Overview
- The Federal Interior Ministry signaled that cooperation with DITIB, including a domestically based imam training program, could be curtailed unless the group clearly distances itself from antisemitism and Islamism.
- Officials pointed to a late‑August conference in Istanbul where about 150 religious figures endorsed boycotts, armed resistance and a “worldwide jihad,” with Diyanet chief Ali Erbas among the speakers.
- The ministry cited DITIB’s structural links to Turkey’s Diyanet as problematic and reaffirmed cooperation criteria tied to Germany’s Basic Law, international understanding and recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
- The imam training initiative, funded since March 1, 2025 with €465,000, was designed to reduce reliance on imams dispatched from Turkey by training candidates in Germany without ties to Turkish state bodies.
- DITIB, which oversees hundreds of mosques in Germany, said recent contentious statements did not represent the federation’s position and reiterated calls for a ceasefire and renewed diplomacy toward a two‑state solution.