After a march of around 1,200 Islamists in Hanover, calls for political consequences are being made. Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) announced that she would campaign for a ban on calls for the establishment of a caliphate at the conference of interior ministers starting Wednesday.
“The demand for a caliphate as a call to eliminate our constitutional order must be punishable just as much as inciting hatred against other population groups,” said Behrens in response to a question from WELT. It was “unbearable” that “proven Islamists and anti-Semites were allowed to spread their repulsive messages in the state capital on Saturday,” said Behrens.
Behrens does not believe that the authorities or the police acted too laxly. “The Hanover Police Department did everything it could in advance to ban this unspeakable event.” State security had banned the demonstration in advance, but the Hanover Administrative Court granted the Islamists short-notice permission to hold the rally on Saturday.
“For me, the whole process shows once again that we are too tolerant of the enemies of our constitution and our way of life at certain points,” said Behrens. Freedom of assembly and freedom of expression are fundamental rights. “But anyone in Germany who openly calls for a caliphate and uses anti-Semitic codes should not also enjoy the protection of the rule of law.”
The SPD minister announced that she would analyze the administrative court’s decision and possibly tighten up Lower Saxony’s assembly law.
Green politician Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Society, called for a ban on the group “Generation Islam,” which had called for the demonstration. “Generation Islam” is a successor organization to the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which was banned in 2003, argued the president of the German-Israeli Society, Volker Beck. In fact, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the group “Generation Islam” as part of Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Because “Generation Islam” avoids making criminal statements, no action can be taken against them under assembly law, said Beck. The court ruling on Saturday also showed this, said Beck.
The demonstration on Saturday also showed that the group was inciting young Muslims and was clearly against the constitutional order, said Beck. Beck referred to a video of a speech published by the “Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung” in which Israel was accused of genocide against the Palestinians.
The official motto of the rally was “Suffering of the Palestinians. Current situation in Gaza (Rafah)”, but in fact anti-Israel, anti-Western and Islamist slogans were also spread. The participants used posters to protest against nation states and the post-war order in the Middle East – in line with the spirit of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which dreams of a Muslim caliphate. The police at the meeting place had forbidden the demonstrators from explicitly using the term “caliphate”.