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Royal shooting in Emmerich, Rhineland: “We show what home really means”

Photo: Lars Fröhlich / FUNKE Photo Services / IMAGO

The Association of Historical German Rifle Brotherhoods (BHDS) has confirmed its decision of incompatibility with the AfD.

“Anyone who is a member of the AfD cannot also belong to a Christian shooting brotherhood,” the association emphasized on Sunday at a meeting of federal representatives in Langenfeld, Rhineland.

The BHDS is an association of 1,300 Catholic brotherhoods and associations in West Germany with 300,000 members.

Since 2020, the association says it has been fending off attempts by the AfD to take over its membership.

Their goal is obviously to infiltrate traditional clubs.

The main board decided in 2021 that simultaneous membership in a brotherhood belonging to the BHDS and the AfD or other right-wing populist, right-wing radical and right-wing extremist organizations are not compatible with each other.

“Demonstrations alone are not enough”

"We see with great concern that radical thinking is increasing in our society and is even turning into hatred of fellow human beings - especially because of their religion, origin or skin color, gender or sexual identity," explained the association's chairman Emil Vogt.

There are many awake and courageous people in Germany who are ready and able to confront the looming danger of right-wing extremists.

"But demonstrations alone are not enough."

Resistance to right-wing extremism requires courageous behavior in everyday life, says Vogt.

The federal rifle master asked the shooters to take a clear stand, "whether at the counter, at the workbench, at the supermarket checkout."

Shooters should confidently show that their Christian values ​​focus on togetherness and not on exclusion: "Where some people want to seal off borders and stir up xenophobia under the guise of loyalty to their homeland, we show what home really means."

The BDHS was criticized for discrimination around a decade ago.

In 2012 there was a decision according to which same-sex royal couples were not compatible with the Christian tradition of the Schützen;

In 2014 there was a dispute over a Muslim shooting king.

The association has changed a lot since then.

After taking office in 2015, current chairman Emil Vogt demanded that gays and Muslims should not be discriminated against.

mamk/dpa