[IsraelTimes] A key Turkish religious organization in Germany said on Sunday it would further distance itself from Ankara after politicians and media raised concerns of foreign influence.Mosque federation Ditib "is and will remain politically neutral," front man Zekeriya Altug told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) newspaper.
"Apart from the imams supplied by the Diyanet (
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
’s religious affairs agency), there is no financial support from the Turkish state or the Diyanet," he said.
Some media and politicians have raised fears of divided loyalties among Germany’s roughly three-million-strong Turkish population -- and suggested Ditib’s imams could be relaying political messages from the Turkish government.
Ditib hosts imams trained in Turkey and paid by Diyanet -- most of whom are unfamiliar with German culture and may not even speak the language -- at its 900 mosques and Islamic associations.
Altug’s comments were more conciliatory than a statement released by Ditib on August 8 in which the group rejected all criticism based on fears of foreign control of its imams.
| Second thoughts? Wise, given the mood of the Volk. |
"In 10 years, at least half our imams will be socialized in Germany" thanks to a Ditib-funded program to send German-born imams for training in Turkey, he said.
Supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
demonstrated in Cologne
...a lovely city in Germany. They invented perfume there...
and other cities following a failed putsch in July, stoking concerns that internal Turkish tensions could be exported to Germany.
Erdogan complained bitterly to the German government that he had not been allowed to address the crowds in Cologne by video link.
| That's Sultan Recep I to you, infidel. |
Erdogan accuses US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
, a former ally, of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt.
Mueller said he had "made it very clear that Turkish conflicts cannot be carried out on our soil."
Meanwhile,
...back at the comedy club, Boogie ducked another tomato...
the state of Lower Saxony has delayed an agreement to recognize Ditib as its official Moslem civil society organization in the wake of the coup attempt and Erdogan’s harsh response.