The reason for the audit was a criminal case before the Duisburg district court. In the course of this, the Ministry of Education became aware of a forged teaching license in the Münster district government from 2019. After the district government had initial doubts about the authenticity of the ijaza in question in autumn 2021 and a commission confirmed the forgery in December 2021, the teacher in question was no longer employed in Islamic religious education. The district government filed a criminal complaint and initiated disciplinary proceedings. The ministry does not know who had forged the teaching license.
At the end of July, the Duisburg District Court sentenced an impostor, who had advised the NRW state government on Islamic issues for years, to a two-year suspended sentence for fraud. The judges were convinced that he had forged documents, cheated and used academic titles without authorization. The 48-year-old had largely admitted the allegations. As a supposed professor and doctor, he had made a career in the NRW Ministry of Education and in science – although he had not actually passed a single university degree.
