That’s not just because

01:53 they are responsible for the next generation and they aren’t victims,

01:58 says the Islamism expert Susanne Schroeter. —There is a parallel network

02:02 to the male Salafism, which is the female network.

02:05 It is built exactly the same way, with the exact same meaning and

02:09 the women aren’t less radical. They are 100% persuaded

02:13 by the theology, and they pass it on. It is women who speak to other women

02:18 in the mosques, especially in the smaller circles

02:23 where further indoctrination occurs. —Jasmine was in one of the smaller circles.

02:28 What she heard there didn’t have anything

02:33 to do with the peaceful Islam that she knew. The Assalam mosque

02:37 gets attention because of the radical Salafists and jihadists that visit

02:41 there. According to our research, non-peaceful Islam is still being taught here.

02:46 Why do security authorities allow this?

02:51 That’s what we wanted to learn from the president of the North Rhine-Westphalian

02:54 domestic intelligence services. —In the past

02:57 few years, five of these types of mosques have been shut down,

03:00 but no more than that. The reason for that is, firstly, it is

03:03 not always provable that mosque itself is responsible for it.

03:07 With the exception of single preachers. —Why is it so difficult

03:11 to punish the hate preachers who continually damn the unbelievers

03:15 and incite violence? The threshold between the

03:19 feeling that hate is being preached; which is deeply hurtful

03:24 and seems very inflammatory; and the legal question of when

03:29 something can be prosecuted, for example for inciting violence or forming a criminal organization

03:34 or a terrorist organization — this threshold is extremely wide.

03:38 The legal hurdles are very high. —We have discovered

03:41 during these separate meetings that very radical ideologies are being spread,

03:45 including legitimizing the killing of unbelievers.

03:49 Is that information that the domestic intelligence service is also aware of? —Yes. We know.

03:53 We are aware that in the last few years that radicalization is not occurring in the mosques,

03:59 in the open spaces during Friday prayers. It is happening in

04:04 the back alley, other smaller rooms or in private residences. Here the radicalization

04:08 is much stronger. —Why are you not able to do something there?

04:14 Wouldn’t that be enough legal means to take criminal action against the mosque for making these

04:18 meetings possible? —All the information we have and collect

04:22 is given to law enforcement authorities. There it is assessed

04:26 whether to take legal action against a person or the entire association.

04:30 The fact that legal action is not taken

04:33 very often does not mean that the situation is not being monitored.

04:36 It just means there needs to be sufficient evidence

04:39 to initiate criminal proceedings. —Which means tangible actions

04:43 must be verifiable. However, producing the evidence

04:46 appears to be the problem for authorities. We wanted to hear

04:49 how the chairman of the Assalam mosque association responds

04:52 to the accusations against the mosque. Bourmenir Mohammed

04:56 has been leader of the Assalam Mosque for twenty years.

05:00 The Algerian-born leader is also a part-time imam. He shows us his mosque,

05:06 and is proud to report that few refugees pray here.

05:12 The Assalam mosque is under surveillance

05:15 by the intelligence services, because of jihadists like Silvio K.

05:18 What do have to say about that? What does this have to do with your mosque? Can you understand that

05:22 intelligence services are watching what you do?

05:26 Yes, of course I can understand it. As I told the intelligence service,

05:29 these jihadists, whatever they call themselves, visited

05:32 a public place of prayer. They came, they prayed and went their way.

05:36 They didn’t distribute propaganda, didn’t preach and didn’t proclaim

05:40 that they belonged to a certain group — otherwise we

05:45 would have kicked them out immediately. —But you have been quoted

05:49 as saying that Silvio K. called you an unbeliever.

05:52 —Yes. —Aren’t you alarmed or concerned

05:55 that things here could go in the wrong direction? Yes, but we never thought

05:58 it would go that far. Many go through a phase of radicalization

06:02 for two to three months, but then they return to their senses.

06:06 The other headlines your mosque made had to do with the two teenagers

06:10 who attacked the Sikh temple. They came here, too.

06:15 —Here’s what happened. We never saw those two teenagers

06:19 before they came here with backpacks, which the police

06:23 were looking for. They prayed. One stayed outside with the backpack,

06:27 which contained the bomb. From here, they went over

06:31 to those poor Buddhists and then that’s where they threw the bomb.

06:35 You didn’t know anything about that?

06:40 —We never saw these children before! For us they are children.

06:44 We confronted the leader with our undercover research,

06:47 in which the Assalam mosque is used as a meeting hub

06:50 for women’s networks that exchange radical doctrine.

06:53 Bourmenir Mohammed does not feel responsible for that.

06:57 That’s not my job; what should I do? I speak to my congregation here

07:02 and have everything under control. Reasonable Islam is preached here.

07:06 The message that Allah has sent for all of humanity.

07:10 But there are imams here who refer to kuffar and say that they are worth less than…

07:16 We can’t do that. It is in the Quran. We only

07:22 preach what is found in the Quran. —But it is in the Quran.

07:26 You can find everything in the Quran. You can look for yourself

07:30 at what it says. —What is certain is that the Quran is open to interpretation.

07:34 Many verses describe Muslims, Jews,

07:38 and Christians as equals. So is the Assalam Mosque Islamist,

07:43 or just negligent with the radicalized? Does the mosque’s leader

07:49 really not know what is going on during these women’s meetings

07:53 organized by his mosque? We move on to Bad Kreuznach,

07:57 in Rhineland-Palatinate. We have arranged a meeting with refugees

08:00 who will tell us about their experience in a mosque.

