The club criticized Islam critic strikes back

Recently, there is an "initiative of secular Muslims". In principle, a good idea, but it illustrates the diversity of Islam. Unfortunately, the whole thing is rather unbelievable, because only people have come together, who are even for years for their woodcut-like statements to Islam in the criticism. Only one of them is to think: Green politician Cem Özdemir.

Islam in Germany could have been enriched by another facet. Would have. In addition to the mergers of fundamentalists to ex-Muslims, "Die Zeit" lets us know that an "initiative of secular Muslims" has come together. It printed the founding text on the occasion of the next week starting Islam conference in their current issue.

However, the initiative threatens to evaporate as quickly as it came along. In my opinion, that is not due to the content. The published manifesto contains a great deal of what the Liberal Islamic Alliance (LIB eV) has long since advocated and what I myself have formulated for years or so - whether it is the demand for the development of a contemporary understanding of Islam in Germany, after a far-reaching separation from religion and politics, for more participation of Muslims without claiming special rights etc.

Questionable approval
This attack is counteracted primarily by the ten first signatories. They act like a club of criticized Islam critics who want to polish up their battered reputation. In any case, most of them appear in scientific discourses on right-wing populism or Islamophobia - like Necla Kelek. Or they occupy marginal positions in public Islam debates.

Only one name among the signers surprised: that of the former Greens boss Cem Özdemir. His participation irritates many observers. Some are already reminded of Tübingen's Lord Mayor Boris Palmer or Sarah Wagenknecht on the left. Özdemir could thus become a burden for his party, the Greens are not least so far in surveys so far ahead, because they position themselves as an alternative to right-wing populism.

Recently, Özdemir had literally disassembled the AfD in a furious speech in the Bundestag and had been celebrated for it. Now he is on the side of mentors for the anti-Islam agenda of this party and similar movements. How does it fit together? AfD Vice Beatrix von Storch recently wrote: "Some of the most courageous anti-Islamists have a Muslim background of their own," including Hamed Adel-Samad, Necla Kelek and Seyran Ates. All co-signer.

Distancing from Özdemirs?
For mistrust of these persons there are legitimate reasons: Kelek is also considered in professional circles as the first German representative with a Muslim family background, which has fueled in the noughties, the aversion to the world religion Islam and thus their followers significantly. As late as 2010, she was beaming with joy at presenting Thilo Sarrazin's pamphlet "Germany Abolishes itself" to the press. Behind Kelek, all those immigrants with no migration background who were exposed to the charge of racism could hide. Their logic was that if a "Muslim Turk" devalues ​​Islam on a global scale, our own utterances can not be racially analogous. A fallacy.

Hamed Abdel-Samad wrote books with titles such as "Islamic Fascism" and the founder of the Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque, Seyran Ates, who has just come from an event organized by the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). Christian Strache, calmly warned against Islamization; a central theme of anti-Islamic agitation. It just does not fit together when the manifesto says, "We are worried about increasing Muslim hostility."


Sarrazin remains faithful: Islam as an enemy

Perhaps Özdemir was unaware of the list of signatories. This is suggested by subsequent tweets of him by calling for less talk about names, more about content. But how is one to receive a text detached from its authors? Even the AfD says sometimes right and yet you would not make it so, if you reject the basic orientation of the party. One would not even speak with "Opus dei" about "the" Christianity, although in this Personalprälatur of the catholic church quite theological knowledge is present.

Again and again the same mistakes
On the merits, all of this is rather unfortunate, because so can the "initiative of secular Muslims" within the Islamic cause nothing. Certainly, especially the media will nevertheless blindly pounce on it. This already proves the page-filling publication of the "time" including larmoyant accompanying interview with co-signer Ahmad Mansour, according to which Islam critics were allegedly not heard, they shape since me