The Bavarian preacher Abdullah called for the Jews to be killed. The Salafist center is not far from the Czech border

The Munich public prosecutor’s office brought charges of incitement to hate against a 37-year-old preacher from the Islamic center in Weiden. Abdullah, a German of Syrian descent, was said to have incited the killing of Jews during a sermon at a mosque in October 2023, following the Hamas attack on Israel. This was announced on Tuesday by the Munich Prosecutor’s Office. The Islamic center in Weiden, which is supposed to be one of the nests of Salafism in Germany, is located 25 kilometers from Rozvadov.

According to the statement, the Syrian-born German was to pray for victory for the Palestinians in the war against Israel in front of around 50 worshipers at the mosque in Weiden while they reciting intercessory prayers at the mosque. The 37-year-old preacher reportedly called on Allah several times to kill Jews. According to the Munich Chief Prosecutor’s Office, he incited hatred against Jews and contributed to a hostile atmosphere that registered attacks against them, said server BR24, according to which the accused came to Germany in 2015 from Aleppo.

The investigation was initially initiated by the public prosecutor’s office in Weiden based on advice from the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Due to the seriousness of the case, the chief anti-Semitism commissioner of the Bavarian judiciary, chief prosecutor Andreas Franck, took over the investigation and brought charges. The Weiden district court must now decide whether to accept the charges. In doing this, it must also consider the limits of the fundamental right to freedom of religion.

The Islamic Center in Weiden has been under investigation by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for several years. Radical Islamists reportedly preach here. A number of young men from this background were also to travel to the war zone in Syria. The 2023 report on the defense of the constitution lists the mosque in Weiden as one of several Islamic places of worship under Salafist influence in Bavaria.

According to the Bavarian Network for Prevention and Deradicalization, Salafists “disproportionately target the early period of Islam 1,400 years ago. They reject the secular laws and values ​​of Western systems as un-Islamic and inferior. They consider a society with democratic values ​​that are related to their nature,” writing Bild newspaper, saying that their ideological principles are not compatible with the constitutional order of the Federal Republic of Germany.