08:03 Security authorities have warned that refugees are susceptible

08:07 to radical doctrine, due to their precarious status in society.

08:13 Ali and Yassar came to Germany from Syria three years ago

08:17 and were housed in Bad Kreuznach. The visited the local mosque.

08:22 After one Friday’s prayer meeting they had a conversation with the imam.

08:26 They still can’t believe what he said to them.

08:29 He said he didn’t speak German, because he didn’t want to learn

08:33 such an abhorrent language. He also said Germany was a country

08:37 of unbelievers to be Islamized. —Yes, he was always talking about

08:41 Germany being a country of unbelievers that was to be

08:46 conquered. —He told us we should have many children,

08:51 just like President Erdogan said. That was the way to expand the Muslim community

08:57 throughout Europe. Sharia must be the law of the land.

09:01 He also said killing the unbeliever wasn’t bad, because they are

09:06 unbelievers. —That’s what an imam said? —Yes. The imam. He really said it. Yes, the imam.

09:13 Ali and Yassar have settled in well in Bad Kreuznach

09:17 and are thankful that Germany accepted them, saving them

09:22 from the war in Syria. They can’t understand how such mosques are able to exist in Germany.

09:26 I was really surprised that an imam would be allowed to say

09:30 such things. I was expecting the police to show up at any minute. It can’t be permitted that he

09:34 is able to say such things and nothing happens.

09:39 They never went back to the mosque where the imam was so hateful.

09:44 It was the Masjid Al-Hijrah Mosque, in the middle of a residential

09:48 area of Bad Kreuznach and in a back alley.

09:52 We also visited this mosque for weeks undercover.

09:56 During the Friday sermons that we attended, the imam constantly

10:00 spoke about jihad being important, but he never specified what that meant.

10:04 No one in the mosque wanted to comment on what

10:09 the two refugees told us. Even the domestic intelligence services declined

10:13 an interview with us. This mosque has been under

10:17 investigation for some time now. According to our research, this is true in many German states.

10:20 Just as we found in Berlin, Essen and Bad Kreuznach, radical mosques are simply monitored.

10:25 That’s about it. This shouldn’t be the case, according

10:31 to the Islamic expert Ismail Tipi. —Under the rule of law

10:34 a democratic state must be able to defend itself. We aren’t

10:37 powerless or helpless. We have the necessary laws;

10:41 we just need to enforce them. Under the cloak of religion,

10:45 with false tolerance and the multi-culti romance — we allow too much

10:49 to slip through. In times like these, it is just not enough

10:53 to simply monitor these dangerous nests. We have to intervene and outlaw them.

10:59 That’s why I have been saying

11:03 for many years that we need a general nationwide ban

11:07 on practicing Salafism. —We would have liked to speak with

11:12 the Federal Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer.

11:15 Instead, we receive a written statement with the following response:

11:18 “The Federal Government and the German states are pursuing a comprehensive prevention strategy

11:22 which includes the consistent use of bans on Salafist structures.”

11:27 Based on the guidelines of constitutional law, a general ban on Salafism

11:32 would not be possible. Christian De Vries,

11:35 from the affiliated party of the CDU, warns about being inactive.

11:38 If we continue to allow 100,000 young adults, whether they are

11:42 Muslims with Turkish origins or Muslims with Arab origins,

11:45 to visit Quran schools every single week where they are saturated

11:48 and indoctrinated with hateful messages,

11:51 then they will be open to Salafism and hate preachers later.

11:56 For that reason it is my political goal to examine how this can be

12:01 changed. In practical terms, this means we need to offer an alternative.

12:04 We need to offer Muslim theology at

12:07 German universities and train Muslim theologians according to the rule of law

12:11 and our rules who will preach in mosques in the future.

12:14 Ahmad Schekeb earned his degree in Islamic Studies in Germany

12:18 and became an imam that way. In Essen he preaches

12:22 at the Masjid Mustafa Mosque. The 28-year-old was born in Munich.

12:27 His parents come from Afghanistan. Islamist preachers

12:32 are a thorn in his flesh. —Every single Muslim is obligated

12:39 to respect others, regardless of which faith is practiced, or their mindset.

12:46 —You are familiar with the topic of Salafism. What is the difference

12:50 between believers and unbelievers? Can you explain that?

12:53 Unbelievers are heterodox. We shouldn’t degrade others,

12:56 but speak with them on an equal footing. Anyone who

12:59 becomes radicalized or discriminates has not understood Islam.

13:03 Islam came to connect the hearts of people,

13:07 according to the prophet Muhammad (PBUH). A Muslim, a believer,

13:12 behaves and speaks in such a way that others feel safe.

13:17 Everyone! —And that is the message Imam Ahmad delivers in his mosque.

13:22 Believers here have various nationalities.

13:27 In order to ensure that everyone understands the sermons,

13:31 they are conducted mostly in German. —The best thing about those who

13:34 make mistakes, is that they must ask for forgiveness.

13:40 Imam Ahmad is accused of being an unbeliever by radical preachers.

13:45 He isn’t intimidated.

13:51 The stirring up of hate by radical preachers does damage

13:54 to peaceful Muslims. It places all Muslims under

13:57 general suspicion. Germany must prevent hate preachers from poisoning society. Inciting hatred and

14:04 calls for violence have nothing to do with freedom of religion.