Germany permits Iran’s regime to build European network - report

"It is clear that Iran is expanding its network in Europe to this day and that Hamburg is still at the center of this network," says the historian and Islam expert Christian Osthold.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani salutes the crowd during the commemoration of the 41st anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Tehran, Iran February 11, 2020 (photo credit: OFFICIAL PRESIDENT WEBSITE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani salutes the crowd during the commemoration of the 41st anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Tehran, Iran February 11, 2020
(photo credit: OFFICIAL PRESIDENT WEBSITE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
German authorities allow the Iranian regime-controlled Islamic Center in Hamburg to oversee a growing network in Europe, according to a recent report.
In a bombshell January exposé in the German magazine Focus titled “The long arm of the mullahs: Iran’s European network is controlled from Hamburg,” historian and Islam expert Christian Osthold unpacks the dangers of the Iranian clerical regime in Europe.
The Iranian regime’s strategy is “the result of the execution of a well-calculated master plan according to which Tehran uses religious organizations to infiltrate EU countries,” he wrote.
“When I gave an interview to the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in March 2019, I learned that all properties associated with the Copenhagen Imam Ali Mosque would become the property of the Islamic Center Hamburg in the event of closure,” Osthold said.
“Since the Copenhagen mosque was only opened on October 1, 2015, it is clear that Iran is expanding its network in Europe to this day and that Hamburg is still at the center of this network,” he added.
The Islamic Community of Shi’ite Communities of Germany is controlled by the Islamic Center of Hamburg, Osthold wrote. The center’s reach stretches to the Islamic European Union of Sharia Scholars and Theologians, he said.
The Islamic European Union’s address is the same as Islamic Center Hamburg’s: Schöne Aussicht 36, Hamburg, The Jerusalem Post has found.
Osthold took Germany’s government to task for failing to crack down on Tehran’s growing presence in the country.
“For years now, Berlin in particular has been failing to contain Iranian influence in its own country,” he wrote.
There appears to be as many as 150 Shi’ite communities in Germany under the control of the Islamic Republic of Iran via the Islamic Center Hamburg, one of Europe’s oldest mosques. In the capital Berlin, there are 24 Shi’ite associations that are members of the Islamic Center that oversee 15 prayer rooms, Osthold wrote.
A group of 600 pro-Iranian regime Islamists from the Islamic Center Hamburg attended a memorial service mourning the death of EU- and US-designated terrorist Qasem Soleimani, the Post reported in January.
The US killed Soleimani in January because the US Defense Department said he was planning terrorist attacks against American diplomats.
The mourners from the Islamic Center praised Soleimani as a “heroic martyr.”
Soleimani was responsible for the murders of more than 600 military personnel in Iraq, according to the US State Department.
The Islamic Center is viewed as a valued partner for the city’s church and political establishments, Osthold wrote. Hamburg’s Social Democratic government negotiated a 2012 agreement with Muslim organizations that pledged common values and peaceful activities and tolerance. According to the contract, the Islamic Center agreed to “international understanding and tolerance toward other cultures, religions and world views.”
Hamburg’s domestic intelligence agency has monitored the center for the last 26 years. According to the agency’s 2018 report: “The Islamic Center has established a nationwide network of contacts and exerts influence on Shi’ites of different nationalities as well as Shi’ite Islamic mosques and associations, right down to complete control.”
Iran’s regime is classified by the US government as the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. The regime of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is animated by the goals of its 1979 Islamic revolution – a deeply anti-Western expansionist, Islamist, revolutionary ideology that seeks the destruction of Israel and a system of gender apartheid.
Despite the German intelligence data about the Islamic Center Hamburg, the entity still functions as the center of Iran’s network in Europe, Osthold wrote.
“Before the German government sets out to solve the Iran crisis, it would do well to first ensure that the situation inside [Germany] is clear,” he said. “This would contribute significantly to finally finding a stringent foreign policy toward Tehran.”