By Zubair Khan
Participants of the program
On 26th of November-2012 very interesting coverage on the topic of Islam was telecast during the prime time at 18.00 hours by a very famous German TV, NDR of Germany. The heading for the program was”Muslim Life in Lower Saxony” It is one of the state of Germany where 2,50,000 Muslim reside which makes almost 6% of the state population. AhmadiyyaCommunity has a very big mosque in the state capital city of Hanover which was attacked by unknown extremists and damage was caused to the mosque. Those who took part in the program were, Mr Rudi Zimmeck (Spokesman), Mr Helge Limburg (member of state parliament), Ms Filiz Polat (Member of state parliament), Ms Emine Oguz (representing Muslim Organization DITIB), Firouz Vladi (Member of Islamic Shoora of the state). Ms Filiz Polat is an extremely active member of state parliament and oft participates in Ahmadiyyaprograms and visits mosques.
The Greens political party members of of the state parliament called for a comprehensive approach and package of measures to combat exclusion, stigmatization and violence against Muslim men and women . The Green party parliament members accused the CDU and FDP (both political parties currently in rule) government members not clearly addressing the problems of Muslims being faced in the province. Unclear role of both CDU and FDP political party was highly objected by the Green party members. Green party members stressed that, It had to be a “living reality” that all people in accordance with the constitutional requirement – regardless of race, religion and belief – can exercise their fundamental rights and equal participation opportunities. The Green party members further stated, “We support the concerns of Muslims to set up religious communities within the meaning of the Basic Law. However accused the state government lacks ambition, transparency and commitment to achieve this goal, “said Polat and Limburg. As per Green party members, so far, the government on this issue has taken more negative discriminatory measures such as the suspicion independent mosque checks and so-called Islamists checklist. Despite more than 400 inspections were unconstitutionally made to have insight but still course correction is not recognizable. “The black-yellow (colours used to indicate CDU-FDP cooperation) ignorance about the stigmatization of an entire community of faith is frightening,” said the Greens.
Surprises were shown by the Greens over the diffuse layer pattern of the authorities in relation to xenophobic attacks on Muslims. So loud response of the government on four attacks on mosques from 2008 to 2012 were documented. “The problem of Islamophobia is apparently still woefully underestimated”. The state government had put up the charge of having failed consistently to advertise in all areas of society for education, tolerance and cohesion of cultures and religions. The Green party members stressed, the dialogue with al the associations of Muslims must be waged on equal terms. In Lower Saxony, there are about 250,000 Muslims. These make six percent of the total population in Lower Saxony. They exercise their faith in 130 mosques.
For German Version of text click HERE
The article should be taken in the sense that in Germany freedom of religion is given lot of importance and from the German society voices are being raised for the equal opportunities for the followers of all the religions.By the grace of Almighty Ahmadiyya Muslim Community enjoys equal rights with other factions of Muslim society and now no one dares to point finger or attempt to label the community as non Muslim often called so in some Muslim countries.