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Iran's Acting FM to Baerbock: Raids on Islamic center Islamophobic

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
28 Jul 2024 00:13
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Following 53 raids on the Islamic Center Hamburg, Iran's Ali Bagheri Kani held a phone call with Germany's Foreign Minister.

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A police officer walks outside the Islamic Center Hamburg with the Imam Ali Mosque during a raid in Hamburg, Germany, on July 24, 2024. (AFP)

Iran's Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani held a phone call with the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Saturday, where the Iranian official blasted German police raids on Islamic properties.

He said that Berlin's decision to shut down the Islamic Center Hamburg is political and Islamophobic, adding that it serves the interests of the Israeli regime.

The phone call was held three days after German police raided 53 properties of the Islamic Center Hamburg in several cities, accusing the center of supporting extremism and alleged support to the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah.

Bagheri Kani condemned the actions, stressing that they violated human rights.

“The shutdown of the Islamic Center Hamburg in Germany was a political and Islamophobic move that serves the interests of the Zionist regime, and the German government should accept the consequences”, the Iranian diplomat underlined.

On her part, Baerbock said that the center can pursue its rights through German legal mechanisms.

The two officials also discussed other issues such as the latest developments in West Asia, according to the Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency.

Earlier on Wednesday, Germany's Ambassador to Iran Hans-Udo Muzel was summoned by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs following the raids.

In a meeting, the Foreign Ministry's Director General for West European Affairs warned the German government of the potential consequences of such damaging activities, saying, "Such actions are a clear example of confronting the freedom of thought and expression and actually promoting violence and extremism."

According to the news website Dnyuz, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser declared on Wednesday that the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) would be banned for "spreading extremism".

Additionally, early on Wednesday morning, scores of German police officers conducted a raid at Hamburg's Blue Mosque, which is run by the Islamic Center Hamburg in the city's northern region on the coast of the Outer Alster Lake, according to Yahoo News.