The German Bild daily’s use of the photo of the Central Mosque in Cologne, which is run by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) in an article that relates mosques in Germany with terror funding drew criticism on social media.
Many people, including Turkish people living in Germany, have criticized the newspaper, for pointing the mosque as a target by using its photograph.
Mustafa Yeneroğlu, deputy for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and an active member of the Turkish community in Germany, criticized the incident on his Twitter account saying that the newspaper is provoking attacks against Muslims.
“Bild, Germany’s highest circulation tabloid provokes attacks against Muslims, by continuously presenting terror and mosques side by side. The Editorial board is happy to be the instigator of arson attempts against mosques, I suppose. I will file a criminal complaint,” Yeneroğlu wrote.
The spokesman for the Turks Solidarity Platform in Cologne, Levent Taşkıran also said that the photo of DITIB central mosque was used by means of perception management and DITIB was specifically targeted.
Saying that the given article is committing a crime according to German criminal law, Taşkıran added that DITIB should file a criminal case against the newspaper and demand compensation.
A petition named “correcting the wrong” was also launched against the daily.
Recently, on Dec.27 politicians in Germany called on implementing a “mosque tax” for the country’s Muslim population in order to “free the mosques” from the alleged foreign influence.
The German government wants to cut the support of Muslim associations who got financial support from abroad, especially those of DITIB, which currently runs more than 900 mosques in Germany for the country’s nearly 5 million Turkish community and other Muslim minority groups.
Source: DS
