Berlin: "Islamist forces have no place in public office"

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The demand of the Berlin CDU parliamentary group leader Burkard Dregger is clear: "Mohamad Hajjaj can no longer be a member of the commission on anti-Muslim racism," says the opposition leader in the Berlin House of Representatives.

"Anyone who does not seem to be fully committed to the Basic Law may not be appointed to a visible function as a role model."

WELT reported in March that Hajjaj was and is active in organizations that are rated as Islamist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

In February he was appointed to the “Expert Commission on Anti-Muslim Racism” by the State of Berlin.

The Senate Department for Justice, headed by Dirk Behrendt (Greens), is primarily responsible for the committee; Hajjaj was sent by the Islam Forum of the Berlin Integration Commissioners.

Both authorities now apparently want to hold on to Hajjaj.

When appointing the commission, it was important to include representatives of Muslim associations, said a spokesman for the judiciary.

It was therefore correct that the Islam Forum also appointed members for the commission.

"We assume that the Islam Forum was aware of its responsibility in making its decision," said the spokesman.

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The integration officer Katarina Niewiedzial announced that the posting of the Islamforum had been decided independently.

"We cannot confirm that Mr. Hajjaj is active in organizations that have been assessed as Islamist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution," she said.

According to the register of associations, Hajjaj has been vice-chairman of the Teiba cultural center in Berlin since 2013.

In the report by the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Teiba 2016 is mentioned in the field of Islamism under the item “Connections between Berlin associations and the Muslim Brotherhood”.

In a photo posted by the Teiba Cultural Center in 2013, Hajjaj can be seen with a group of children, many of whom are young girls wearing headscarves.

Mohamad Hajjaj (right) extends his index finger upwards, a sign of belief in the oneness of God

Source: Screenshot WORLD

Another WELT photo shows Hajjaj in 2015 at an event organized by the Intercultural Center for Dialogue and Education (IZDB).

The IZDB was also associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 2015 and 2016 Berlin Constitutional Protection Report.

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According to WELT information, Hajjaj was also a functionary in the Palestinian Community in Germany (PGD) in 2014, which at that time was rated by the Berlin internal administration as an organization of supporters of the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas.

WELT has emails in which Hajjaj authorized an interview from a PGD account and a photo showing him as a speaker at a PGD rally in Berlin.

Hajjaj denies having been active in the PGD.

"Important to involve Muslim representatives"

Even the Greens parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives does not want to throw Hajjaj out of the expert commission.

A spokeswoman said that anyone who set up such a commission must do so together with the community concerned.

“That is why it is important and right to involve representatives of Muslim associations and to let them choose the members.” Similar to the judicial administration, the spokeswoman added that it is assumed that the Islamforum has fulfilled its responsibility in the election of its members .

Mohamad Hajjaj is a member of the SPD.

Former social democratic member of the Bundestag Lale Akgün says: "Political Islam has no place in the SPD." Akgün is the national spokeswoman for the working group on secular social democrats.

She demands that no understanding of Islam should be carried into the party that goes far beyond personal belief.

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The SPD at the federal level referred to Hajjaj's membership in the Berlin regional association.

A WELT request remained unanswered.

For the Spandau SPD, Hajjaj is a citizens' deputy in the integration committee of the Spandau district council.

The Spandau SPD and the parliamentary group leaders there did not respond to an inquiry about Hajjaj's activities.

Hajjaj reported in the “taz” in 2017 that he was initially forbidden from studying because of his tolerance, the suspension of deportation.

"Friends also stood up for us, for example Raed Saleh, who was already a member of the House of Representatives for the SPD," he said at the time.

Today Saleh is parliamentary group leader of the Berlin SPD.

He had a question about this answered by the parliamentary managing director: "The SPD parliamentary group shares the basic social consensus that education is an essential part of integration, which includes the possibility of being able to start studying if the requirements are met," said Torsten Schneider.

The co-governing Social Democrats did not answer how the personnel is assessed in the expert commission.

CDU man Dregger calls for the commission to be fundamentally reorganized and to reflect the diversity of Islam in Berlin as well as include representatives of non-Muslim groups.

"Anti-Muslim attacks cannot be denied," he said.

In prevention, however, the aim must be to reach those who reject Muslims per se.

The CDU parliamentary group requests that the next meeting of the constitution protection committee in the House of Representatives discuss the findings of the domestic intelligence service about the remuneration of members of the commission to Islamist organizations.

"Islamist forces have no place in public office," says the federal spokesman for the Secular Greens, Walter Otte.

He demands that there should no longer be any public funding for the Inssan association, whose managing director is Hajjaj.

WELT had reported that Inssan had been funded by the Berlin Justice Administration and Integration Commissioner as well as the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs with a total of 1,375,935 euros since 2010.

"Meetings of Muslim Brotherhood-Related Organizations"

In 2020 and 2021, the Berlin integration officer funded the Inssan project “Active Strengthening of Muslim Actors” (ASMA) with a total of 164,540 euros.

One of the graduates of the ASMA leadership program is Yaseen Al-Murish, who became managing director of the Arnsberg education and meeting center in September 2020.

"Meetings of organizations close to Muslims take place there," says Islamism expert Sigrid Herrmann-Marschall.

In addition to the previously known funds, there are also funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration.

The Inssan project “Guide - Mentors for Refugees” was funded as part of a project by the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtverband from 2016 to 2019 with 61,768 euros, according to a spokesman.

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Further research now shows that other current and former Inssan's board members also have connections to Islamist organizations.

The current Inssan board member Tahir Sözen was also a board member of the Berlin regional association of the Islamic community Milli Görus (IGMG).

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution leads the IGMG in the field of Islamism and states that references to extremism have become weaker in recent years.

Imran Sagir, Inssan's board member from 2007 to 2012, is the managing director of Islamic Relief Germany's (IRD) Muslim pastoral telephone in Berlin.

The federal government announced in 2019 that, to the best of its knowledge, there are “significant personal connections” between the IRD and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Berlin branch of the IRD has the same address as Inssan.

In September 2014 the IRD posted a photo of a benefit auction showing Mohamad Hajjaj as the auctioneer.

Faisal Salhi, Inssan's board member from 2009 to 2017, was chairman of the board of the Intercultural Center for Dialogue and Education (IZDB) from 2006 to 2010.

At that time the association was already being run by the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a link with the German branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Several other former Inssan board members are or were functionaries of associations close to Muslims.

Organizations of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Germany mostly belong to the spectrum of legalistic Islamism.

Accordingly, they are not oriented towards violence and pursue their goals within the existing social and legal system.

"In line with its long-term strategy, the MB is pursuing penetration into society with the aim of establishing a system based on Sharia law," says the current report on the protection of the constitution.

Inssan chairwoman Lydia Nofal left a WELT inquiry about the involvement of Inssan functionaries unanswered.

Mohamad Hajjaj did not respond to another request either.