Head of banned Hamburg Islamic Centre ordered to leave Germany

Last updated: 2024/08/29 at 10:38 PM

starconnect Published 29 August 2024

By Christiane Bosch, dpa I Thursday, August 29, 2024

BERLIN Five weeks after the ban on the Hamburg Islamic Centre (IZH), which was classified as extremist, its former head must now leave Germany.

The Hamburg Interior Authority issued a deportation order to 57-year-old Mohammad Hadi Mofatteh this week, a spokeswoman in Hamburg said on Thursday. She initially provided no information on whether the man is still in the country.

The letter instructs him to leave Germany within 14 days. Otherwise, he faces deportation to his country of origin, at his own expense.

According to the authority, this must happen by September 11, 2024. Additionally, he is banned from re-entering Germany or staying in the country. Should he do so, he faces up to three years in prison.

Mofatteh had been the head of IZH since the summer of 2018.

According to findings from the Hamburg domestic intelligence agency, officially known as the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, he was considered the official representative of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Germany until recently.

For Hamburg’s Interior Senator Andy Grote, the deportation following the ban on the IZH is the next consistent step the authority is taking, as he stated upon enquiry.

“As the highest religious representative of the inhumane regime in Tehran, his time in Germany is over. We will continue to fight Islamic extremism with full force and utilize all means of residency law to do so,” Grote said.

In late 2022, the deputy head of IZH, Seyed Mousavifar, was deported from Germany due to connections with the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia.

He had previously failed in an appeal against the deportation at the Hamburg Higher Administrative Court in the second instance. The pro-Iranian terrorist organization has been banned in Germany since 2020.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser banned the IZH on July 24, calling it a “significant propaganda centre of Iran in Europe.”

The justification stated in the prohibition order claimed that the association and operator of the mosque were controlled by the Iranian government, pursued goals in opposition to the German constitution and spread the ideology of the Islamic Revolution in Germany, which IZH representatives called an “allegation” against which they intended to file a lawsuit.

At the end of July, police nationwide confiscated assets and facilities belonging to the IZH and five associated sub-organizations. Since then, Hamburg’s Blue Mosque has also been under federal administration.

For weeks, hundreds of believers have been gathering for Friday prayers and demonstrating for the reopening of the Blue Mosque, which sits on the shore of Hamburg’s Outer Alster Lake.