Before the Pride march, LGBT colors in a liberal mosque in Berlin

The Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque, rainbow flag hanging on the exterior wall of the building.

Berlin, this Friday, July 1, 2022. AFP - ADAM BERRY

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

In Berlin, for the first time, a mosque displays the colors of the LGBT flag, on the occasion of the Pride March which will take place in a few weeks.

It is far from unanimous.

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With our correspondent in Berlin,

Don't expect a flood of LGBT flags flying over Berlin's mosques.

The Ibn-Rushd-Goethe Mosque, located in the popular district of Moabit, north of the capital, is a liberal mosque, not very representative of the convictions of the majority of the German faithful, mostly conservative Turks from rural areas of Anatolia.

The Ibn-Rushd-Goethe mosque is even perceived by many of them as a provocation.

It was founded by Seyran Ates, a dissident Turkish lawyer, who fled a patriarchal family at the age of 17, for Berlin, where she first lived in the city's squats.

She is now the first female imam in Germany.

The mosque and its founders all live under police protection.

Even if they embody a tolerant Islam that respects institutions, which the German authorities would like to see develop in the country.

The gratin of the Berlin political class was also there to raise the LGBT flag on the mosque.

It will remain there until the end of the month.

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