Germany: Ramadan illuminations in Frankfurt spark controversy

The city of London was the first last year in Europe to hang illuminations on the occasion of Ramadan.

This initiative is being emulated.

The city of Frankfurt, the great German financial metropolis, has decided to imitate the example of the British capital, but this decision is also causing controversy.

The inscription “Happy Ramadan” installed above one of the pedestrian streets in Frankfurt, March 5, 2024. AP - Michael Probst

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With our correspondent in Berlin, 

Pascal Thibaut

“ 

Happy Ramadan

 ”.

This Sunday, March 10, at 6 p.m., the lights will be turned on in Frankfurt's main pedestrian street.

15% of the inhabitants of this very multicultural city are Muslims.

For the town hall, led until last year by an elected environmentalist born in Iran, it was important to make a gesture for Ramadan during which the illuminations financed by the city will remain hung.

This first, inspired by the example of London, sparked violent controversy.

On social networks, his opponents denounce the “Islamization” of German society.

Others want to boycott the stores in the pedestrian zone called the unpoetic nickname “

food street

”.

The chairman of the parliamentary group of the far-right AfD party in the Hesse regional parliament spoke of “

a gesture of submission

” towards radical Islam.

The decision by Frankfurt City Hall also sparked positive reactions.

The Muslim community of 100 to 150,000 people welcomes the initiative as do the Catholic and Protestant Churches as well as the Jewish community.

The Frankfurt Coordination Council of Mosques hopes that the city's decision will be followed elsewhere in Germany.

Decorations are also planned in Cologne.

Read alsoIn Germany, the Muslim community invited to condemn Hamas attacks

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