Overview
- Innensenatorin Eva Högl announced Saturday that Bremen would stop publishing the contested poster motif after it prompted wide criticism from Muslim residents and organisations.
- The poster campaign began on November 4 and used a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing image on public billboards and social media to warn of an alleged Islamist 'underwiring' of society.
- Authorities said the campaign targeted so-called 'legalistic Islamism'—groups that operate within the law to advance antidemocratic aims—and cited the Muslim Brotherhood as an example.
- Many Muslims and local organisations said the motif cast the whole community under suspicion, a reaction Högl described as deeply hurtful and caused by the campaign's execution rather than the aim.
- The campaign was a joint Bremen–Lower Saxony initiative that ran for less than two weeks with public displays only in Bremen and officials now say counter-extremism work will continue through engagement with Muslim communities.