Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani warned Germany on Saturday that its closure of Tehran-linked Islamic centers will have consequences.
On Wednesday, Germany’s Interior Ministry announced the ban on the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) and its subsidiary organizations, citing their radical Islamist goals and direct control by Tehran. Authorities searched 53 premises across eight German states under a court order.
In a phone call with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Iran’s top diplomat expressed Tehran’s protest at the closure of the Islamic centers, calling it a “politicized, Islamophobic move”.
“The German government must accept the consequences,” Bagheri warned, according to Iran’s readout of the call.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry earlier summoned German Ambassador to Tehran Hans-Udo Muzel, expressing Tehran’s “strongest protests” over what it termed a “hostile act.” The ministry’s official website described the closure as an “obvious case of Islamophobia” and accused Germany of promoting “an intentional spread of violence and dictatorship.”
The German Interior Ministry argued that the Islamic Center, despite claiming to be a purely religious foundation, operated as an “Islamist extremist” entity directly representing Iran’s supreme leader to advance an “authoritarian and theocratic rule.”
German police officers walk towards the Islamic Center Hamburg, during a raid, due to suspicion of members acting against a constitutional order and supporting the militant group Hezbollah in Hamburg, Germany.
Germany’s federal police had previously raided the Islamic Center in November 2023 on suspicions of supporting the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is accused of engagement in terrorism. Germany banned Hezbollah’s activities in 2020, asserting that the IZH’s actions aimed to spread the revolutionary concept of Iran’s Supreme Leader and undermine Germany’s “constitutional order.”
The ban impacts the Hamburg-based IZH, known for its turquoise mosque, and its subgroups in Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin. Consequently, four Shiite mosques will be closed, according to the ministry.
“The Islamic Republic uses these centers when they face diplomatic restrictions at embassies,” Munich-based journalist Masoud Kazemi told Iran International. “For instance, in the case of Iranian diplomat convicted of terrorism (Asadollah Assadi), there were reports that he, under the cover of a diplomat, who planned to bomb an MEK gathering with the help of some other individuals, had met with those people at the Islamic Centre Hamburg and exchanged money with them.”
Kazemi said another responsibility of these centers is to attract Shiites who have immigrated, been expelled, or sought asylum in Europe. “Shiites from Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. They hire them culturally and structurally and use them on different occasions. It is also said that the large number of worshippers and mourners attending ceremonies in Europe are organized by these centers, serving as a show of power by the Islamic Republic in the heart of Europe.”
The IZH has been a hub of pro-Hezbollah activism and support for Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of IRGC’s Quds Force. In early 2023, the German Federal Administrative Court ruled that the IZH and its affiliated Blue Mosque are “extremist Islamic organizations.”